Employee engagement is a key metric for any business. A high level of employee engagement is associated with numerous benefits, including higher levels of productivity and improved customer service.
However, it can be challenging to measure employee engagement. Many companies rely on surveys, which are time-consuming and expensive. In addition, employees often feel uncomfortable sharing their opinions about company culture or management in the workplace.
Fortunately, there are several tools that can help you measure employee engagement and improve your company’s culture:
Social Media Tools For Employee Engagement
1. LinkedIn Elevate – (now LinkedIn “My Company”)
LinkedIn Elevate offers an advocacy tool that, unsurprisingly, leverages LinkedIn’s social media platform. Elevate enables program admins to curate content trending on LinkedIn and then suggest it to employees. Other features include a list of most engaged employees, analytics and targeting employees on LinkedIn with updates and reminders.
Elevate is a great fit for companies whose advocates are most active on LinkedIn. Elevate’s direct access to trending content on LinkedIn can also be a useful source of inspiration for marketers who struggle with content curation.
Companies that focus heavily on social recruitment are a natural fit for this tool, seeing as HR teams already spend a significant portion of their time on the social network.
Recently, LinkedIn Elevate was deprecated and instead Linkedin has begun offering basic employee advocacy tools through the company page.
2. Oktopost
Oktopost is a social media management and employee advocacy platform for B2B companies. Oktopost enables B2B marketers to streamline all their social media and advocacy activities on one platform, pulling content from corporate channels to share on advocacy channels and vice versa.
With comprehensive capabilities, such as content suggestions, gamification, and social compliance, it allows B2B companies to not only reach marketing goals, but also strengthen employee engagement.
Oktopost’s platform tracks business metrics such as clicks and conversions, as well as engagement metrics (likes, shares, comments. It works well for B2B companies that are looking to not only boost brand awareness, but also generate business results and measure the impact of advocacy on the bottom-line.
Oktopost also allows B2B marketers to get more out of their social media data, through integrations with leading marketing automation platforms, such as Marketo, HubSpot, Pardot, Eloqua and others.
Leveraging these integrations, B2B marketers are able to capitalize on data and enhance lead segmentation, scoring, nurturing, and attribution programs. Oktopost also integrates with Salesforce, enabling social selling for sales reps, without leaving the Salesforce platform.
3. Hootsuite Amplify
Hootsuite Amplify is an add-on of Hootsuite’s social media management solution. The platform allows marketers to send email notifications about new content, share with advocates pre-approved content and post content via a mobile app.
Amplify is a good fit for your company if your team is already using Hootsuite, which would make onboarding and training easier. It’s a good solution for boosting brand awareness on social media, as it tracks the traditional B2C engagement metrics such as likes, shares, comments and overall reach.
4. Bambu
Bambu is an employee advocacy tool by Sprout Social. Using Bambu, marketers can create a curated content feed for employees to share on social networks and amplify the brand’s message.
Bambu does not offer direct integration with Sprout Social but can be connected with Sprout Social’s social media management platform via Zapier.
Bambu offers a few premium services, such as tradeshow event marketing, change management services and virtual event marketing. It also offers a social selling solution, which measures B2C metrics such as shares, impressions, and clicks.
5. SocialChorus
SocialChorus is a workforce communications platform that allows companies to plan, create and measure employee communications in one platform. The platform focuses on enabling leadership communications, HR communications, change management features – and also has employee advocacy capabilities.
It helps marketers simplify internal communications planning and personalize the employee experience. SocialChorus is a good fit for companies looking for an employee communications platform that also includes elements of employee advocacy.
6. Dynamic Signal
Dynamic Signal is a solution similar to SocialChorus – it enables both advocacy and overall internal communications. Among the social networks it supports are Weibo, Xing, BlogSpot, Tumblr, and WordPress blogs. Its integrations include several tools, such as Facebook Messenger, Slack, Oracle, Marketo, and others.
Dynamic Signal’s analytics suite aggregates data from social and internal channels and shows both internal content engagement and the social one. Brands looking for an all-in-one solution for internal communications and social advocacy will find this platform a good value.
7. Smarp
Smarp is an employee communications, engagement, and advocacy platform that features an internal content hub where employees can discover and then share content.
Using this tool, marketers can generate a news feed where employees can stay up to date with company news and announcements. The news feed allows employees to bookmark content for sharing, while the content hub features an internal resources database.
Smarp is great for gauging employee engagement as it tracks internal metrics and uncovers which content resonates with employees. One of its unique features is an “earned media score”.
It’s also a good fit for consumer brands looking to track social “vanity” metrics such as likes, shares, and followers, which makes companies like L’Oreal, Nissan, and Marriot prominent Smarp customers.
8. Sprinklr
Sprinklr Advocacy Marketing allows marketers to identify and engage the most active brand advocates, whether those are employees or external influencers and customers.
It includes a digital hub where advocates can provide feedback for content, share it, and interact with other advocates. The tool has various gamification features, such as granting badges and points to top advocates.
Sprinklr Advocacy Marketing is one of a number of solutions offered by the company, such as content management, advertising and more, so this tool would work well for marketers looking for a single platform of marketing and advertising tools.
9. Sociabble
Sociabble’s platform doesn’t limit itself to employee advocacy, offering additional features, such as influencer marketing, internal communications, and employer branding.
It allows marketers to create personalized push notifications and newsletters for employees and also features integrations with retargeting tools like RadiumOne.
