How to Create an Employee Advocacy Program from Scratch
Employee advocacy programs are increasingly popular in the Polish market. Companies have realized that in an era of influencers and AI-generated content, the most credible voices come from real employees. People trust people, not logos. How can you use this potential wisely? Sharebee experts explain.
Key Information
- An ambassador program enhances brand image and increases employee engagement, which helps attract new talent and customers.
- The success of the program depends on clearly defined goals, ongoing performance tracking, and recruiting well-prepared, motivated ambassadors.
- Monitoring results and providing long-term support are crucial to keeping the participants engaged.
Table of content:
Why Do Ambassador Programs Work?
An ambassador program can be a strategic tool that supports both employer branding and marketing efforts. Brand ambassadors can strengthen the organization’s image among their peers while also building their personal brands. In the eyes of both job seekers and potential clients, this makes the company a trusted source of information.
The principle behind employee advocacy is simple: engaged employees make the best brand ambassadors. Their recommendations are not only more authentic but also more effective in attracting new candidates. Their messages reach relevant audiences through organic networks without the need for targeting.
Telling people about products and services generates sales leads, which has a direct impact on the company’s business performance.
Participants in ambassador programs often come from various departments and seniority levels, which makes their message diverse. At Sharebee, we run projects involving dozens or even hundreds of employees, and we consistently see that participation increases employee satisfaction and loyalty. It’s a perfect win-win!
Defining Employee Advocacy Program Goals
Setting clear goals is the foundation of any successful ambassador program. These goals should align with the company’s brand and overall business strategy.
Start by defining what you want to achieve. Are you aiming to raise brand awareness, attract new talent, generate sales leads, or build relationships with potential clients or candidates? Each goal may require a different approach and communication strategy.
Once your goals are set, give your ambassadors specific tasks, such as regular posting on social media, networking, attending industry events, or creating valuable content for the company profile. Well-defined expectations help ambassadors understand their role and stay committed.
Monitoring Performance
Tracking the effectiveness of ambassadors is crucial to the program’s success. It allows you to refine the process of selecting participants and improve their engagement. It also helps identify top-performing activities and areas for improvement. With Sharebee, you can easily monitor ambassador activity and generate reports for business talks.
Ambassador Satisfaction Surveys
Data analysis is crucial for monitoring program effectiveness and user experience. Here are some key actions you can take:
- Conduct regular surveys to determine what’s working, what could be improved, and where development opportunities emerge.
- Gather feedback to show participants that their voice matters.
- Organize meetings to exchange experiences and celebrate wins.
Employee advocacy is another form of market communication, and as such, its performance should be regularly analyzed. Reach isn’t the only thing that counts. Other important metrics include engagement in job posting comments or redirects to the careers page. Keep in mind that program goals may evolve, so it’s worth periodically revisiting assumptions and measures of success.
🟡Recruiting Ambassadors
Selecting the right brand ambassadors is another critical element of an effective program. Recruitment should align with your program’s goals, but one rule stands above all: will over skill. Look for employees who naturally share knowledge and enjoy communicating – these are your ideal ambassadors. Use multiple internal channels to reach them: email, intranet, team meetings, posters, or videos displayed in common spaces.
Ensure the recruitment rules are clear and include a survey link or QR code, along with the contact information for the person managing the recruitment. There are bound to be a lot of questions!
🟡Preparing Ambassadors: Training and Tools
Once you’ve selected your ambassadors, focus on proper onboarding. In the programs we support, we concentrate on LinkedIn because it’s a platform designed for professionals.
Ambassadors will need practical LinkedIn workshops to improve their relationship-building and content creation skills. Training should cover personal branding, managing a LinkedIn profile, best practices on the platform, and tips on using different content formats. Ambassadors can also benefit from AI tools that simplify content creation and planning. Just remember: the posts should be authentic and show a personal perspective. This builds credibility and trust.
Ambassadors are often motivated by opportunities for personal growth and expanding their professional networks. That’s why it pays to invest in the tools and training that will help them achieve your common goals.
🟡Creating Engaging Content
Content creation is one of the most important aspects of an ambassador program. When employees share engaging content on their social profiles, they boost your company’s visibility and reputation. Such activities not only increase brand recognition but also build market credibility and streamline connections with potential customers.
Engaged ambassadors regularly share their experiences and industry knowledge. They actively encourage interaction and discussion. High-value content, including industry-specific case studies, research, and reports, is ideal for sharing with the community.
Poor-quality content, on the other hand, can undermine brand consistency. That’s why it’s so important for ambassadors to be well-trained in content creation.
🟡Gamification: A Fun Way to Boost Engagement
Gamification can significantly increase ambassador engagement. It can include:
Ambassador Rankings
We all like to know how we measure up. That’s why rankings are the cornerstone of effective gamification. They help ambassadors track their progress and compare their performance with others. They can be set based on a range of criteria, such as the number of shares and reactions on social media or total points earned.
Challenges
Regular challenges are a great way to keep participants engaged. It helps beginners learn to create their own posts and develop business relationships.
Bonus Points
A little extra motivation never hurts. Bonus points for special achievements, like outstanding engagement, can be a great incentive. They’re also a good way to draw attention to posts that support your brand goals.
Reward Cafeterias
The satisfaction of doing a great job is important, but so are tangible rewards. Reward cafeterias allow ambassadors to exchange their points for various perks, from branded merch and gift cards to . . . extra days off. The choice of rewards should be diverse and tailored to the participants’ needs.
Gamification isn’t just fun — it’s an effective way to keep engagement levels high. It helps make the program more dynamic and turns content creation into a regular habit.
🟡Managing the Ambassador Program
Like any organizational initiative, an ambassador program needs proper management. We recommend forming a project team with representatives from HR, EB, marketing, communications, and sales to cover all the key areas of your business. They can all work together to build a strong employer brand.
The program owner should keep in mind that ambassador motivation and engagement may drop after a few months, which is completely natural. The book Employee Advocacy is a practical guide for anyone looking to consciously manage an employee advocacy program at every stage.
The book walks you through building a program from scratch, with examples, best practices, and case studies from the Polish market to help you develop an action plan tailored to your organization. Just remember: employee advocacy is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time to see the results, but the payoff is worth the effort.
