Features of a Dependable & Effective Employee Advocacy Platform

Introduction

If there is one powerful strategy that can humanize a brand and boost its presence in the most effective way, then employee advocacy would be the right one to go with. It is nothing new – it involves leveraging your employees as advocates to enhance the brand – both personal and organizational.

What can be new is how one can make an employee advocacy program SMART, dependable and effective. This depends on a strategic approach coupled with dependable employee advocacy platform.

The factors that make an employee advocacy strategy SMART and relevant to the present day and age can be drilled down to the following basics:

S – Simple: The program offers ease of access and usage.
M – Measurable: Tracks impressions, clicks, traffic, engagement, and direction of the program.
A – Achievable: Effectively managing your content and teams to boost the brand’s online presence.
R – Rewarding: Offer rewarding experiences to your employees and recognize their contributions.
T – Tactical: Set clear advocacy objectives, empower administrators and users with tailored content and training

Want to know more about SMART Employee Advocacy – Click here.

A SMART Employee Advocacy strategy ensures a structured and effective way to implement the advocacy program, making your task easier. However, identifying the best employee advocacy platform in the current landscape can be daunting, especially when every platform promises to deliver unparalleled results.
So, how do you cherry-pick the best employee advocacy platform? This blog will explore the essential features that make an advocacy platform dependable and effective.

Introduction
Features of a SMART, Dependable, and Effective Employee Advocacy Software
Robust Content Management – The Backbone of Employee Advocacy
Features that are truly SMART
Gamification: Adding a Dash of Competition
Dedicated Program Support: For Strategic Guidance
User-Friendly Interface: The X-Factor
Analytics and Insights: Driving Informed Decision-Making
Mobile-First Policy: Empowering On-the-Go Advocacy
To Summarize

Features that a SMART Employee Advocacy Platform Should

1. Robust Content Management – The Backbone of Employee Advocacy

Now that we’ve established the importance of employee advocacy in the present day. Let’s explore the key features that make an employee advocacy software smart, dependable, and effective for modern businesses:

Central to any employee advocacy program is a robust content management mechanism. A SMART and an effective employee advocacy software should offer comprehensive content management capabilities, enabling you to:

Curate a wide range of content -company updates, industry news, user-generated content, whitepapers, infographics, blog articles, short videos.
Craft personalized content and share it across relevant teams (Content Personalization).
Schedule content to be published within the software and across one’s personal social media channel at specific time intervals for maximum reach.

Why this matters for an Admin:

Streamlines Workflow: Makes a Program Manager’s life much easier by automating and scheduling daily content – enabling you to focus on other strategic tasks.
Boosts Efficiency: A SMART employee advocacy software can drive leads from third party content as well, along with streamlining content scheduling across teams – effectively boosting the overall marketing efficiency.

Why this matters for a user:

Builds Personal Brand: Motivated users can leverage the platform to enhance their personal brand, schedule social media posts, and produce valuable user-generated content (UGC), building both personal and organizational credibility.
One survey found that 87.2% of employees said participating in advocacy initiatives helped them establish personal brands and grow their network.
Fosters Thought Leadership: Thought Leadership goes a step above Personal Branding; ideally, smart software should be capable of turning many employees into thought leaders within their professional circles.

Remember that content is always king – And with the right advocacy platform in place, you should be able to keep the content flowing, aligning with your brand’s messaging and advocacy program objectives.

2. Features that are truly SMART:

If content management forms the backbone of an employee advocacy program, innovation is what keeps employee advocacy software relevant to the dynamic landscape of social media. With rapid changes shaping the pitch of social media branding, ideal employee advocacy software must have innovative features that speak for themselves and are built on the concept of kaizen (the Japanese business philosophy for ‘continuous improvement’).

Socxo allows you to innovate your content in multiple ways with Socxly, a unique and SMART tool for digital marketers. With Socxly, both program managers and social media users can:

Reduce lengthy URLs of any piece of content to short, branded SMART links – an easy and smart way to share links.
Create social cards – clickable image posts specially designed for social media use.
Drive leads and traffic from external content to your brand with CTA Banners on third party links.
Share files and digital media as SMART Links with File Upload Sharing files made SMART.

Socxo and Socxly together can innovate the way advocacy programs run with their SMART features – Click here to see advanced link-sharing features.

3. Gamification: Adding a Dash of Competition

Gamification aspects bring fun and competitiveness to advocacy programs, increasing participation and motivation among users. Features such as leaderboards, badges, and reward systems to incentivize and recognize top advocates can be easily found in dependable and effective employee advocacy software.

By gamifying the advocacy experience, you can ignite a sense of motivation among your team members, drive sustained engagement, and foster a vibrant culture of enthusiastic brand ambassadors within your organization.

Why this matters for an Admin:

Build Brand Reach and Trust: Gamification features such as rewards and recognitions cultivate a sense of brand loyalty and credibility among employees, fostering more growth for the brand.

Why this matters for a user:

Motivating factor: Gamification features in an employee advocacy program enable users to turn into industry influencers – with more rewards and recognition per engaging content.