Sociabble enables users to build feeds of relevant content by aggregating content from social media, RSS feeds, and direct URL links. Users can also create their own content on the platform and share it with groups. It would be a valuable platform for teams looking for both internal communications and advocacy solutions.
10. Connecteam
While not strictly an employee advocacy platform, Connecteam offers an employee communication and engagement tool that can be used to support and sustain advocacy effectively, and this is what earned it a spot on this list.
Connecteam features multiple employee communication tools such as live chat group conversations, contact directory, feedback surveys and more. It also includes learning features accessible via desktop and mobile.
Connecteam is a good choice for global organizations, with multiple locations worldwide, seeing as it aims to connect employees who aren’t all necessarily based in the same geographic location.
Get Your Message Across New Social Audiences
We hope this list has made it easier for you to decide which advocacy tool is the best fit for your company. Now that you’re ready with the right platform, take a look at our guide for launching an employee advocacy program – and start extending your social reach.
social media incentive program
Social media can be a great way to talk to your audiences, whether it’s your employees, customers, or channel partners. Even if you don’t have a designated social media manager, having a direct line of communication with your audience can be very beneficial.
Social media can act as a reinforcement for customer service, a helpful tool for brand recognition, a place to find updates, and so much more.
Unsurprisingly, using your social media accounts to assist in running your incentive program can have many of the same benefits. However, there are subtle differences between the two that are important to note.
Here are the top 5 best practices for social media use in incentive programs.
- Create a social media account for the program itself.
Creating an entirely different account for a program can seem like a daunting task, especially if you’re not the most social media-savvy individual. However, the potential advantages can make the undertaking worthwhile in a number of ways:
Separate messaging helps retain and reinforce your followers.
Let’s face it, you’re not going to get everyone who’s doing business with you to enroll in your incentive program. Posting messages about exclusive offers for participants to your main accounts may be confusing or annoying to non-participants. By doing this, you risk losing them as followers.
Creates a sense of exclusivity.
There’s nothing more effective for the health of a reward program than providing a sense of privilege in the rewards. Separating your accounts can help generate this feeling for your participants. More on this in the next point.
Now, this is not to say that you can only post about the program on the program accounts.
For example, social media campaigns can be run on the main accounts to garner excitement for the program itself, thereby enticing those followers not already in the program to enroll.
- Create an exclusive community.
As we mentioned above, one of the most powerful aspects of a reward program is this idea of exclusivity. Thus, one of your main goals should be to get participants to think, “Because I’m part of this community, I have a unique opportunity to receive special rewards and offerings,” which is true.
So, how can you reinforce this notion through your social media accounts?
We’ve already covered separating your program accounts from your general accounts. But within this separate account you can hold discussions and keep your participants up to date.
While it may seem counterintuitive, community is actually a big part of exclusivity. Your actions within your accounts should be geared toward driving open discussion between your participants.
Maintain a standard of responsiveness toward your participants. Make sure to answer questions, address concerns, share information, and express gratitude as quickly as possible. This quick response can help build a positive perception of your company and the program.
One method for creating an exclusive community can come in the form of social media groups.
Consider creating a LinkedIn group for your program in which members can invite and accept other participants into the program. Post a question every week in which you discuss business challenges faced by your participants and encourage members to assist each other.
A similar community feel can be created on various social media sites, so experiment to see which one works best for you and your audience.
- Keep participants updated.
Everyone consumes information differently. They might prefer to read a paper piece. Some people want to get push notifications straight to their phone. Others rely on email. Still others choose social media to keep them in the know.
You can address this group of social media news-seekers with your social media accounts and even gain more followers, because using your accounts to post well-organized, enticing, and timely information can lead to a higher follower count.
Whether you’ve separated your accounts or not, use your social media to highlight new promotions that are running and launching for your program. Keep your participants aware of changes to the program or earning criteria, deadlines for earning certain bonus points, and any expirations that might be coming up.
Any of these posts, especially those promoting bonus earning opportunities, can be supported with intriguing images and links that to further help boost your enrollment and overall engagement.
- Link the program site with social media accounts.
If you’re running a program with an online engagement platform, one thing you can do to gain followers and traction is integrate your social media accounts into the site itself.
This can be done with those little icons at the bottom of the page or an RSS feed. This feed is created with a little piece of code that plugs your tweets or posts automatically into the webpage.
This type of action doesn’t require you to be a social media guru and is a great way to keep those non-social media users updated in addition to attracting followers for your accounts and keeping the conversation going.
- Creating point-earning social media campaigns.
One of the most engaging tactics you can take on social media with an incentive program is running social media campaigns that encourage action among your audience.
These campaigns can do anything from encouraging participants to log into the site to dishing out points for certain actions on social media.
Although they can be a little hard to orchestrate, these campaigns can have a lot of engagement tied to them. To clarify the point, let’s take a look at an example:
Let’s say you’re launching a promotion that you want to do really well.
You’re aware that a lot of your followers are participants in the reward program, but you want to get as many participants enrolled as possible.
So, you put together a post on twitter that looks like this:
“Here’s your chance to win a (brand-name merchandise item)! Simply like this post and comment with the date that you enrolled in the (Program Name) and you’re in! Not enrolled? Visit (Program URL) now! #MyProgramRules”
Soon the likes and comments come pouring in and you’ve got 50 new enrollees.
Conclusion
Social media is a powerful tool for connecting with your audience, and with it, your opportunities for engagement are endless. Follow these best practices and you’re sure to have a well-motivated audience.
Conclusion
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