Unleashing your silent majority: How employee advocacy and engagement build your brand and trust via digital strategies

As more and more technologies enable communications, reaching new audiences both inside and outside one’s organisation is harder than ever. Brands are spending more on paid media, despite its failings in terms of trust, authenticity and engagement; chasing down the latest social platforms, hoping to stay ahead of the technology curve while striving to cash in on larger audiences; and producing content at breakneck speed, but without much thought to its distribution or efficacy. At the same time, the internal communications function that connects with employees often is broken, resulting in disengaged employees. Many factory and shop floor workers have no e-mail or internet access. This is compounded by outdated technologies that support internal communications but do not reflect how people communicate with each other today. The solution is employee advocacy. This means getting the right information to the right people and in an engaging and sharable way via digital elements. This article will discuss how global organisations are taking advantage of social and digital technologies to build brand awareness; increase sales; engage better with their employees; recruit better talent; and more. Why is this vital? Very simply, informed employees are more often engaged employees. Engaged employees are more often productive employees.