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Randy Ksar is a digital and media strategist working with clients on branding and employee advocacy planning. He helps his clients develop social strategies that incorporates employee advocacy.  He has been working in the industry since the 1990s where he began with building the digital brands of companies. Randy recently joined AMP UP Your Social Media’s host Glenn Gaudet to discuss how companies can get their employees more involved with the branding process and thus engagement between the company and the community.

“Empowering employees with authentic content to share with their network serves as the key engagement strategy for successful engagement.”

Randy discusses authentic social media engagement with and by employees:

As a company begins to create or expand an employee advocacy program, they need to know where that fits within the company strategic plan. Also, there should be some effort to ensure that the strategy is unique and beneficial to your company brand. That is, it isn’t just doing what every other company is doing.

As you establish your employee advocacy program, remember the following:

• Employees are already talking to the people in their network – even if there isn’t anything formal set up for employee advocacy. They are often seen as a trusted representative of your company simply because they are employed by your company. Their network wants to see what they say before they make purchasing decisions.

• You cannot expect to have 100% participation from your employees once you set up a formal employee advocacy program. Set goals and hope for increase over time with the development and expansion of the program. Early expectations can be as low as 10% until you get your employees ramped up.

• Create content that employees want to consume and share.  Employees don’t want to be handled. They want messaging that is authentic and that allows for personal connection, and not just a retweet. Though, simple retweets do have their place.

• Empower employees to communicate with their network as they see fit, within company guidelines, of course. Since employees know their own networks so well, they should have the power to share their information in the best way for their network.

• Social media engagement is not just about sharing content. It also includes following and participating in discussions from other community members.

• Engagement is not a one-way street, from the company out but also from the community to the company – often by way of its employees.

• Everyone has a personal brand and the company should encourage employees to build up their personal brand. No matter how active an employee is with social media or employee advocacy practices, they are part of the fabric of a company. Basically, employees are part of the company brand and have an employee brand of their own. Both are essential to the success of any social media strategy for a company. It begins with everyone creating a LinkedIn profile that connects the personal brand with the company brand.

Randy would love to hear from you! Search for him on the web, visit his company’s website, or find him on social media (Twitter, LinkedIn).

About Randy Ksar

Randy Ksar is a Digital Marketer, Content Strategist, Podcaster, and Speaker. He works directly with clients on their digital PR and Marketing needs in his role as Vice President at Voce Communications.

About Glenn Gaudet

Glenn Gaudet, host of AMP Up Your Social Media, brings over 20 years of comprehensive experience in both strategic and product marketing for technology and media companies ranging from startup to $1 Billion in sales. Full bio