What are the best employee advocacy program examples?

You know how you’re more likely to trust a friend’s Netflix rec than a billboard telling you what to watch? The same logic applies to brands. That’s why the best employee advocacy program examples don’t focus on glossy corporate posts. They’re all about real people sharing stories.

In this post, we’ll show you how companies are turning their employees into brand megaphones (the good kind). You’ll see strategies that:

• boost awareness
• attract top talent
• drive revenue.

If you want to empower your team to become your most authentic marketing channel, read on. Oh, and don’t forget to grab your employee advocacy tools like Hootsuite Amplify. It’s all part of a successful employee advocacy program.

What is an employee advocacy program?

An employee advocacy program is a set of actions and measures intended to empower your own employees and team members to promote a brand, company, product, or service beyond official company social media channels.

It’s a powerful element of a broader social media marketing and content strategy, where employees actively participate in sharing company content with their personal networks.

A strong employee advocacy strategy encourages staff to post branded social media posts across social media platforms like LinkedIn, X, or anywhere they’re active.

Sometimes, the content is promotional. It can highlight new campaigns or initiatives. And sometimes it’s cultural, showcasing what it’s like to work at your company.

When your people share authentic stories, it humanizes your brand. It can boost organic reach, so you can genuinely connect with your target audience. More so than your standard corporate messaging. It’s a fact that people trust other people more than they trust corporations.

Successful employee advocacy efforts are supported by:

• clear marketing strategy goals and
• tracked with measurable KPIs.

The benefits for the company are wide-reaching:

• Increase brand awareness,
• improved reputation,
• boosted engagement, and
• talent recruitment, to name a few.

Every share contributes to business outcomes while strengthening internal culture and external trust.

Informal advocacy VS structured programs: What’s the difference?

An employee who speaks up organically about what their company is doing right is one thing. A structured employee advocacy program is another.

With a structured employee advocacy program, promotion is intentional, consistent, and scalable. Companies provide employees with tools, content, and guidelines to share.

A platform like Hootsuite Amplify makes this simple. It provides employees with a curated feed of pre-approved content they can post with a few taps. Amplify helps companies:

• measure performance
• gamify participation with leaderboards
• ensure compliance
• helps employees to build their personal brands

Employee advocacy program examples will often include:

• Curated content hubs where employees can access pre-approved posts
• Training and resources to help staff build their personal brand while staying on-message
• Incentives or recognition that encourage ongoing participation
• Measurement and analytics to track reach, engagement, and business impact

In other words, informal advocacy is spontaneous and personal. Structured programs are intentional and strategic.

Why do companies run employee advocacy programs?

Companies run employee advocacy programs because they achieve business value beyond traditional marketing and PR.

For advice from an early adopter of employee advocacy programs, we chatted with Victoria Samways, Major Tom’s Marketing & Brand Manager. Samways has long used Amplify as her preferred tool.

“Our employees are very powerful brand ambassadors,” says Samways. “Each employee can easily have hundreds of connections on LinkedIn alone. Times that by the number of employees a brand has, and that’s a large audience. Advocacy supports our brand awareness, sales, recruitment, and culture goals.”

Some of the benefits of employee advocacy programs are:

• expanded brand reach and awareness
• attracting top talent
• improved reputation
• increased employee engagement

Expand brand reach and awareness

Collectively, employees have a wide social reach. When employees share your brand’s content, the message spreads faster than branded advertising. And it feels more authentic. You can expand your brand’s reach into new circles by tapping into your employees’ networks.

Attract and recruit top talent

If someone talks about how great they are, do you believe them? Nine times our of ten you’re more likely to trust a friend who vouches for someone. Than someone bragging about themselves.

And the same is true for brands. You’ll trust a friend’s recommendation over a company boasting about how we’re all a family here.

Build a better reputation

Humanizing your brand is easier when real people do the talking. Seeing others advocate for their workplace builds trust and credibility in that company.

So your employees’ posts aren’t outright relevant to your brand’s reputation. They’ll still have a positive knock-on effect. People don’t post about a place they dislike, unless it’s to complain.

