Employee advocacy is a great way to amplify your company’s brand with authentic voices of the people who already believe in it - your employees. Once your organisation decides to set up an employee advocacy program, you’ll need to start thinking about the details around getting it to operate effectively. The first step should be deciding on the right employee advocacy tools to turn employees into valuable company influencer marketers.

That’s why we’ve decided to review the top-ranked employee advocacy platforms. Our focus is on B2B digital marketing strategy, so we looked for advocacy tools that met at least four of the following criteria:

1. Workflow Process for Easy Content Sharing Among Different Channels

We looked for platforms that made it possible for users to easily share repurposed content to various digital outlets. There should be a workflow in place, allowing managers to send content suggestions to different groups. The process should also allow for review and approval before letting content go out under the company name.

2. Let Users Create or Edit Content Within the Platform

Content from internal feeds sometimes needs a refresh before promotion on company platforms. We looked for platforms that made it possible for users to create and/or edit content, collaboratively if possible. Ideally, the tool also offered ways for admins to provide variants of content to pass on to employee promoters.

3. Made it Easy for Users to Find Inspiration

We looked for platforms that gave users the ability to curate content from internal and third-party feeds. That offers users new ideas when creating new content or updating existing material.

4. Help Business Engage B2B Customers

The platform shows the ability to support the desire by companies to interact more directly with B2B customers.

5. Have an Internal Asset Library

The employee advocacy platform lets users store assets within it versus relying on external repositories.

6. Provide a Seamless User Experience

An ideal employee advocacy platform makes it easy for users to handle their content needs. That includes functions like quickly drafting text and images and incorporating admin suggestions into their output.

7. Offer Gamification Features to Create Reward Systems

We felt it was important for an employee advocacy platform to provide users with the ability to create internal reward systems. The competition spurred by such features often encourages higher employee engagement.

8. Functioning Independently

The platform functions independently for functions like scheduling posts without requiring support from other applications or plugins.

Now, let’s dive into some of the most highly regarded advocacy platforms we feel would provide the most value to organisations looking for a reliable advocacy solution. This is a great start for your platform shortlist.

• EveryoneSocial

• Hootsuite Amplify

• Sociabble

• MarketBeam

• Oktopost

• Social Horsepower

• Dynamic Signal

• DSMN8

• Ambassify

• Workflow — Yes

• Content Editor — Yes

• Inspiration — Yes

• B2B Engagement — Yes

• Asset Library — No

• Good User Experience — Yes

• Gamification — Yes

• Functions Independently — Yes

EveryoneSocial allows users to quickly curate content and share it with specific social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can preview content before pushing it immediately or scheduling it for a later date. It functions independently without requiring access to a different platform. There’s no need to add additional plugins for any content or workflow functions.

Organisations can set up different content streams for sharing to social networks by advocates. Administrators can set up internal workflows so different groups only see and push content relevant to them. Managers can also highlight recommended posts they feel would be a good fit for an advocate’s social network.

The EveryoneSocial platform makes it possible for users to pull in content from internal and external company sources, maintaining a steady flow of new content for sharing. It’s a great way of making sure B2B customers stay updated on new brand initiatives via their LinkedIn page. The platform integrates easily with storage sources like Google Drive and Slack, making it easy to access different repositories of information.

Other EveryoneSocial Features:

• The ability to create or edit content within the platform

• Users can craft custom messages for different social media platforms, then send them all at the same time.

• Admins can attach suggestions on content employees may want to share among their followers

• Gamification features allow managers to create leaderboards for different promotional groups

• Companies can showcase those who do best in promoting company social initiatives or boosting sales for specific products

• Workflow — Yes

• Content Editor — Yes

• Inspiration — Yes

• B2B Engagement — Yes

• Asset Library — Yes

• Good User Experience — Yes

• Gamification — No

• Functions Independently — No

Hootsuite Amplify provides a user-friendly layout that eases the learning curve for those new to the program. Users see a customised content feed when they open the application on a platform or desktop device. Managers can easily highlight and pass on links to internal company news, along with third-party articles and media content, through specific feeds.

The internal Composer editor allows users to create content directly within the platform. HootSuite Amplify users have the option of editing repurposed company items before sending it through their social media outlets. There are text limits enforced for any content submitted through Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Users have the option of storing images, videos, and other content for future sharing within the internal Hootsuite Amplify’s media library. All can be shared directly through the platform to popular social media outlets like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. The ability to send content to YouTube makes Hootsuite Amplify an excellent choice for employees who shine through those channels.

One thing the platform lacks is internal gamification features. Hootsuite Amplify users may choose to integrate with applications like Helpdesk Gamification to enhance the experience.    

