Building a Strong Brand Through Authentic Advocacy

There are billions of people on social media—around one third of the world’s population. Depending on your industry, there’s a good chance that an even bigger percentage of your customers and leads are on social media.

This begs the question: what are you doing to engage with this audience via social channels and use their voice for your brand?

Taking this step is known as authentic advocacy—building a strong and influential brand by choosing to connect with people. The marketing approach is founded on the increasing importance of social media and company culture, regardless of industry.

So how do you go about building a strong brand through authentic advocacy?

Step 1: Make Employee Evangelists With Inspiring Management

Marketing is one thing and inspirational leadership is another. One of the best ways to build a strong foundation for authentic advocacy is to start within your own house—your staff.

By taking time to focus on ways to improve your company culture and employee satisfaction, you set yourself up for success.

Satisfied employees are more likely to become ‘employee evangelists’—dedicated individuals that are ready and willing to share your brand. These are people that share the vision and purpose of where you’re going. Employees can then spread this kind of advocacy to customers.

Step 2: Spread the Message with Social Media

You can’t effectively start building your brand with authentic advocacy without the right tools. In this case, the most effective tool in your arsenal is likely to be social media.

Getting social with advocacy means getting back to the basics by connecting with your audience and customers—this time on a public platform.

In this vein, brands should strive to make their social presence personal, substantial and helpful to their customers and visitors. The less ‘salesy’ the better. Social media monitoring tools, such as Sprinklr and AgoraPulse, can help you monitor your brand across social channels and manage content accordingly.

Step 3: Don’t Forget to be Personal Through it All

I’ll say it again: your goal in all of this should be to keep it personal. Complete the circle by featuring employee stories and customer reviews in your marketing content.

Other effective ideas include thoughtful blog posts, personalized landing pages, and helpful videos.

The point of authentic advocacy is that an organically shared post is likely to speak volumes more than paying for ads on Facebook. Of course, this can go hand in hand with other marketing approaches. But the personal touch should never be ignored.

Conclusion

While this brief guide should give you a good idea of how to get started building a strong brand through authentic advocacy, you may still be asking yourself which tools to start with. In the initial stages, social media management and marketing automation tools can be immensely helpful in building your brand.

Online customer reviews are good for authentic advocacy, and they’re good for figuring out what software will help you in your advocacy quest. Authentic reviews can help you determine which tools will work best for you—and even how to use them effectively as you jump into authentic advocacy!

What do you think of authentic advocacy? Have you tried something similar? Leave your thoughts in the comments!