PR & Communications
Press releases that actually get printed
An editor decides in eight seconds. What decides it is whether there is a story, and most releases do not contain one.
2 min readJul 21, 2025
PR & Communications
Employees as your best advocates
Staff reach more people than the company account and are believed considerably more. Both facts are usually unmanaged.
Key points
- Employees are trusted several times more than corporate channels.
- Advocacy cannot be mandated; it follows from employees actually knowing what is happening.
- Tell staff before customers, always.
The combined networks of a company's employees are larger than its official audience, and messages from individuals are believed far more than messages from organisations.
Why it is usually unmanaged
Internal communication is treated as an administrative function: policy updates, system changes, holiday arrangements.
The commercial dimension, that informed employees are the most credible communication channel the business has, rarely appears in anyone's objectives.
An employee explaining at a family gathering what their company does is more persuasive than any advertisement, and the company has no idea whether they can do it.
The foundation: they must know what is happening
Advocacy programmes fail when employees are asked to share material about a company they do not feel informed about.
The prerequisites: staff hear significant news before customers and before the media; they understand what the business is doing and why; and questions get answered rather than deflected.
Without those three, everything else is decoration.
Practical measures
| Measure | Effect |
|---|---|
| Internal briefing before any external announcement | high, foundational |
| A monthly short update from leadership, honest | high |
| Making content easy to share, with suggested text | medium to high |
| Recognising people who contribute | medium |
| Training for those who want it | medium |
| Mandating shares | negative |
The last row is worth stating clearly. Required advocacy is recognisable, it embarrasses the employee, and it damages both their credibility and the company's.
The social media guidance
Employees will post about work. The choice is whether they have guidance.
A usable one-page policy covers: what is confidential, that they should identify themselves as an employee when discussing the company, that personal opinions are personal, who to ask when unsure, and what to do if they are asked something they cannot answer.
It should be permissive. A restrictive policy produces silence, which forfeits the advantage.
The recruitment dividend
The largest measurable return from employee advocacy is usually in recruitment. Candidates trust employees far more than careers pages.
Employees describing their actual work, honestly, reach exactly the people a business wants to hire, in a way no job advertisement can.
The uncomfortable prerequisite
Employees advocate for a business they think well of. No programme changes that.
If internal sentiment is poor, an advocacy initiative will fail and will also make the sentiment visible. That is useful information, and it points at a different project.
Measuring it
Reach of employee-shared content against company content. Referrals to recruitment from employees. Whether new customers mention having spoken to someone who works there.
The last is anecdotal and the most telling.
Frequently asked questions
Should employees be required to share company content?
No. Compelled advocacy is visible and counterproductive. Make it easy and worth doing, and some will.
What is the biggest failure?
Employees learning about company news from customers or the media. It undermines every other internal effort.
More from PR & Communications
Keep reading
PR & Communications
Building your own media list
Bought distribution lists produce nothing. Thirty names you researched yourself produce coverage, and the research takes an afternoon.
2 min readJul 19, 2025
PR & Communications
Approaching journalists properly
The pitch is one paragraph and it is about their readers, not your company. Everything else in the relationship follows from getting that right once.
2 min readJul 17, 2025