Other Hootsuite Amplify Features:

• Ability to share content directly through LinkedIn for B2B customer nurturing

• Integrates easily with Freshdesk, which offers gamification and ticket management features

• Workflow lets users create preapproved content for sharing by a company to keep company branding and messaging consistent

• Workflow — Yes

• Content Editor — Yes

• Inspiration — Yes

• B2B Engagement — No

• Asset Library — Yes

• Good User Experience — Yes

• Gamification — Yes

• Functions Independently — Yes

Sociabble takes a slightly different approach than other platforms when it comes to content promotion. It provides content through themed channels through which users can subscribe to receive content ideas from a company or third-party resources.

The gamification features include allowing users to earn points based on their activity within Sociabble. Managers can also create different campaigns, challenges, and contests and offer rewards for high employee shares within various user groups. The platform also makes it possible to construct polls and quizzes that allow for the continual collection of feedback on how users currently feel about different customer advocacy initiatives.

Another nice feature of Sociabble is the ability of a company to generate a custom newsletter or automate one within the platform. Users of the Sociabble platform may access it from their desktop or through native mobile applications via iOS, Android, or Windows Phone. Companies may enable single sign-on and active directory features for more secure access.

The platform allows users to review and edit company content before sharing it among different social media platforms. It’s possible to send posts out immediately or set them up on a calendar schedule. The real-time notifications panel allows viewing of activity among platform users.

Other Sociabble Features:

• The ability for admins to easily share assets like text, pictures, and videos

• Support for video players and live-streaming content

• Ability to share posts with one click

• Support for mobile notifications

• Integrates with TV and websites using Social Wall

• Workflow — Yes

• Content Editor — Yes

• Inspiration — Yes

• B2B Engagement — No

• Asset Library — Yes

• Good User Experience — Yes

• Gamification — Yes

• Functions Independently — Yes

The main strength of MarketBeam lies in the way it allows users to target B2B customer prospects and collect real-time information on the success of different employee advocacy campaigns. Managers can view metrics from all connected social media channels in one dashboard. It’s possible to track earned media value, how many times the content gets shared, and the clickthrough rate on different pieces of content. It’s a great way of measuring the success of different marketing strategies.

Another great feature of the MarketBeam platform is the way it allows users to create or transform previously created content directly within the platform. After completing edits, users have shareable social media posts ready to go.

Administrators can set up automation workflows that pull brand content from different feeds to pass on to all employee company promoters connected to the platform. MarketBeam also contains an internal scheduler for posting multiple posts through social media at a given date and time. That means users don’t have to rely on external tools for that purpose.

Once an employee advocate posts new brand content, administrators can configure the MarketBeam platform to update corporate social media accounts simultaneously. It also amplifies the content via social sharing through various employee social media channels.

Other MarketBeam Features:

• Automation prompts employees within a company to like new content

• Cuts down on requirement for manual actions by users

• Allows for employee recommendations of curated contents for approval by higher-ups

• Lets employees customise previously shared company content

• Makes it easy to manage multiple employee advocacy teams

• Promotes competition by highlighting top engagement leaders

• Workflow — No

• Content Editor — Yes

• Inspiration — Yes

• B2B Engagement — Yes

• Asset Library — No

• Good User Experience — Yes

• Gamification — Yes

• Functions Independently — Yes

With so much content going through a company, it often becomes hard to keep up with everything. Oktopost makes it easy to organise content in an easily understandable way. That makes it easy for users to see and publish multiple pieces of company news and content from various marketing campaigns to their social media accounts.

There’s also an internal editor that lets users craft unique, relevant content for sharing. Users can enhance posts by dipping into external libraries of stored assets like images, GIFS, and videos. Autoposter, the internal automatic scheduler allows employees to time the posting of new content for maximum impact on their followers. The drag-and-drop user-friendly layout lets users see everything scheduled to post over a given period.

They can set up targeted postings to channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Seeing things in this format helps content creators spot and cover any gaps in the content calendar.

Other Oktopost Features:

• Provides constant news stream that gives users ideas to incorporate when establishing themselves as a thought leader

• Lets manager set up employee recognition initiatives

• Encourages employee engagement through the ability to create surveys and quizzes for the collection of feedback

• Workflow — Yes

• Content Editor — Yes

• Inspiration — Yes

• B2B Engagement — No

• Asset Library — No

• Good User Experience — Yes

• Gamification — Yes

• Functions Independently — Yes

Social HorsePower lets program participants consistently share company brand content through their personal social media channels within a single platform. An advanced editor allows users to craft custom posts. Users can also collect and share content received through curated third-party content feeds. Items may also be exported via a CSV file as needed. New feeds and content can be added with the click of a button.

