Why employee advocacy isn't a silver bullet, Tim Hughes

Thanks for dropping by and reading this blog.

You're here because I'm going to give you some insight yes?

You know, spend a couple of minutes reading it and then go about your day. At the end of it, you might even be about to walk into a meeting and you can say what you read in this article.

Either way you will be enriched.

Now, what would you do if I say, what now follows is a brochure about DLA Ignite?

You would probably feel cheated that I had got you here under false pretenses, you will probably never come back again. If you are feeling generous, you might read the first paragraph of the brochure. But you probably have something better to do.

By, the way, there isn't a brochure, this is just a metaphor.

You don't want to read my brochures right?

There is a common narrative in marketing that is based on a house of cards.

The assumption is, I will come to social media and will look forward to reading your brochure.

This common narrative businesses are spending $billions chasing and it's utter rubbish.

This is wrong for two reasons

1. Just as you were about to leave this blog and not come back because I was going to pitch to you with my brochure. I'm not interested in your brochures.

Then I hear the "yes, but, marketing has to market". I get that, but if we know all of your prospects and customers are not interested in what you "market" it kind of feels like a waste of time?

2. People come to social media to be ...... social. In fact research shows that this is the case. Research is here.

This means sales and marketing chasing a dream that is proven to be costing your business time and money.

How does marketing work today?

How about I can pick you up tomorrow from your house and drive you to a place where all your prospects and customers hang out. Wouldn't that be great?

All you have to do is walk up to them and have a conversation with them.

Now in this social situation, would you walk into the room and start pitching to people? No, people would call security. This is what you are doing if you are pushing corporate content out on social.

LinkedIn, in fact all social networks are ..... guess what, social.

If you wouldn't pitch at a networking event which is a social situation, why on LinkedIn are you pitching to people, which is a social situation?

Social media is social, just like a networking event.

Employee advocacy today

Sorry, but if you think employee advocacy is pushing out corporate content, I doubt it's working for you.

If you think employee advocacy is empowering your people to talk online in their own authentic voices, sharing their experience, sharing their insight, then I can imagine you will start to get business from social.

If, you then back that empowerment up with a social selling methodology, things in your business will start to rock. One of our clients set as their strategy to get 5 measures to be social.