Building a successful employee advocacy programme starts with choosing the right people.
Your goal is to assemble a diverse group of individuals who are genuinely enthusiastic about being coached on advocacy content creation best practices and applying those skills to their own social media channels.
Based on our experience, the sweet spot for an initial programme is around 50 employees. This size is large enough to get a diverse mix of voices and ensures you have a solid core group of contributors, even if some become disengaged, which is inevitable. At the same time, a group of 50 is small enough to keep engagement high and foster a strong sense of community.
So, how do you find the perfect participants?
Two methods to build your team of Employee Advocates
When it comes to assembling your cohort, you have two primary methods:
Selection: This involves directly inviting specific employees who are already sharing company news and showing a passion for the brand. These are your natural advocates, an excellent starting point because they're already bought in. Training these keen advocates also allows you to further align their messaging with your company's EVP.
Application: This involves putting out a company-wide call for employees to apply to the programme by filling out a form. This approach helps build interest in the programme, gives a sense of exclusivity, and also gets commitment from employees from the very start, as they’ve proactively applied.
We recommend a blended approach, extending targeted invitations/encouraging to apply those who seem like a good fit while also allowing for open applications. This strategy ensures you secure a strong foundation of known advocates while also discovering hidden gems who are eager to participate and develop new skills.
What to look for in an Employee Advocates
While it’s tempting to pick the most influential people in your company, like the CEO with thousands of followers, it’s far more important to choose those who are genuinely motivated, willing to participate, and have the time. An employee with a smaller, highly engaged network is often more valuable because authenticity and consistent activity beat follower count.
Personal accounts with a smaller, more focused network (e.g., under 5,000 followers) tend to have a significantly higher engagement rate than those with a large following who only post occasionally. This consistent, genuine activity from motivated employees creates a powerful ripple effect of organic reach and credibility that is essential for building your employer brand.
Pick advocates based on your objectives. When you have key objectives of the programme, you can select advocates who will support reaching your aims. For example, if you have key hiring areas, focus on employees who can speak to those roles and teams. Within that niche, make your cohort as diverse as possible, considering different departments, countries, ethnicities, ages, genders, and years at the company. A diverse group of voices provides a richer, more authentic picture of your company culture, meaning prospective talent is more likely to resonate with at least some of the content when there’s a range.
At the end of this blog post, we’ve provided a checklist on picking the perfect employee advocates for your programme.
What's in it for them?
Before reaching out to employees, it's wise to get buy-in from relevant stakeholders first to manage expectations. For example, if you expect them to spend two hours a week on the programme, a conversation with their manager can prevent friction later on. This step is critical, as a report by Bambu found that employees with strong management support are 2x more likely to be active advocates. Similarly, to build broader buy-in across the business, we recommend raising awareness of the programme, its advantages, and successes in internal communications by sharing key metrics, highlighting advocates, and celebrating success stories, such as a post that contributed to a key hire.
When you do reach out to the employee, the key is to highlight the benefits for them, as you're more likely to secure their participation. This isn’t a one-way street. Frame the programme as a way for employees to build their own personal brands and become thought leaders in their field.
Highlighting benefits like:
Career Growth: Positioning themselves as experts can lead to new opportunities and promotions. 86% of employees who participate in a formal advocacy programme say it has a positive impact on their careers.
Professional Networking: They can connect with peers and industry leaders they admire. 87% of employees involved in advocacy programmes believe it helps them expand their professional network.
Skill Development: They'll gain valuable experience in social media communication, content creation, and personal branding—skills that are essential in today’s professional landscape. 47% of employees involved in a formal advocacy programme say they developed "high-demand skills."
This approach makes the programme feel less like an extra task and more like a valuable professional development opportunity.
Ready to start building your team of brand advocates?
Get in touch today to learn how Wiser can help you find and onboard your ideal employee advocates.
