B2B buyers are people first. They don’t want to be sold to, they want to be helped. Employee advocacy isn’t about flooding feeds with generic posts. It’s about empowering employees to share meaningful content, amplify your brand’s voice, and create real connections. So, how do you build a program that truly humanizes your brand and fosters genuine relationships?

In partnership with MarketingProfs, we assembled a power panel of expert employee advocacy program leaders to discuss how employee advocacy can humanize your B2B brand. We were joined by Aneta Francis, Lead Client Solutions Manager at LinkedIn, and Chris Sheen, Director of Social Media at Celonis.

We’ve rounded up and summarized all the top tips from the webinar you need to know. Let’s get started!

8 tips straight from our panel

1. Get leadership buy-in to set the example

A strong employee advocacy program starts from the top. If your executives and leadership team are active on LinkedIn, employees will feel encouraged to participate.

As Aneta Francis from LinkedIn highlighted, when leaders actively advocate for their brands—whether about company culture, industry trends, or personal career experiences—it sets the tone for the rest of the organization. It signals that social engagement isn’t just encouraged; it’s a priority.

Tips to implement this:

• Train executives on best practices for posting on social.
• Encourage them to post regularly, comment on employee posts, and engage in discussions.
• Spotlight their thought leadership posts in company-wide social initiatives such as advocacy newsletters, company meetings, and internal shoutouts.

When leaders set an example, employees are more likely to follow and feel comfortable doing so.

2. Start small and scale strategically

Launching an employee advocacy program doesn’t mean onboarding hundreds of employees overnight. Instead, start with a small group of enthusiastic advocates and gradually expand.

Chris Sheen shared how their program began with a focused group before scaling to over 1,000 engaged employees, or as they call them at Celonis, Celenauts. By starting small, you can refine your strategy, identify best practices, and build momentum before rolling out company-wide.

Best practices for getting started:

• Identify a group of engaged employees who are already active on LinkedIn.
• Provide training and support to help them confidently share content.
• Measure results, refine your approach, and expand based on what works.

It’s tempting to dive right in, but advocacy programs take time to grow—and they’ll look different in small companies versus large ones:

3. Make employee advocacy easy and accessible

Every advocacy program has its ups and downs. The key is finding ways to reignite engagement when it dips.

Chris Sheen from Celonis identified two common challenges and how his team overcame them.

If sharing content feels like extra work, participation will drop. At Celonis, the first hurdle was simply making employees aware of the program. To tackle this, they:

• Promoted the program in company all-hands meetings.
• Hosted lunch and learns to educate employees.
• Integrated Oktopost’s Slack notifications to alert employees when new content is available.
• Made advocacy part of the new employee onboarding process.

The second challenge is keeping employees engaged long-term.

Sustaining participation long-term requires advocacy to feel natural, not forced. Celonis achieved this by weaving advocacy into company culture: running friendly competitions, recognizing top contributors, and integrating social sharing into marketing campaigns. By making advocacy engaging, they turned it into a habit rather than an extra task.

4. Encourage your advocates to personalize their content

The best advocacy posts aren’t just copied and pasted from company templates, they reflect the unique voice of each employee. Personalized content performs better, feels more authentic, and resonates more with audiences.

However, many advocates struggle with how to make content their own. Aneta Francis suggests providing simple prompts to guide them:

• What does this topic mean to me?
• Why does it matter to my network?
• How can I add my personal perspective?

Chris Sheen shared a simple yet powerful rule for LinkedIn: the 102-character rule. He advises advocates to write just one sentence before the “see more” cutoff to make their posts feel personal. Even a short takeaway or reaction can make a huge difference.

Encourage employees to find their own voice, engage in conversations, and move beyond just resharing company updates. In the long run, building a personal brand that reflects their unique perspective will keep them engaged and invested in advocacy.

5. Diversify content to keep engagement high

Not all content performs equally in employee advocacy. Based on Celonis’ experience, three types of content consistently drive the highest engagement:

1. Photos and behind-the-scenes content: employees love sharing moments from events, office culture, and team achievements. A simple group photo can generate significant engagement.
2. Video content: With LinkedIn’s new video feed, short, authentic videos work exceptionally well. Employee-recorded clips discussing industry insights or sharing career reflections are highly engaging.
3. Company news and big wins: Employees take pride in sharing company milestones, awards, and press features. These posts often get high engagement from both employees and their networks.

By offering a mix of content types, employees can choose what aligns best with their personal brand and audience.

6. Provide continuous training and support

Employee advocacy isn’t a “set it and forget it” initiative. Ongoing training ensures that employees feel confident and empowered to share content.

Best practices for training:

• Host lunch-and-learns or quick training sessions on best practices.
• Offer templates and post prompts to spark inspiration.
• Share success stories to highlight employees who are excelling.
• Run competitions and award advocates with rewards and recognition.

Chris Sheen mentioned that at Celonis, they provide regular training sessions and internal communication touchpoints to keep employees engaged. The more supported employees feel, the more likely they are to participate.

7. Foster a culture of recognition and celebration

Employee advocacy should be rewarding, not feel like an obligation. Recognizing and celebrating employees who actively participate helps sustain momentum.

Ways to encourage engagement:

• Give shoutouts in company meetings: highlight employees who are excelling in advocacy.
• Create friendly competitions: offer small incentives for employees who generate high engagement.
• Feature employee-generated content in company newsletters: showcasing top posts validates efforts and inspires others.

Aneta Francis emphasized that celebrating employee contributions makes them feel valued and encourages continued participation. The more recognition employees receive, the more they’ll want to engage.

8. Track results and keep optimizing your program

Like any marketing initiative, employee advocacy should be data-driven. Tracking performance helps identify what’s working and where improvements are needed.

Key metrics to monitor:

• Engagement rates (likes, comments, shares)
• Click-through rates (how many people are engaging with shared content)
• Follower growth (impact on company and employee profiles)
• Lead generation (tracking conversions from advocacy posts)

Chris Sheen shared a compelling statistic: During their annual Celosphere event, employee advocacy posts generated twice as many ticket sales as corporate brand posts. This kind of data reinforces the value of advocacy and helps refine strategies.

Get started with employee advocacy

Employee advocacy isn’t just another marketing initiative, it’s a way to humanize your brand, build trust, and expand your reach through the voices of your employees. But as we’ve seen from the experts, success doesn’t happen overnight. It takes leadership buy-in, the right content strategy, ongoing support, and a culture that encourages authentic engagement.

And of course, having the right tools makes all the difference. An employee advocacy platform helps streamline the process, making it easy for employees to share content and stay engaged. If you’re looking to build or scale your advocacy program, Oktopost’s advocacy solution can help.

Want to see it in action? Get in touch with us, we’d love to chat!