Top from left to right: Marcel Molenaar, Lars Lenselink, Edwin Blok – van Enck, Ronald Sens
Bottom from left to right: Ingeborg van Beusekom, Louise Radoor Larsen, Manon Bemelmans-Smulders
Missing from the photo: Ellen Schuttelaar, Veerle van der Linden, Shamit Bagchi and Kalin Dimitrov
Leading by example
Employee advocacy is simply motivating and activating employees to share valuable content of the company within their own network via social media. In this way, an organization can work on its branding. In reality, however, it is not that simple, as the discussion shows.
It is often difficult to get employees to be active on social media for a company. “LinkedIn is still often seen as a CV machine and not as a content platform and branding machine,” according to Louise Radoor Larsen of Palo Alto Networks. “As soon as you start optimizing your profile or actively posting, people think you are applying for jobs.” The biggest challenge is that employees are often not interested in profiling themselves online. “The effect is not tangible,” says Louise. “There is a lack of trust. Employees do not feel comfortable, they do not know how it works and what to post. You have to remove these obstacles first.”
Louise Radoor Larsen: “LinkedIn is not yet seen as a branding machine.” (left Lars Lenselink)
“As a marketer, you see what it australia whatsapp number list yields when you do social listening and engagement on a personal level and how this influences the employer brand. However, the responsibility for employer branding often lies with the board of directors,” says Veerle van der Linden of Microsoft. “In my opinion, employee advocacy only gets off the ground when management takes the lead and the CEO is the first point of departure. Leading by example!”
Ingeborg van Beusekom of SAP Nederland BV agrees. “A bottom-up approach works considerably less well for employee advocacy than a top-down approach. When I trained the management team and they took the lead in online profiling, it had a snowball effect throughout the entire organization.”
Showcase successes on LinkedIn
Embracing platforms is really a mindset. Manon Bemelmans-Smulders from Bechtle also experienced this when she started talking about using LinkedIn as a tool for social selling within that organization six months ago . “I was referred to HR at the time. When I see what has happened in the Bechtle group since we started sharing more content on LinkedIn, it is really enormous. Making the effects visible has a really reinforcing effect for us!”
LinkedIn Most Engaged Marketeer Manon Bemelmans-Smulders
Manon Bemelmans-Smulders: “You have to show small successes.