Social Media Advocacy – The global system that has affected lives all over

Social Media Advocacy is the promotion or the act of propagating the pros and facilities provided by a particular company or organization on your personal space, on your social media account.

In simple terms, it is defined as the act of talking about a brand name or company on your personal space and being an advocate for the company and spreading awareness relating to it. According to statistical data, almost 41% of the people opt to buy things from the internet when there are innumerable ads and postings of the brand name. These individuals that use their personal space to talk about brands are sometimes referred to “Social Influencers” as well.

There is no doubt about the fact that the social media platforms and online social channels are major powerhouses when it comes to spreading messages and awareness. Almost everyone, all across the world is associated with some kind of online social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat etc. are some of the more popular sites that are used by the majority of the world’s population today. It is shared and houses the accounts of millions of people. What better way is there to reach out to the world than social media today?

What are the different Social Media Advocacy branches or divisions?

The term Social Media Advocacy can be divided into three main sub-categories. They are:

• Personal Advocacy
• Employee Advocacy
• Ambassador Advocacy

Personal Advocacy is when you promote the popularity of your company and its features and services, yourself. Employee Advocacy is when you hire or have people working under you (employees) who are in charge of propagating the name and the features of your company. Ambassador Advocacy is when a group of followers of your company or organization share and spread the content or services of your brand name on their own social media accounts or space.

Can I Create My Own Social Media Advocacy Broadcast?

Of course you can! All you need to do is carefully follow the following steps and you too can devise your very own Social Media Advocacy Programme. The steps are:

1. Keep your eye on the goal and target – Set your goals and know what you want for yourself and the company! A foundation is important because that is what earns you trust. Being clear on what your goal is will only reap benefits for you on a larger scale.
2. Choose your facilities, functions and the data you will cover – The objective must be clear in order to process without any hindrance.
3. Set the framework to allow employees to work on it – Lay some ground rules and establish the plan with a strong framework. This will enable the employees to work within that and be more productive.
4. Pick your favourite Social Media Platforms – Select the Social Media Platforms where you want to implement and carry out your Social Media Advocacy programme. This will save a lot of time, effort and confusion.
5. Be the All-seeing eye – Make sure you allow your employees to make their choices and give them their personal work space. Don’t breathe down their neck, but don’t be ignorant either! Keep a close watch on the entire system to make sure nothing goes wrong.
6. The ability to adapt – If you don’t have it then start working on it! Adaptation is extremely important, especially when there is uncertainty involved. So be prepared to improvise and adapt, according to the situation itself.

So, those were some of the major aspects of social media advocacy that one should know about in the present world which is primarily driven by the online social sites.

Conclusion

There are over 2 billion users on Facebook and Youtube viewership in the Middle East is the highest. Social media is here to stay and if we can leverage it to benefit business and communicate with customers – then so be it. User social media to create brand awareness and not just to sell directly.

The way advocacy works is that you can tap your team to help you spread your content on social media. Social Media Advocacy is not an overnight process, it takes time to set up, build and engage, but it is worth the effort as not only does it increase your reach and brand recognition, but it encourages stronger ties and growth with your employees, and makes social media work for your company.