Your Biggest Brand Champions Are Missing Out: New Research from Mindshare NA and Dynamic Signal Shows Employees Want to be Company Advocates

SAN BRUNO, Calif., Oct. 13, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dynamic Signal, the leader in employee advocacy and Mindshare North America, the global media agency network that is part of WPP, have released new industry research with insights into companies' most underutilized marketing asset: employee advocacy. Using The Pool (Mindshare's proprietary research tool), the insights help determine what long term communication strategies and technologies are needed for businesses to grow employee engagement and advocacy in the market.

Employee advocacy is the act of informing and engaging employees to become experts, advocates, and contributors. Today the dominant feature of that is social sharing. A recent global survey by Gallup found that less than one-third of U.S. workers were engaged in their jobs, with Millennials as the least engaged group, at 28.9%. However, companies with engaged employees outperform others by 202%. The question becomes how to communicate and encourage Employee Advocacy with the part of the workforce that is not engaged.

The research from Dynamic Signal and Mindshare revealed key insights on how to tackle that issue. Sample findings include:

To be engaged, you first have to be informed:

74% of employees feel that they're missing out on at least some company information and news.

Traditional favored comms channels don't align with how digital natives share content:

87% of employees today typically receive company information via email, intranet, or in-person. Businesses are lacking in mobile and social solutions.

More employees are ready to be advocates than you may think:

66% of employees believe that they are already an advocate for their company.

Leaders need to lead by example when it comes to social:

81% of senior leadership believe they are advocates for their companies, but only 37% have ever shared company news or information on their social channels.

Companies need better content strategies for thought leadership and brand values:

Only 37% of senior leaders and 24% of junior level employees said that they would be excited to share content about their company's strategy. However, 59% of employees overall would be motivated to share things related to their company's products or services. Organizations should strive to create content about their brand and culture that motivates social sharing on par with content about product launches and service offerings.

Social & mobile are critical for a successful Employee Advocacy Program

For employees who have not shared company information on their social networks, more than half (53%) said a single platform/application to consolidate all company info would make it easier to get and share content. Of those employees who don't believe they are an advocate today, 41% said that they would be if their company had a formal and organized program. 55% of employees said that a mobile application would help them be more informed and engaged with their company.

"The data clearly demonstrates an interest by employees to be advocates for their employer. The question becomes, how can companies unlock this potential and inform and engage employees?" said Russ Fradin, CEO, Dynamic Signal. "The biggest opportunity to maximize employee advocacy programs is to reflect the lifestyles of a workforce that is social-minded and mobile-powered. And this is not a generational thing: we are all mobile-enabled. Think about it… when was the last time you left your phone behind?"

Key Takeaways: Allow your workforce to be brand advocates by rethinking communications both internally and externally. Help employees be more informed and engaged with digital-age communications via social platforms and mobile apps that digital natives already use in their personal lives.

"Our teams work with clients every day on adaptive media strategies that reach and engage consumers at scale," said Wendi Smith, Managing Director, Agency Communications & Content, Mindshare NA. "It's important for brands to understand that the same kind of rigor and creativity should be applied internally as well – your best brand advocates are your own people."

Research Methodology

Mindshare NA surveyed more than 800 employed adults across various industries nationwide through The Pool, ages 18 and up.

Mindshare and Dynamic Signal

Mindshare North America has partnered with Dynamic Signal to bring their employee advocacy platform to The LOOP, the agency's adaptive marketing operating system. In addition, Mindshare NA today announced that it has integrated a new mobile-centric employee advocacy initiative for the agency that gives its employees the power and control to easily share approved company and client news to their personal social media channels with just a few clicks – extending the content's reach and influence. Dynamic Signal's VoiceStorm™ platform, tracks every time an employee shares a piece of content as well as the quality of the share and the size of the social communities receiving it.

About Dynamic Signal

Dynamic Signal redefines how companies communicate with the world in order to grow their businesses. Its proven employee advocacy platform lets employees receive and post company-approved content to their social networks, transforming them into experts, advocates and contributors. By extending their social media strategies, Dynamic Signal's clients ignite brand awareness, employee engagement and revenue.

With its founding team's 20 years of digital marketing expertise, hundreds of companies of all sizes trust Dynamic Signal to launch, scale and measure their Employee Advocacy programs. Founded in 2010, the company helps leading organizations, including IBM, Salesforce, Domo, SurveyMonkey and Bloomberg. Dynamic Signal is based in San Francisco, California and has raised $43 million to date. For more information, please visit www.DynamicSignal.com.

About Mindshare

Mindshare is a global media agency network with billings in excess of US$34.5 billion (source: RECMA). The network consists of more than 7,000 employees, in 116 offices across 86 countries spread throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Each office is dedicated to forging competitive marketing advantage for businesses and their brands based on the values of speed, teamwork and provocation. Mindshare is part of GroupM, which oversees the media investment management sector for WPP, the world's leading communications services group. Visit us at Mindshareusa.com or MindshareInTheLoop.com and follow us on Twitter @mindshare_NA and facebook.com/MindshareNA.

About GroupM:

GroupM is the leading global media investment management operation. It serves as the parent company to WPP media agencies including Mindshare, MEC, MediaCom and Maxus, as well as Xaxis and Catalyst. Our primary purpose is to maximize the performance of WPP's media communications agencies on behalf of our clients, our stakeholders and our people by operating as a parent and collaborator in performance-enhancing activities such as trading, content creation, sports, digital, finance, proprietary tool development and other business-critical capabilities. The agencies that comprise GroupM are all global operations in their own right with leading market positions. The focus of GroupM is the intelligent application of physical and intellectual scale to benefit trading, innovation, and new communication services, to bring competitive advantage to our clients and our companies. Discover more about us online at www.groupm.com.