An employee advocacy program is about more than boosting awareness of your brand on social media. It can deliver real, tangible business results. To make sure you can measure progress, it’s important to start your program with success metrics and KPIs in mind.
There are a variety of metrics that can help prove ROI. Which ones you choose to focus on depends on your program’s goals. A properly planned employee advocacy program can serve goals across the buyer’s journey, from awareness and engagement all the way through conversion.
Here are some specific employee advocacy metrics associated with common marketing goals.
Boosting Engagement
In marketing, the ultimate goal is usually to convert an interested party into a customer. With that in mind, engagement is a critical metric. Re-tweets, likes, and shares are a good measure of initial engagement. Comments and interactions are an even stronger indicator that your audience is engaged. When people begin communicating with your employees about posts and information they’ve shared, they are engaging in conversation.
These interactions signal two-way engagement, which is incredibly value when trying to reach and keep the attention of potential buyers. Some would say two-way engagement is essential at a time when prospective buyers are often skeptical and dismissive of overly promotional marketing messages. With that in mind, monitor the number of comments on employee posts and encourage employees to continue the dialog.
Increasing Company Followers
Growing awareness and interest in your brand starts with reaching and connecting with the right audience. Potential customers and decision makers won’t necessarily be looking to transact with your company immediately. So it’s vital to first get them to follow your Company Page or subscribe to your blog. Once they are following, they will see the content and offers you share.
Track the number of new followers to your LinkedIn Company Page. The right platform, such as LinkedIn Elevate, can help you directly attribute new followers to your employee advocacy program. It’s a good idea to track profile views and new connections made on your employees’ LinkedIn accounts as well. More views and a bigger network means your employees are developing relationships with potential customers.
Driving Leads
If driving leads is one of your top goals, it’s smart to develop a source attribution model. When you can properly attribute qualified sales leads to your program, you will have an easier time proving its value to upper management. The right advocacy platform can help you attribute leads by funneling them to your marketing automation system or the sales team based on the lead definitions and rules you create.
When you rely on employee advocacy to improve your marketing efforts, your company leaders likely expect you to prove the value of your investment. By tracking relevant metrics, you can prove that your program is paying off – and direct future funds to the areas delivering the most impact.
LinkedIn Elevate is the smarter employee advocacy solution that leverages LinkedIn data to maximize program success. Learn more about LinkedIn Elevate.