Boost organic engagement

Algorithms tend to reward personal accounts over company pages. Content shared by employees can earn more likes, comments, and shares than the same post from a brand handle.

That engagement compounds over time, improving visibility, credibility, and ROI on content marketing efforts.

“We launched our first webinar-related campaign after rolling out the Amplify initiative. Amplify quickly became our second-best channel to generate net-new signups to our webinar. It was only surpassed by paid social, which required budget,” says Samways.

“This helped increase the amount of webinar attendees by 30+% at hardly any additional cost.”

Support sales and lead generation

Social selling is more effective when employees share relevant content with their networks. Trusted connections shorten the sales cycle, warm up leads, and generate pipeline opportunities.

In a recent study, nearly “64% of advocates in a formal program credited employee advocacy with attracting and developing new business.” And, as if that wasn’t enough, close to 45% attribute new revenue streams to employee advocacy.

Victoria reports that Major Tom netted 100k in the sales pipeline, directly attributed to advocacy. To showcase a client’s case study, they launched a campaign using Amplify, UTM tracking codes, and high-quality content.

“Through this, Amplify landed within our top 5 traffic sources for the campaign,” says Samways. “Thanks to the UTM tracking links, over the coming weeks, we saw a healthy amount of leads that we attributed back to this campaign. Which resulted in over $100k in our pipeline with a higher-than-average win rate.”

Position employees as thought leaders

Sharing industry insights or company wins elevates the organization and the employee. When your advocacy posts are well done, you’re handing free content to your employees. By sharing, they’ll improve their professional reputation. This, in turn, makes your company look pro for retaining top industry talent.

Almost 86% of advocates in a formal employee advocacy program reported that their involvement in social media had a positive impact on their career.

What are the best employee advocacy program examples in 2025?

From tech giants to global retailers, employee advocacy programs are finding success. Examples prove that when employees get behind the mic, the brand message hits harder.

Here are some of the most insightful employee advocacy program examples for 2025.

Hootsuite

Industry: Software as a service.

Program focus: Brand awareness, recruiting top talent, and revenue growth.

How it works: Hootsuite overhauled our own Amplify strategy with three priorities.

1. Make content relevant across all departments
2. Diversify topics
3. Introduce strong adoption and recognition tactics

A cross-department Amplify Content Council takes care of relevance. The Amplify Recognition Program gives out prizes and other incentives for participation. Training, onboarding resources, and push notifications keep employees engaged and consistent in sharing.

Key results:

• 250% year-over-year growth in revenue generated
• 80% Amplify sign-up rate (+9% YoY)
• 4.1 million impressions in Q1 from employee posts
• 94% of organic employer-brand impressions came from Amplify shares

Takeaway for businesses:Regularly refresh and broaden your content mix to appeal to different employee groups (if we can do it, so can you!). Advocacy thrives when employees see content that’s personally relevant. And when participation is recognized, not just expected.

Amarino

Industry: Accounting, Business Consulting, and Technology.

Program focus: Brand awareness, talent recruitment, and thought leadership.

How it works:

Using Hootsuite Amplify, Armanino created curated content hubs organized by industry and service themes. Employees receive training through brand bootcamps and social media workshops. Then, they can confidently share content while building their personal brand.

Key results:

• 14,707 website clicks from employee posts.
• 19.2M people reached with employee content (+638% year-over-year).
• $232,375 USD in potential ad value created.

Takeaway for businesses: Equip employees with both content and training. Don’t just hand them posts. Teach staff to adapt content into their own authentic voice. You’ll see stronger engagement, recruiting wins, and measurable brand lift. Amarino has 595 active Amplify users who customize posts into their own voice.

Dell Technologies

Industry: Information technology.

Program focus: Building trust and extending reach in B2B tech circles. Empowering employee engagement and compliance.

How it works: Dell’s employee advocacy program is one of the largest out there. Their Social Media and Communities University trains employees on responsible social sharing. They can then share Dell’s thought leadership, product updates, and corporate social responsibility initiatives.

