Have you considered involving your employees in your Instagram marketing strategy? Admittedly, developing practices that integrate employees in social strategy can be challenging. However, this is often an incredibly underused strategy primarily because employers are fearful of the horror stories associated with employees and social media.

However, there are incredible benefits to including your staff in your digital marketing stack. Some of these will benefits your organic Instagram growth:

• Employees are natural brand ambassadors (they should love your products and services the most)
• Employees can organically spread content with their unique audiences
• Employee advocacy ads to brand reputability
• Employee shares vs. brand shares support human 2 human marketing

With these benefits in mind. The question begs…

How can brands and businesses successfully involve employees in their Instagram strategy?

This article will explore different ways you can successfully integrate your staff into your Instagram marketing strategy for brands.

How to Involve in Your Instagram Marketing Strategy

Before you begin actively sourcing employee advocates on Instagram. There are a few fundamental steps you should take to fortify the process. These steps include:

• Establishing a social media policy
• Instagram Training relative to company goals
• Incentivize the process

Let’s explore these facets in further detail below.

Establish a Social Media Policy

The line between companies and their employees on social media is certainly blurred. Even if you are not considering involving your staff in social it’s always a good idea to set some ground rules to help your employees understand what is acceptable social behavior and what is not. At a minimum some basic social media policies should be addressed including: 

• Guidelines on how the company expects its employees to represent themselves on each platform.
• A written protocol on how to manage crisis and how to engage in social as a company representative
• Guidance on when and where using social platforms like Instagram are appropriate (e.g. in the office, during a break, in permitted areas, etc).

Take note social media especially Instagram is deeply embedded in our daily lives. Therefore, instead of outlawing social within the workplace take the opportunity to incorporate its use within your organization.

Instagram Education and Training for Employees

Just because someone has a huge following on Instagram doesn’t automatically make them a great social advocate. As business owners or managers, it’s important to help your employees understand why platforms like Instagram are important to your business. 9 times out of 10 employees who understand how Instagram adds value to the company are more than willing to aid or give support online. 

If your company cannot participate in social training a simple session or memo which shares the value of your company’s Instagram presence, as well as actions you encourage employees to take, will prove useful. 

Provide Reasons To Engage 

The simplest method for encouraging employees to participate in your social endeavors is to provide a reward or incentive they can earn or win. Managers are certainly no stranger to incentives and friendly competition. Encourage your employees to take part in user-generated content for Instagram by starting friendly competitions or providing rewards for their creative efforts. 

Ideas For Employee Involvement on Instagram

Now that you have the foundation for employee social advocacy in place it’s time to begin implementing the process. Of course, not everyone is a social wiz. More importantly, we all need some sound ideas before jumping straight into a new project or endeavor. As such, below we’ll share some interesting ways other companies are already involving their employees on Instagram.

Create a Safe Atmosphere for Engagement

If you’re wondering how to start integrating employee activities on social start simple by encouraging your employees to submit content that will be featured on your Instagram feed. In short, the goal is to create an environment wherein your employees feel comfortable to engage with the company brand openly on social. An easy activity you can institute is a #wisewords session. Wherein, departments within your agency can submit quotes or “wise words” to feature on your Instagram page. Once you’ve finished sourcing employee content create simple quote posts and share it on Instagram. Then send a short company-wide notification once an employee quote is posted, with a message that encourages other employees to like or comment on the post. This simple tactic can help you spread your content organically while also boosting morale within the workplace. For example,  Chase bank routinely features quotes from the leadership team.

Build Instagram Worthy Office Spaces

Give your employees a creative space to use and share on the gram. You may often hear designers speak on Gram worthy moments. Yes, it’s an actual thing. Did you know that on Instagram specifically there are nearly 2 million #workspace posts?  That alone tells you that people love sharing where they work. If you understand the psychology of Instagram, people also love sharing pretty images 🙂 Consequently, if you have a dope workspace you can expect it will constantly show up on the gram (if the company is open to it).  Another cool tip is to place a large sign or wall sticker with your company’s branded hashtag in these spaces. It’s very likely employees will unconsciously include these hashtags in their posts.

Incorporate Employee Apparel into Your Instagram Brand Marketing Strategy

Every business owner knows a t-shirt with your company name on it is what we call shameless but necessary marketing 🙂 Well Instagram is the perfect medium to spread your company logo on a tee without seeming too gimmicky. For example, hosting or sponsoring outdoor events like 5ks, Golf Tournaments, Green cleanup activities, hackathons are guaranteed picture-taking moments. Encourage your employees to wear company apparel during these activities. For example, Sea World Orlando typically features videos and images in their feed which include their Sea World Rescue Team. Members of the team are pictured wearing Sea World Rescue Attire.

Above are just a few simple ideas you can use to get moving. Keep in mind the options are limitless. It simply takes a little bit of creative juice and action to start getting your employees involved in social media.

Remember, employees, are one of your most valuable assets. A great company culture shapes employee motivation. Leverage their experience and company loyalty on Instagram by giving them an opportunity to get involved, create content, and come up with interesting ideas to help support your brand. Do you use employee advocacy in your Instagram marketing strategy? If so, we’d love to learn more about it in the comments below.