The SmartLink feature within Social HorsePower lets users enhance content items with a call to action to capture more leads. Platform users have the option of adding full-screen interstitial ads on content to increase conversions and generate more views.

Managers can create team spaces and send out invites to new program prospects. Social HorsePower allows admins to control user permissions and access to different groups and content. The Team section lets managers promote high-performing team members to higher levels of access, remove workers no longer participating in the program, and create reports on the performance of different members.

Additional Social HorsePower Features:

• Calendar feature lets users plan content posts through different social media channels

• Drag and drop visual layout lets platform clients see upcoming scheduled posts

• Lets admins set up scoring for performance measurement across different channels

• Leaderboard for ranking members by team or across Social HorsePower platform

• Workflow — Yes

• Content Editor — Yes

• Inspiration — Yes

• B2B Engagement — Yes

• Asset Library — No

• Good User Experience — Yes

• Gamification — Yes

• Functions Independently — Yes

Dynamic Signal puts most of its emphasis on the mobile capabilities of its platform. Employee advocate program managers can set up push notifications that immediately notify platform users about new content to potentially post through their social media channels.

Clicking the notification takes a user directly into the content, where they can immediately schedule and amplify posts to different social networks. Admins can make things easier for workers using the platform by setting up prefilled text notifications sent through multiple social media channels, which employees can edit as needed. Other user-friendly features include:

• A way to blacklist the use of specific words and phrases

• Add hashtags to shared text notifications

• Auto-append messages to ensure proper sharing

The platform lets users choose to share content immediately or schedule postings for later. Dynamic Signal’s AutoQueue feature automatically detects the best time to share content via social media and automatically schedules the post.

Additional Dynamic Signal Features:

• Leaderboard where users can view their current standings

• The ability for admins to establish metrics for team rankings based on company goals

• Curated content feed for idea inspiration from internal or third-party sources

• Workflow — Yes

• Content Editor — Yes

• Inspiration — Yes

• B2B Engagement — No

• Asset Library — Yes

• Good User Experience — Yes

• Gamification — Yes

• Functions Independently — Yes

The DSMN8 platform lets employee advocates view content from different internal and external content feeds. They can quickly publish the items to their individual social media channels as well as other messenger and SMS platforms. That allows them to establish themselves as thought leaders in an industry while boosting the profile of their employer.

Managers can collect shareable content from company assets and immediately push notifications out to employee advocacy program participants. From there, users can edit the content as needed before publishing the content to their followers, amplifying its reach.

Employee advocates can also create unique content using the Author cloud-based text editor. They can work solo or collaborate with other advocates or managers to refine the material until it is ready for publishing. Managers can set the platform to give content a final review of content before allowing sharing under the company name.

Author functions as more than just an editor. Managers can create assignment briefs for the content they’d like to see. They can then assign points for the employee advocacy program and send invitations out to people they feel would be ideal for crafting the desired content.

Additional DSMN8 Features:

• Lets manager reward points to users upon content delivery

• Recognition of content that violates company policy

• A leaderboard that tracks the progress of users

• Works as a centralised communication hub between advocates and upper management

• Workflow — Yes

• Content Editor — Yes

• Inspiration — Yes

• B2B Engagement — Yes

• Asset Library — No

• Good User Experience — Yes

• Gamification — Yes

• Functions Independently — Yes

The centrepiece of the Ambassify platform is the interactive communications system making it possible to take employee engagement to a new level. Admins can do everything from set up welcome greetings to new advocates joining the program to following up on those who do not respond to invitations to participate.

Those same tools allow companies to interact with B2B customers by inviting them to become members of their community. It’s a chance to collect direct feedback on different business initiatives. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) feature lets you measure the level of loyalty from different B2B customers based on their responses to various promotional efforts.  

Members of the community a business creates can offer insights to upper management. That includes everything from the prizes awarded through gamification features to casting votes on new logo designs for the company.

Additional Ambassify Features:

• Users promoting business initiatives can share affiliate links with unique codes for tracking

• A content feed with suggestions from company resources and social media

• Admins can push buttons asking for feedback from employees and B2B customers on different platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn

• B2B customers can provide referrals to others through the Ambassify platform

• Ability to create content to publish through social media channels or a landing page

Get Help With Your Employee Advocacy Program

1827 Marketing shows you how to get the most from your employee advocate platform. Find out more about how we can help you establish a robust branding engine by setting up a demo of our services.