allaboutadvocacy.com

Effective Advocacy Programs

   Jeremiah Owyang, formerly of Forrester and now at Altimeter Group, recently posted some helpful tips on building a successful Advocacy Program on his blog.  They are worth reviewing for those advocates among us.

Here is a brief rundown (paraphrased) on the 9 ideas that went into his checklist.

1.       Get your internal officers onboard  to deal with the “raw” discussions that will be coming your way from those noisy and vocal advocates you have enlisted and engaged. It is not as easy as it may sound.

2.       Find credible advocates. Make sure they are the real thing and not posers with no influence or credibility. Make sure they have a platform and are highly regarded.

3.       Disclose disclose disclose. Any advocay program should be upfront about the relationship between the company and advocate.

4.       It’s their agenda, stupid. This is not about your company’s agenda so make sure that advocates are fully comfortable with you because their reptuation and yours are at stake.

5.       Recognize your advocates but no pay day here. Owyang recommends letting advocates you enlist be beta testers or publicly thanking them or give them access to events. 

6.       Give advocates platforms to speak, whether  it is your web site, social networks or letting others know that they are to be trusted.

7.       Listen and act. Do something about what your advocates are saying about your products and services.  Take their advice.

8.       Turn them into a community. Figure out how to help them band together .

9.       Measure your advocacy program and provide results.