Dell uses an 80/20 strategy. 80% of topics are informative, helpful, and relevant to customers — or personally interesting to employees. And 20% are about the company.

Key results:

• Over one year, Dell drove more than 150,000 shares within its employee advocacy platform. This yielded 45,000 clicks to Dell’s website.
• In total, Dell’s reach has exceeded an audience of 1.2 million.

Takeaway for businesses: Give your employees content they find personally valuable to increase your team’s buy-in. Build an experience where your staff can explore, choose, and share interesting content.

Athletico

Industry: Healthcare.

Program focus: Brand awareness, community engagement, and employee empowerment.

How it works: Athletico uses Hootsuite Enterprise and Amplify to pinpoint social media–savvy employees. Then, they turn them into brand advocates. Content planning sessions keep the pipeline fresh. Athletico blends brand-owned posts with thought leadership and awareness campaigns.

Key results:

• 95% adoption rate in the first week of launching the program.
• 40% increase in reach from employee advocacy.
• 39% increase in engagement across all channels.
• 79% ongoing adoption rate of the program.

Takeaway for businesses: Capitalize on existing employee enthusiasm. Give your team structured support plus easy-to-share content. This will deliver reach and engagement, even with a small marketing team.

Colliers

Industry: Real estate.

Program focus: Recruitment, brand awareness, and thought leadership.

How it works: Colliers used Hootsuite Amplify to launch a global employee ambassador program. It features a content library offering 250+ shareable posts per month. Training and an internal resource hub supported adoption. Social listening ensured brand safety and optimized strategy.

Key results:

• 4,700 employee posts shared in one year.
• 9.5 million people reached in Canada (+43% YoY).
• 229% YoY increase in social media impressions.

Takeaway for businesses: A well-structured advocacy program amplifies reach and builds your team’s credibility. Give your employees a mix of business insight and culture-driven stories to share. They’ll engage broader audiences and attract talent more effectively than brand channels alone.

Antalis

Industry: Papers, Packaging and Visual Communication.

Program focus: Employer branding, recruiting, and sales enablement.

How it works: Antalis launched an employee ambassador program with Hootsuite Amplify. Rolling out training and support ensured staff can confidently share pre-approved content.

With a central content library and regional governance, employees across functions — from marketing to sales — could access posts relevant to their expertise. Peer learning from other Amplify customers and ongoing training helped accelerate adoption.

Key results:

• 87% adoption rate for the employee ambassador program.
• 2,400 shares of Amplify content last year.
• 300% increase in web traffic from social to campaign sites.

Takeaway for businesses: Give employees easy access to relevant, high-quality content they’re proud to share.

Starbucks

Industry: Food and beverage.

Program focus: Reputation management, employer branding, and community engagement.

How it works: Starbucks encourages employee advocacy through the Starbucks Partner program. Employees (called “partners) share stories about workplace culture, initiatives, and community.

Advocacy happens through both structured programs and organic sharing. Employees get content resources, training, and recognition.

Source: Starbucks Partners

Key results:

• Created an image as a values-driven brand.
• Reinforced its reputation as an employer of choice.
• Boosted engagement with local communities.

Takeaway for businesses: Starbucks encourages employees to share stories about values and purpose, not just products. When advocacy highlights culture and community, it builds trust and authenticity with audiences.

Salesforce

Industry: Software as a Service.

Program focus: Global brand awareness, thought leadership, culture, and recruiting.

How it works: Salesforce used the Haiilo platform to revamp its Social Ambassador Program. They provide curated content, training, and gamification. Employees are auto-subscribed to channels based on their role and location. They’re able to personalize copy variations (in multiple languages).

Source: Mariam Tahan

Key results:

• 2033% return on investment on the advocacy program.
• 25,141 employees enrolled in 21 months.
• 742,000+ social shares.
• Advocates grew their networks 3x faster and saw 6x more profile views.

Takeaway for businesses: Provide a framework that protects your brand. But give your employees the freedom to personalize content. Program success relies on ease and personalization.

Morgan Philips Group

Industry: Recruitment and Talent Management.

Program focus: Brand awareness, consultant expertise, global visibility.

