Based on my January 20, 2022 conversation with Matt Snodgrass on MarketingProfs’ Marketing Smarts podcast. The examples describe my work at Sweet Fish Media at that time; the practical suggestions below adapt those lessons for a small pilot.
Many companies approach advocacy as a request: share this post, amplify this launch, use this approved message. That may create a short burst of activity, but it rarely creates the trust that makes a person worth following.
A stronger starting point is to help employees become more useful to the people they want to serve. When a company backs that work with time, coaching, and a little structure, employees can build public voices that belong to them. The company benefits because those voices make its expertise easier to find and its culture easier to understand.
That was the idea behind the internal evangelist program I described in a 2022 conversation with MarketingProfs. The program was intentionally lighter than the formal, full-time evangelist roles some large companies create. The goal was to give employees a way to develop their own point of view and professional presence, while making it easier for the organization to support the work.
Start with people who want to lead
An internal evangelist program needs champions. Find a few people who are willing to practice in public for a season: sharing what they know, joining conversations, and learning what their audience responds to. They do not need to be executives, and they should not be chosen only because they already have the largest following.
What matters is whether they have a real subject to explore and the willingness to keep showing up. Early participation is a commitment to learn, not a promise of immediate pipeline.
Give those first participants room to sound like themselves. In the program I described, the organizational requirements were deliberately loose. Employees could talk about the subjects they cared about instead of being assigned a steady stream of corporate talking points. Their work naturally connected to the business because it came from their real experience.
Make the employee benefit explicit
The offer should be clear: the company will help participants build an asset they can carry with them. That makes the program more credible and more humane.
An employee's audience is not company property. It is the result of their experience, their point of view, and the relationships they develop over time. Treating it that way changes the posture of the program. You are not extracting free promotion. You are creating conditions in which people can become better communicators and more visible professionals.
That investment can still strengthen the organization. People who do useful public work often talk about the problems they solve, the people they collaborate with, and the ideas they are testing. A healthy culture gives them good things to say without requiring them to recite a script.
Build a system that helps people share what they already know
Consistency is hard when every post begins with a blank page. Support can take many forms: interviews that draw out an employee's experience, editorial help that turns a conversation into a draft, a library of past talks and recordings, or a simple review process for sensitive topics.
The key is authorship. In the source interview, I described using a writer to interview employees and turn their existing ideas into multiple pieces of content. The team did not invent a voice for them. It recovered ideas they had already expressed and helped shape them for a public audience.
That distinction suggests practical safeguards: give contributors a chance to review work in their name, keep a record of the original source material, and let them decline a topic that does not fit their expertise or comfort.
Choose a focused place to learn
Do not begin with every social network. Pick the place where the people you want to reach already have relevant conversations, then learn the norms of that place.
In 2022, the program I discussed concentrated on LinkedIn because the early participants already had momentum and saw stronger engagement there. That was a context-specific choice, not a permanent platform prescription. The useful principle is focus: one place, a regular practice, and enough time to understand what is helpful to the audience.
The early scorecard should reflect that. Track whether participants are building a sustainable habit, producing clearer ideas, meeting relevant people, and receiving thoughtful replies. Audience size alone can reward the wrong behavior.
Let relationships compound before you demand revenue
An employee-led presence becomes more useful when colleagues support each other. Thoughtful engagement helps a relevant audience discover more than one person at the company. Over time, that creates a connected group of voices instead of one isolated spokesperson.
Revenue can follow, but it should be measured with care. In the source interview, I described asking prospective customers how they heard about the company at more than one point in the sales process. That created a clearer record than guessing from reach or likes.
Use the same discipline today. Define the question, capture the answer consistently, and compare it with qualitative evidence such as referrals, repeat conversations, and invitations to collaborate. Avoid claiming that a post caused a deal when the evidence only shows that it was one of several touchpoints.
A small pilot is enough to begin
You do not need a formal academy or a large budget to test this idea. Start with a small group, a clear period of commitment, lightweight support, and a review at the end.
Ask participants what helped them create, what felt forced, and where the organization made the work easier or harder. Look at the quality of the relationships and ideas that emerged. Then decide whether to continue, adjust, or expand.
The durable result is not a team that repeats company messaging more often. It is a group of people who can contribute useful ideas in public, build real trust, and make the organization more credible because its people are becoming more capable.
Continue learning
Explore why building an audience is a team sport and more of my interviews and teaching.