6 Questions Management Consultants Have about Employee Advocacy
Some consultancies are reluctant to empower their employees on social. Yet, management consultancies that have implemented employee advocacy programs have seen major improvements in brand reach, revenue growth, and recruiting. So, what’s holding you back from asking your employees to use social for business?
This post takes a look at the frequently asked questions that consultancies have about employee advocacy. We hope that our answers help you understand why employee advocacy is a good fit for your firm.
Question 1: What Is Employee Advocacy?
Clients don’t want to hear one blanket marketing message. They want to receive messages tailored specifically for them, and they want to hear it from someone they can trust.
That’s where employee advocacy comes in. More and more consultancies are empowering their employees to act as thought leaders and representatives of their companies on social media. Rather than interacting with clients solely through their corporate social channels, firms are relying on employees to be the human faces of their companies and to build relationships with clients through social networks.
Ultimately, that’s what employee advocacy is all about: building human-to-human relationships with clients – past, present, and future.
Question 2: Is Advocacy Just for Partners at the Firm?
Without a doubt, your firm’s partners are some of your best advocates. As executives, they have a responsibility to represent and promote their organization. Plus, they have the most expertise and knowledge to share with their industry.
But don’t discount all the non-partners in your firm. First-year associates may not have illustrious titles, but on a daily basis, those associates are building relationships with people at their client sites. Social media is a great way for consultants to strengthen their relationships at current engagements and continue to build relationships with people from previous engagements.
Question 3: How Can Employee Advocacy Help Management Consultancies?
Savvy firms have realized that employee advocacy is a powerful strategy that helps them grow. For instance, empowering employees on social can…
Increase firm visibility
Your people are your product. By increasing the visibility of your employees on social, you increase the visibility of your firm.
Attract new clients
With visibility and expertise come new clients. Potential customers see your employees’ expertise, and they begin to trust your employees and believe that your firm can solve their problems.
Maintain relationships with former clients
Once an engagement ends, the client-consultant relationship should not end. Social provides an opportunity to stay in touch and continue to add value.
Make recruiting easier
The best job candidates want to work the best and brightest consultants. Showing off your employees’ expertise and your company’s culture can help attract your top recruits.
Question 4: What Tips Do You Have for Nurturing Relationships with Clients?
Former clients hate receiving the “just checking in” email. A relationship should be on-going. You shouldn’t contact clients only when you need something from them.
Social is a low-pressure way of maintaining relationships over a long period of time. Here are a few tactics that your consultants can try:
Keep tabs on their clients
Consultants should take time to read about their former clients in the news, looking for opportunities to engage them. For example, when something good happens, they should congratulate their clients.
It’s often easier to send those congratulatory remarks through LinkedIn or Twitter because social networks don’t feel as formal as email. Unlike email, a message on social doesn’t always need an introduction, body, and conclusion.
Share relevant content
Consultants should keep their Twitter and LinkedIn profiles fresh. On a regular basis, they should share content about their industry. That way, they’re always serving their clients by keeping them up-to-date on what’s happening in their sector.
Comment on social media posts
Consultants don’t have to comment on everything that clients post. That would be creepy. But consultants should take the time to give thoughtful responses to a client’s post every now and then. It’s the modern way of staying in touch with business contacts.
Question 5: What Should I Share On Social Media?
For employees to become thought leaders on social, they need the right content. They need articles, reports, blog posts, webinars, and infographics that help showcase their knowledge. Here are three types of content that can help:
Company-Branded Research and Thought Leadership
Clients hire consultancies for their wisdom and insights. This type of content is vital for your team to share.
Promotions for Upcoming Events
Events are the bread and butter of every consultancy’s marketing plan. Between speaking at conferences, hosting seminars, or launching a webinar series, there’s always something going on. Encourage your employees to publicize those events.
Industry News and Research
The majority of employees (55%) want to share a mixture of company-created and third-party content to build their professional brands. While employees want to promote the thought leadership produced by their companies, they don’t want to sound like corporate parrots in front of their professional networks. That’s why we recommend sharing a variety of content from around the web.
To learn more, check out this post: 3 Types of Content Management Consultants Should Share on Social.
Question 6: Is Employee Advocacy a Time Suck for My Consultants?
Employee advocacy does not entail spending all day on Facebook. That’s a common misconception. Most consultants spend only a few minutes every day building and maintaining their professional relationships on social.
Creating a short daily routine is possible if you have the right technology and workflow in place. To minimize the work for your advocates, your technology should enable you to:
- Add, organize, and discover content
- Distribute that content to employees on channels like web, mobile, email, and more
- Include sample copy that employees can use when sharing content
- Enable employees to share content with the click of a button or the swipe of a finger
- Measure the effectiveness of your program
- Empower your employees to research their clients and their clients’ firms
Without technology in place, employees lose time searching for content in the black hole of their email inboxes, and marketers waste hours of their day copying and pasting links so that their advocates can share content. Without the right technology, advocacy becomes a time suck.
It’s Time to Give Employee Advocacy a Try
I hope that these six questions help you understand what employee advocacy can do for your company. To review, an advocacy program can help you increase your firm’s visibility, attract and retain clients, and assist with recruiting. But to fully tap into the power of your employees, you need the right technology provider – one that not only offers a powerful platform, but also serves as your trusted partner and expert advisor.
If you’d like to learn more about how Trapit can help, feel free to contact us. We’d love to speak with you.
Posted byMark Bajus