<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none;" alt="" src="https://dc.ads.linkedin.com/collect/?pid=396945&amp;fmt=gif">
Blog » Latest Articles
Mar 27, 2015 Sarah Goodall

Employee Advocacy Statistics to Build a Social Business Case

I read a lot about employee advocacy and social business and keep articles bookmarked in a number of places including my Flipboard Magazine, Pinterest Board and Delicious Bookmarks - yes, I still use Delicious occasionally!

As a result I've come across a lot of research from various sources covering everything from social selling, social leadership, social recruiting and social marketing.  So, I've jotted down all of my favourite employee advocacy statistics in one blog post for future reference and to share with you.

Download our FREE Employee Advocacy Workbook and learn how to plan an advocacy  program in 8 simple steps.

40 Employee Advoccy Statistics To Build A Case For Social Business

Here are 40 Employee Advocacy Statistics to build your case for social business

  • 77% of buyers are more likely to buy from a company whose CEO uses social media (Source:  MSLGroup)
  • Social CEOs are much more likely to be seen as good communicators than unsocial CEOs (55% vs. 38%, respectively (Source: Weber Shandwick)
  • Leads developed through employee social marketing convert 7x more frequently than other leads (Source: IBM)
  • According to Gartner, the number of companies blocking social media access for employees is dropping at 10% per year.  50% blocked access in 2010 - less than 30% blocked in 2014.  (Source:  Gartner)

Sales Perspective:

  • Sales reps using social media as part of their sales techniques outsell 78% of their peers (Source: Forbes)
  • 10.8% of social sellers have closed 5 or more deals attributed to social media. (Source: A Sales Guy Consulting)
  • 54% of social salespeople have tracked their social selling back to at least 1 closed deal.(Source: A Sales Guy Consulting)
  • 72.6% of salespeople using social selling as part of their sales process outperformed their sales peers and exceeded quota 23% more often. (Source: Aberdeen Group)
  • 46% of social sellers hit quota compared to 38% of sales reps who don’t. (Source: Aberdeen Group)
  • 64% of teams that use social selling hit quota compared to 49% that don’t. (Source: Aberdeen Group)
  • 80% believe their sales force would be more productive with a greater social media presence.(Source: Sales Management Association)
  • 2/3 of companies have no social media strategy for their sales organizations. (Source) CLICK TO TWEET
  • 93% of sales executives have not received any formal training on social selling. (Source:  Accenture)
  • 53% of salespeople want help in understanding social selling better. (Source: A Sales Guy Consulting)
  • 96% of sales professionals use LinkedIn at least once a week and spend an average of six hours per week on the professional networking site. (Source: Aberdeen Group)
  • 50.1% of social salespeople spend between 5% to 10% of their time on social media.(Source: A Sales Guy Consulting)
  • 21.7% of the sales people are not using social media, 18.9% cited not using it because they didn’t see the value and 45% cited because they did not understand social selling. (Source: A Sales Guy Consulting)
  • 77% of B2B buyers said they did not talk with a salesperson until after they had performed independent research (Source:  CEB)
  • 36% of buyers said they didn’t engage with a sales rep until after a short list of preferred vendors was established. (Source: Demand Gen Report)
  • 84% of B2B decision makers begin their buying process with a referral. (Source: Sales Benchmark Index)
  • A warm referral increases the odds of a sales success 2x-4x. (Source; LinkedIn Social Selling Report) 

40 Employee Advocacy Statistics To Build A Case For Social Business.

Marketing Perspective

  • The average cold calling appointment rate is 2.5% (Source: CEB)
  • B2B buyers complete 57% of the buying decision before they are willing to talk to a sales rep.(Source: CEB)
  • 92% of buyers say they delete emails or voicemail messages when comes from someone that they do not know. (Source: A Sales Guy Consulting)
  • Content shared by employees receives 8X more engagement than content shared by brand channels (Source: Social Media Today)
  • An employee advocate is 2 x more trusted than a CEO (Source:  Edelman Trust Barometer 2014)
  • Employees have on average 10x more social connections than a brand does (Source: Social Chorus)
  • 92% of employees' Twitter followers are new to the brand (Source: Cisco)
  • Only 33% of buyers trust the brand whilst 90% of customers trust product or service recommendations from people they know (Source: Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey)
  • Brand messages reached 561% further when shared by employees vs the same messages shared via official brand social channels (Source:  MSLGroup)
  • Brand messages are re-shared 24x more frequently when distributed by employees vs brand (Source:  MSLGroupmsl)
  • 98% of employees use at least one social media site for personal use, of which 50% are already posting about their company (Source:  Weber Shandwick)

HR Perspective (Source: Jobvite Infographic):

  • Employee referrals have the highest applicant to hire conversion rate – only 7% of applicants are via employees but this accounts for 40% of all new hire hires (Source: Jobvite)
  • 67% of employers and recruiters said that the recruiting process was shorter and 51% said it was less expensive to recruit via referrals (Source: Jobvite)
  • 47% Referral hires have greater job satisfaction and stay longer at companies (Source: Jobvite)
  • Employees of socially engaged companies are... (Source:  Altimeter & LinkedIn Relationship Economics 2014)
    • 57% more likely to align social media engagement to more sales leads
    • 20% more likely to stay at their company
    • 27% more likely to feel optimistic about their company's future
    • 40% more likely to believe their company is more competitive
  • And yet, disengaged employees make up 74% of the average company's workforce (Source:  Tower Watson)

Download our FREE Employee Advocacy Workbook and learn how to plan an advocacy  program in 8 simple steps.

New call-to-action

Related Posts: The End is Nigh for the Sales Dinosaur 

About Tribal Impact

Tribal Impact is a B2B Social Selling and Employee Branding Agency.

We're a team of social media strategists, trainers, coaches, content creators and data analysts who are passionate about helping our B2B customers develop and scale their social selling and employee advocacy programs.

Learn more about us here.

Published by Sarah Goodall March 27, 2015
Sarah Goodall