If an employee advocacy post went viral tomorrow, would our organisations be ready to act on it?
Maybe most of you have seen the viral ‘Bassaline’ video and how quickly Vaseline jumped on the trend and changed their name on official channels to Bassaline. HUL has turned this into a case study (in the comments section) on how they turned this trend into a community-led movement.
The attention-grabbing part is just how quickly the brand responded to a conversation it hadn't created but how it allowed the community to shape what happened next.
Employer branding pushes for employee advocacy, but still many haven’t been able to get into sustained momentum (yes, always looking at lessons to learn from the wider marketing world :) ).
We launch advocacy programs, identify employee champions and equip them with content, prompts and toolkits to share, but usually the responsiveness from the employer side is minimal. I wonder how ready we are as organisations to respond when we have an opportunity such as these that was unplanned and organic.
I agree companies’ social media management and the sensitivities surrounding how we manage employer brand vs. a consumer brand are widely different. The nuances are so fine it can tip on the other side if carefully not managed. But is this a lost opportunity due to a lack of systems to engage actively and gain from the multiplier effect of advocacy?
Have we built the trust, flexibility and internal alignment to recognise the moment and participate? Or would we need multiple approvals before we could even respond and lose the moment?
Many times, the opportunity isn't only in creating a conversation but also in recognising the one that's already happening.
What do you think? Are our organisations truly ready for employee advocacy, or only for the version we can plan and control?
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