Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 17.03.2022 
Hootsuite has been shortlisted in the ‘Best Social Media Tool’ category of the Global Social Media Awards. These awards celebrate businesses around the world that are innovating for and engaging with a worldwide audience of 4.62 billion social media users.
Employee advocacy – or employees promoting a company through their own personal actions and social networks – is a powerful way for today’s employers to enhance company reach and reputation. After all, when it comes to publicising a company’s offerings and recruiting talent, an organisation’s employees are often its very best spokespeople. As LinkedIn research shows, employees have ten times more combined followers on social media than the organisation.
What’s more, sales leads generated by employee advocacy are seven times more likely to turn into deals, and job applications from employee referrals are 20 times more likely to turn into a new hire. Social advocacy by senior leadership matters too, with three-quarters of customers trusting company executives who use social media more than those who don’t.
Understanding this, we created Hootsuite Amplify, a tool used by leading organisations like Meliá Hotels, Sodexo and Ochsner Health to manage their highly successful advocacy programmes. But after so many years helping top brands build their advocacy programmes, we realised our own internal programme could use a reboot.
We put together an expert team to look at our strategy with new eyes, building a plan to focus on making advocacy relevant across departments and roles, curating the right content mix and rolling out a redesigned programme that was built to last.
After the revamp of our employee advocacy programme, we’re winning more programme adoption across the organisation than ever and helping employees enhance their own position as industry experts – generating a 94% adoption rate, an 86% sign-up rate and a 64% share rate.
As we work to recruit top talent amidst the Great Resignation, with people changing jobs in unprecedented numbers, Hootsuite Amplify has been a powerhouse for our employer brand. Employee advocacy contributed to 94% of all organic employer brand content impressions, with Amplify shares accounting for over 4 million organic content impressions in the first quarter of 2021 alone.
Amplify also played a key role in helping our people build deeper connections across their networks at times of both crisis and celebration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hootsuite’s “Stay Connected” content reached over 268,000 individuals in less than two weeks through employee sharing alone.
Content related to our Wellness Week – during which the whole company took a week off to stave off burnout – saw a 32% share rate on Amplify with a reach of 440,000 and a positive sentiment score of 52%.
“We are delighted to be recognised by the Global Social Media Awards as a leader in innovative social engagement technology,” said Christine Buck, VP Product Marketing, Hootsuite. “Our focus has always been on creating meaningful connections through social. Winning this award would not only be a testament to Hootsuite Amplify’s effectiveness, it would also acknowledge the valuable contribution of the Hootsuite team to our company’s overall success.”
