3 Reasons your advocacy programme failed (and how to fix them)

Anyone who has ever run a successful programme, be it an ERG, an alumni network, or similar, will tell you: ‘it takes a village’. 

The planning, dedicated effort, and time investment required to create and maintain an initiative (let alone a successful one) is immense.

And employee advocacy is no different. 

Building a programme your employees want to rally behind and shout about is no easy feat. There’s training, time investment, budget, and capacity to consider. Don’t even get us started on finding times in everyone’s diaries. 

And even when you’re pouring your heart and soul into it, things can still go wrong. 

But you knew that. That’s why you’re here, right? 

So you can spend less time pulling your hair out and more time letting your hair down as you enjoy all the time you’ll gain back from our little tips and tricks. 

We’re here to help you work smarter, not harder.

Your ambassadors are the cornerstone of your programme, and it’s vital to ensure you’ve got the right people banging your employer brand’s drum (so to speak). Due to the nature of their job role and their placement within the business, there will be employees naturally set up to have  greater impact - your sales team and their networks, for example.

So if there are people you’re particularly keen to get on the programme (and we know there are), start with them. Then you can extend out to wider teams to ensure the presence your people are building online is a comprehensive representation of the business. 

But how do we go about getting them involved? 

At a psychological level, people like feeling like they’re opting into something versus being asked to take part, especially if it’s an activity that falls outside of their day-to-day role. The way to go about this is by setting up an application form your people can fill out if they’re keen to join. 

And for those you definitely want in the cohort, a gentle nudge (or sending the application straight into their inbox) paired with some subtle compliments as to why you’d love for them to participate is a great place to start. 

Remember, a successful programme depends on advocates who are here for a good time and a long time. They need to commit to engaging with the programme as well as each other. Just because they’re a senior leader, or client facing, or in a ‘hard to hire’ area doesn’t make them a good candidate. 

If they don’t have the time, enthusiasm, or interest to invest, they’re probably not the person for the job (but still a good human, obvs).

You’ll need to lay a bit of ground work to make sure they know what they’re signing up for, particularly when it comes to time comittments. Do this either by circulating a one-pager with key details or hold a quick meeting to go through how the programme will work. 

The people on your employee advocacy programme will make or break it; don’t fall at the first hurdle. 

And speaking of hurdles, building and running these programmes is no mean feat. 

It requires planning, dedication, resources, strategy, time, the list goes on. And there’s a bittersweet catch twenty-two - the more committed your ambassadors are, the more work there is to keep them engaged. 

Doing it at all is a challenge, but doing it alone is a recipe for burnout. The likelihood is that you’re running the programme alongside your day-to-day role, so who can blame you for finding it tough? 

Here, you have one of two options:

If there are others ready to come on the advocacy journey with you, brilliant! Teamwork makes the dream work isn’t just an expression, it’s the cold hard truth. 

Decide who is going to be responsible for what and stick to those roles like glue. Elect someone to drive each of the main areas that make up a successful programme: someone to run your advocacy workshops, someone to foster the community and write comms, however works best for your setup. 

2. Pass the baton 

Don’t have time, expertise, or capacity to run the programme yourself but still want to jump on the employee advocacy bandwagon? Great news - there are agencies who can do it for you.

Let them take everything off your hands and only weigh in on strategic decisions as and when you need to. They can track progress being made and give you that all-important data to prove ROI. Then when senior leadership comes knocking, you’re the one who looks like the star. 

The last thing you want is your people walking on eggshells, so terrified of saying the wrong thing that it puts them off posting altogether. 

We usually tend to see this in more corporate spaces where there may be internal policies and red tape to consider, but don’t let this deter you. The best way forward is to work with these teams to ensure everyone is aligned on what they’re allowed to share. 

Again, we’ve got two options for you (gosh, we’re generous, aren’t we?): 

When you kick off the programme, give your brand champions a ‘Dos and Don’ts’ of posting that aligns with your company’s social media policies. This will give them a concrete example of what you do and don’t want them posting, and can also act as a guide for them to refer back to as they progress through their employee advocacy journey.

2. Invest in a community manager 

Still worried about what content you’ll see popping up from your people? We hear you. That’s why having a community manager keeping tabs on their posts could be the move for you. 

Think of your community manager as your right hand person - they know your brand guidelines, they know your employee value proposition, they know your goals for the programme. They’ll be able to identify any posts that don’t quite fit with what you’re going for and flag them to you (hopefully) before they gain too much traction.  

And there you have it, folks! 

These three common hurdles of running an advocacy programme could well be the reason yours wasn’t quite the home-run you thought it would be, or they could even be issues that are cropping up now.

Either way, hopefully reading this has made you feel slightly more equipped when diving into your next programme, or reinvigorating the one you’re currently running. 

But if you’re still not sure what went wrong or you’d like a leg-up overcoming these hurdles, you know where we are.