4. Dedicated Program Support: For Strategic Guidance

Any successful employee advocacy program will require dedicated oversight and management. A dependable and effective employee advocacy software should provide a dedicated program support feature to provide strategic guidance, support, best practices for advocacy initiatives, and more.

Why this matters for an Admin:

Facilitates Effective Training: Ensures all team members are well-trained and fully equipped to promote the brand’s message.
Monitors Program Performance: Tracking the advocacy program and optimizing it based on data.
Sustains Long-Term Management: Dedicated support for both the platform and the program over the long haul ensures sustained growth.
Empowers Internal Champions: Program Support can help identify key employee advocates to lead and amplify advocacy efforts, unlocking more potential.

Thus, a reliable and dedicated program support goes above and beyond to maximize the impact and success of your advocacy efforts.

At Socxo, we are committed to delivering successful advocacy programs – with our dedicated Program Support Team. The experienced program managers support you with your advocacy initiatives at all stages – from the initial platform setup to content and user management, training sessions, and strategic guidance- for sustained engagement over the long haul.

5. User-Friendly Interface: The X-Factor

It goes without saying that user experience is crucial to the success of any software. To encourage widespread adoption and consistent usage levels, employee advocacy software should have an intuitive and user-friendly interface.

The software must have clear instructions and minimal barriers to entry, enabling advocates to navigate, share content, and track their progress. From seamless onboarding and social media connectivity on mobile to personalized content curation and intuitive design, every aspect of the user experience should focus on minimizing friction and maximizing engagement.

Why this matters for an Admin:

Simplifies oversight: A straightforward, clutter-free interface allows program managers to quickly set up and modify advocacy campaigns, saving time and reducing the need for extensive training.
Increases Engagement: Facilitates quick adoption, resulting in increased user participation in the advocacy program and maximizing the overall advocacy efforts.

Why this matters for a user:

Ease of Usage: With a simple layout and all tools being available easily, the usage experience is elevated and helps users navigate effortlessly,

6. Analytics and Insights: Driving Informed Decision-Making

Data is the lifeblood of any modern marketing initiative, and employee advocacy is no exception. A good advocacy software should have extensive analytics and reporting features, allowing you to monitor important metrics (clicks, traffic, and leads generated), identify top-performing content, and assess the employee advocacy program’s effectiveness (ROI).

Why this matters for an Admin:

Leverage Data-Driven Insights: Armed with the correct data, program managers can refine the strategy, enhance content, identify top performers, and drive growth for the brand throughout the advocacy program’s period and beyond.

Why this matters for a user:

Know the value generated: With all data aggregated on a comprehensive dashboard, as an active user, you can identify which content performs the best and the engagements generated by your content.
You can also comprehend the value generated—both tangible and intangible—by your advocacy efforts. Examples include Earned Media Value, reach and visibility earned over a certain period, and growth in personal social media networks.

An employee advocacy software that’s SMART, effective, and dependable must be able to provide the right data in comprehensive dashboards for both the Program Manager and the daily users, ensuring that the direction of the advocacy program stays on an upward curve.

7. Mobile-First’ Policy: Empowering On-the-Go Advocacy

Last but not the least, mobile apps are non-negotiable when it comes to picking an employee advocacy software. In an increasingly mobile-centric world, flexibility and accessibility are essential considerations for any software solution. With almost all social media platforms being developed for mobile devices, opt for a platform that offers robust and user-friendly mobile apps.

Mobile apps, maximizing participation and amplifying your brand’s reach. This lets them share content on social media during their commute or participate in advocacy challenges on the go, ensuring all-time accessibility.

Why this matters for a Program Manager:

Enhanced User Engagement: Mobile apps ensure a smooth integration of advocacy initiatives into employees’ daily routines and offer more personalized user experiences.
This makes it easier for program managers to boost participation with flexible access on the go.

Why this matters for an everyday user:

Instant Sharing: Since all social media channels are mobile-oriented, an advocacy mobile app makes it easy for users to share content directly from their devices in an instant.
Accessibility: With cross-platform availability and all-time access, mobile apps focus on providing a more clutter-free user experience, saving time and creating value overall.

Socxo’s Mobile Apps ensure that advocates are always connected with the brand message anytime, anywhere. You can also have customized, white-labelled apps for your advocacy program that is in sync with your brand. With a smooth and user-friendly design, Socxo’s Android and iOS apps are designed for on-the-go accessibility and instant sharing across any social media channel at the convenience of a single touch.

To Summarize

Selecting the right advocacy software that is smart, dependable, and effective is a strategic imperative for businesses wanting to tap the potential of employee advocacy. When evaluating advocacy software, prioritize features such as:

Robust Content Management
SMART features that innovate the experience
Gamification
Dedicated Program Support
Fluid User Interface
Data-driven Analytics and Insights
Mobile App Availability

to identify the most dependable and effective employee advocacy software for your needs.

Remember, investing in the right advocacy software is not just about technology – it’s about enabling and empowering the precious asset of your organization: your people.

To learn more about the various features that make Socxo the SMART, dependable, and effective employee advocacy software, visit Socxo.