How You Can Boost Your Company Via Social Media

Your finances and your security are tied to that of the company you work for—and vice versa. In this hyper-connected age, we have a huge opportunity to bolster the companies we work for (and actually drive sales and build awareness) by publicly showing support and amplifying your company through social media.

If you believe in your company, and the products or services you sell, then there is no better time to tell that story. The easiest way to do that is through social media. Spoiler alert, you don’t have to become a corporate bot or company keener. You can influence purchasing decisions and positive feelings about your company just by showing that you like where you work and that you believe in what your company does.

Most companies put a significant effort into using their online channels to champion their brands, inform people about your products and services, and share updates. Social media efforts are usually designed to help customers get to know the company better and hopefully, boost sales in the process. But corporate marketing only goes so far.

Individuals have a surprising amount of influence in purchasing decisions and positive brand associations. If you know someone at company X who often gripes on FB about their job, you might be less likely to support that company. If your friend at company Y consistently shares the positive things that her company is doing, and is proud to share posts about the latest products, you might have more faith that it’s a product to believe in.

By using our own voices on social media we can build greater brand awareness and amplify brand messaging with minimal effort. Ever choose a product on Amazon based on a positive review? Anytime you post or share something positive about your company, you can have that same impact.

That said, it’s not always clear what the right way to go about doing this is.

The good news is that it’s incredibly easy: by simply being present in the online conversation and engaging with your company’s posts on social media, you can be proactive and supportive, reaping the benefits from little effort. We’ve assembled an overview for championing your company on social media.

Via your personal accounts, you are connected to hundreds of people, who connect you to thousands more. If you can tap into that, this will help with brand awareness, reach, engagement, and could even introduce your company to their target demographic. 

If you’re still not convinced that you can really make a positive impact for your company, let us throw some stats your way…

• Employee-shared content gets eight times more engagement than posts on brand channels. 
• Employee-shared content gets 561% more reach than posts on brand channels.
• 52% of potential customers trust an “average employee” more than brand channels.

Six years ago, 50% of people were talking about their work on social media — and since then, that number has only grown. If you love what you do, talk about it! 

How To Create A Strong Social Advocacy Strategy

So, how do you put this into action? Before we get into the details, here’s a checklist:

• Follow and subscribe
• Target different platforms in different ways

Starting off the social media advocacy process is super simple: follow your brand channels and subscribe to newsletters! It sounds obvious, but this will ensure that you stay up to date with the content that’s being put out, so you can immediately react and share, or post your own update.

As you probably already know, social media is not a one-size-fits-all strategy: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn all have very different cultures, so make sure you target your posting strategy for each platform. 

On Facebook, this can be as simple as sharing a post from your company’s channel. To really boost the post, you can add your comments when you share the links to your personal feeds. 

Facebook, like all social networks, rewards content with high engagement (likes, comments, shares, etc) by showing it to more people — so make sure you engage with your team’s posts, too. Post a comment once in a while!

Twitter is all about sharing perspectives, publishing a take that people chime with and will want to share. It’s a great place to keep up with trends, join the industry conversation, and market yourself as someone worth paying attention to within your field. On Twitter, sharing content is the name of the game. There are multiple ways to engage with your company’s content and promote awareness, including liking the tweet, replying to it with your own thoughts, and retweeting to share it with your followers.

Instagram’s algorithm, like Facebook’s, uses engagement as one factor in deciding how many times it shows a post to followers. The more likes and comments a post has, the more chances it has in getting more views. This is even more impactful if you engage with a post within a few hours of it being posted.

While you can’t share Instagram posts to your own feed, you can amplify them adding them to your story. Click on the paper airplane icon beneath a post to add it to your Instagram story. It will then be live for 24 hours and then disappear. Give it a personal touch by adding a GIF or brief commentary.

LinkedIn is one of the most important places to champion your company. As a professional networking platform, it’s less about sharing promotions and sales, and more about PR: letting people know what the company is up to, showing off the people that work there, and discussing professional topics, engaging with your network. Basically, if you champion your company on LinkedIn, you are letting your leadership team and all of your connections know you think your company is doing good things. If you don’t believe they are, don’t participate. If you do work for a company that makes you proud, LinkedIn is the place to share it. This will help with overall company goodwill and also may assist in hiring. Your network might bring the next rockstar to your company.

There are two types of content your company might publish on LinkedIn: posts, and LinkedIn Pulse articles. If you see your company post—just hit the Share, and that post will get amplified to your network of ‘connections’.

If you engage with your company’s posts early in their lifespan, LinkedIn will give them extra value in the algorithm. Comments, ‘reactions’ (LinkedIn’s version of likes,) and Shares within the first hour of a post being published signal to the LinkedIn algorithm that the post is being enjoyed by the community, so they should show posts with early likes and comments to a broader community.

Note: Don’t forget to engage with the posts of your colleagues when they tag your company as well. They’re supporting the brand too, and as the saying goes: during high tides, all boats rise.

Glassdoor allows current and former employees to anonymously review companies online. You can discuss company culture, workplace philosophies, or various job positions. You can even submit and view salaries completely anonymously.

Not only does this encourage leadership to put their best foot forward, but it allows you to honestly share your experiences about your company. By doing this, you ensure that your business attracts quality employees. Besides, you’ll probably have to work with them, so you might as well use your voice to maximize the quality of your colleagues.

Similar sites include Great Place to Work, Indeed, and Comparably.

By following these steps and simply participating in and contributing to your company’s conversations on social media, you can directly contribute to more visibility and more sales. What you do with that trust has the power to unlock much greater success for your company—and the power to put you in a great light with management in the process. Start with one post to see how easy it is, and you’ll be a bonafide social media advocate for your company in no time.

What you’re doing is awesome. So share it!