Did you know that people rate employees as more credible than the CEOs of most companies? Many Americans trust what employees say about a company than what company’s leadership says. What does this mean to you?

It’s your job as a leader to strive for and promote the company’s goals to your team and other people beyond the company. That’s why you’ll want your team to be employee advocates, favorably representing the company online and beyond. Employee advocacy is an increasingly popular business strategy that helps companies boost their marketing efforts and increase revenue through largely word-of-mouth efforts. If you’re wondering whether employee advocacy is something you should look into, here are some ways managers can encourage their employees to become vocal company advocates:

Encourage social sharing. The first step to increasing employee advocacy is to encourage your own team to let others know on social networks what’s great about the company they work for. That could include sharing photos of philanthropic efforts or re-tweeting or sharing a company post. Just be sure to establish a thorough list of rules for employees interacting with others on social media to ensure that employees reinforce the company’s brand.

Brainstorm content ideas with the whole team

Why should marketing be limited to a single department within the company? Even if you’re not involved in the marketing side of the company, you can still work together to offer the marketing team greater insight for the blogs and social posts they produce. For instance, you could schedule a monthly meeting with the marketing team to give your own team the opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas for new pathways to driving up your web traffic, converting more web visitors into paying customers, and building relationships with existing clients. Rather than simply hoping the marketing department is fully aware of all the wonderful things going on in your company (and what the company is doing for the community and its current clientele), your team might have awesome ideas that the marketing pros might not have considered yet. Giving your team a voice in the process will inherently motivate them to become active employee advocates because they’ll feel more personally and professionally invested in the company’s success in all facets of the business.