Even as marketing disciplines such as content marketing, employee advocacy and social selling are embraced by businesses of all types, there has been little revealed about employee perspectives on these initiatives. But according to new research from employee advocacy firm Trapit, employees are the linchpin that holds these initiatives together—and it’s critical that managers understand their wants and needs in order to spark widespread adoption.
A new survey from Trapit reveals that 74.9% of employees identify some type of business benefit to sharing content on social media—respondents indicated that brand awareness (42.7%), brand credibility (21%) and sales (11.2%) were the primary benefits of their efforts on social media.
Respondents also showed strong preferences for the types of content they would like to share with their social networks—55% of respondents indicated that sharing a mixture of third-party and company-created content is best for social media.
While employees were quite clear on content preferences, they were less clear on internal processes and distribution strategies. The majority of employees were encouraged to share content during meetings (56.5%), yet only 28.2% were encouraged to do so using software—whether it was email, collaboration tools or marketing platforms.
“It’s no surprise to us that employees see the immense benefit of engaging on social media around content that can bring additional and specific value to those relationships,” said Trapit CEO Henry Nothhaft, in a news release. “We’ve confirmed that businesses are on the right track with employee advocacy and content marketing, but it’s time to invest in the tools, processes and training that will turn these efforts into measurable ROI.”
While content marketing and employee advocacy are quickly becoming core competency in businesses across the globe, it’s clear based on employee feedback that many organizations are still struggling to implement strategies and tools that sufficiently support their teams in their efforts. Companies that can formalize programs and implement tools to fuel these efforts will gain a clear competitive edge in their respective markets.
Download the complete report here.
This survey was conducted among 400 professionals across the U.S. to understand the employee perspectives on content marketing initiatives. All respondents were managers or senior managers earning at least $75,000 per year. Trapit worked with AskYourTargetMarket (AYTM) to conduct the research.
Source: PRWeb; edited by Richard Carufel