How it works: Morgan Philips Group uses Sociabble to empower its recruiters and consultants to share content about their work, sectors, and company news.

Source: Morgan Philips Group

Key results:

• Roughly 2 million LinkedIn connections in 2024.
• Reached 340 million people with employee-shared content.
• 8,000 leads generated.
• $1.4 million USD in potential ad value created.

Takeaway for businesses: Want to build visibility fast in a crowded market? Make it easy for employees to share content that reflects their domain knowledge.

DaVita

Industry: Healthcare

Program focus:Recruiting top nursing and patient care talent. Empowering employees to share authentic stories about culture, benefits, and career opportunities.

How it works: DaVita used Hootsuite Amplify. 200+ employee ambassadors get pre-approved, brand-safe content that highlights real teammate experiences. Recruiters and staff share compelling stories across social networks, boosting reach and credibility.

Key results:

• 24K+ shares of employee stories
• $1.5 million+ in equal ad value
• 136% increase in applicants from LinkedIn to their career site
• 27% year-over-year growth in job applications from social media
• 80% sustained adoption rate of Amplify among teammates

Takeaway for businesses: By turning employees into storytellers, DaVita bridged the gap between recruitment and marketing. Authentic advocacy attracts qualified candidates and strengthens trust in the brand.

“The people aspect of the content is important,” says Samways. “Employees are naturally more inclined to support a co-worker or team’s achievement rather than a more generic brand piece. This can range from a piece of content that puts a subject matter expert in the limelight to emphasizing the team behind a recent case study.”

Croda

Industry: Healthcare

Program focus: Increase visibility, strengthen customer relationships, and amplify sustainability messaging.

How it works: Croda centralized 36 brand social channels with Hootsuite Enterprise. Amplify helped to share curated content, creating consistency, efficiency, and measurable engagement.

With Advanced Analytics and built-in security, the company aligned its digital strategy to amplify sustainability messaging and strengthen customer relationships.

Key results:

• 23 million LinkedIn connections reached via Amplify since 2019
• 5,000+ web conversions through employee advocacy content
• 50% increase in website conversions from social (Q2 2022 → Q2 2023)
• 150–200 active Amplify users, including executives and influencers within their sectors
• Improved efficiency and reduced duplicated efforts across marketing teams

Takeaway for businesses: In technical B2B sectors, employees can humanize your brand. And drive real business outcomes. The big three core components of this strategy are:

• Centralized social activity
• Employees empowered with easy-to-use advocacy tools
• Messages aligned with core values (like sustainability)

Adobe

Industry: Software as a Service.

Program focus: Brand awareness, employee engagement, internal communications, and social recruiting.

How it works:

Adobe uses EveryoneSocial. They give employees a curated content library calibrated to different interests and roles. Employees can share posts, engage with each other, and follow content groups that resonate.

Source: Cathya Lopez

Key results:

• Over 900 employees are using the platform.
• Social reach expanded by over 3,000,000+ through those employee shares.
• Average reach per user is over 4,000 people via their own networks.

Takeaway for businesses: Have your content reflect employees’ roles or interests. Watch program adoption and participation rise.

Employee advocacy program FAQ

What is an example of employee advocacy?

An example of employee advocacy is when your staff becomes your hype team. An example could be a Hootsuite employee sharing a thought-leadership post about employee advocacy while calling out Hootsuite’s Amplify tool.

What are good advocacy examples?

The best ones feel authentic, not scripted. Good employee advocacy examples usually come from employees who are proud of where they work and want to share stories that match their own voice.

What makes a good employee advocacy program?

Two words: ease and authenticity. Employee advocacy software is important. Simple tools make sharing effortless. Content that feels like something a human would actually say goes a long way. Then, sprinkle in training, recognition or incentives, and the freedom to personalize.

How do you measure the success of employee advocacy programs?

You’ll want to look at KPIs and metrics like:

• Organic reach and impressions
• Engagement
• Recruiting metrics and talent acquisition
• Sales impact
• Program participation and adoption rates

Our guide on measuring employee advocacy success will show you exactly how to do this.

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