Launching an Employee Advocacy Program at Your Radio Station

What is employee advocacy?

In the simplest terms, employee advocacy is when an organization, a radio station, promotes itself and its brand through its employees, specifically using social media. As Hootsuite puts it, “It’s like word-of-mouth for the digital age.”

Why is employee advocacy important?

According to a Nielsen report, word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family are the most influential – in fact, 84 percent of respondents said this source was the most trustworthy.

In 2023, social media provides a key platform to share word-of-mouth recommendations . . . and, most of your employees are already on social media.

Given that each employee on social media has followers, they have the potential to be a valuable spokesperson for your radio station as they share your content and, potentially, their followers then share their content.

How to encourage employee advocacy?

You need to share the content your employees want to share – content that is helpful, intelligent, funny, etc.

Here are 5 types of content for your employee advocacy content strategy:

1. Radio Station News: Sharing radio station updates (at least ones that are ready to become public knowledge) is a natural fit for employee advocacy. Have you added a translator? Share a photo of the city, tag local businesses and/or city offices and interesting facts about the location (“things to do”) – make the content both news and resource.
2. Adding a New Radio Program: You can use employee advocacy to create buzz around new radio programs through sharing a speaker blog, favorite employee quotes from the speaker and/or favorite resource from the broadcast ministry.
3. Educational Content: Look for educational resources on local school or city sites which you can share with your listeners. My local library makes a “Top Ten Ways to Keep Your Children Learning This Summer” resource – a great tool to share with the moms in your listening audience (and which your staff will be inclined to share with their followers).
4. Employee Stories and Behind-the-Scenes: Interview your employees – ask them what they love about working at the station.  Write a blog about it, post it on your web site and tease it on your social platforms (add a picture of your employee and one of their responses).  Bonus: Video the interview, (vertically), and post it on your social pages!
5. User-Generated Content (UGC): Repost content about your radio station created by others (and thank them in a tag)!