Boost Your Career through Social Media, Part 4

by | May 14, 2018 | Social Media

Do you want to share great content in your social media to boost you career, but don’t know how to get started?

See if your employer offers an employee advocacy program.

Forty percent of respondents to my social media research in March 2018 said their employer offered one.

Part 4 in this series of posts on the research covers employee advocacy programs.

One of the big PR trends for this year is the growth in employee advocacy.

Through them, companies empower their employees to be brand ambassadors. Employees can share official news and information about the company and its brand through their personal social media channels.

In my survey, here’s the percentage of respondents who shared employee advocacy program content once a month or more:

  1. LinkedIn: 38%
  2. Twitter: 29%
  3. Facebook: 25%
  4. Instagram: 6%
  5. YouTube: 6%

It wasn’t surprising to me that LinkedIn and Twitter took the top 2 spots. It was surprising to see Instagram as low as it was.

For comparison’s sake, how does this stack up to the results in the in the 2017 State of Employee Advocacy study by JEM Consulting? This is an annual study that comes out each August, according to the company’s CEO Jen McClure.

In this study, companies said their employee advocates used these channels for advocacy in personal social media in these percentages:

  1. Facebook: 76%
  2. Instagram: 62% (up from 15% the year prior)
  3. Twitter: 56%
  4. LinkedIn: 44% (down from 100% the year prior)
  5. YouTube: 43% (up from 8% the year prior)

Some of the year-over-year changes in popularity point to the fast-changing nature of social media.

And even though my survey respondents aren’t using Instagram a lot via employee advocacy programs, the percentages from the State of Employee Advocacy confirm my belief that Instagram is on the rise for career building.

Finally, I asked how content from an employee advocacy program performs from an engagement perspective, relative to the respondents’ other content.

For all social media, most respondents said the content performs the same. So from an engagement perspective, using content from an employee advocacy program neither drives nor diminishes engagement.

Good content is good content, regardless of where it’s from. It has to be true to your authentic voice, and the types of topics you share in social media.

This came through in a respondent’s comment about why they didn’t use employee advocacy programs: “The content they produce is not ‘shareworthy.’ It’s spun too much from a PR perspective.”

I’m ever impressed that this is not the case for the employee advocacy program at my employer. (Note: opinions expressed in this blog are my own.)

My colleagues Nolan Carleton and Claire Mitzner do an outstanding job curating content for a variety of employee interests. From tech and innovation to career and social hacks to business and consumer news, there’s something for everyone.

What this means is that tapping into an employee advocacy program, if it’s a good one, will make your social media life simpler. You’ll have a whole menu of content options that you can easily customize for your voice and share with your networks.

The conclusion that good content is good content regardless of its origins aligns with Part 3 of this series. It focused on what types of content gets the most engagement, as defined by likes, comments and shares. It also looked at strategies to increase engagement.

Part 2 of this series looked at reasons why people are active in social media to boost their careers.

Part 1 of this series kicked it off with the survey goals, methodology, respondents, and professional and personal social media use.

What’s up next in Part 5? It will cover do’s and don’ts in using social media to boost your career.

What are your do’s and don’ts?