B2B Marketing Communication: Digital Employee Advocacy on LinkedIn

The topic of the master’s thesis is digital employee advocacy on LinkedIn. The purpose of this thesis is to provide a comprehensive insight into the development and implementation of social media strategy in a business-to-business company that considers the use of employee advocacy on LinkedIn. This thesis aims to generate relevant knowledge that is applicable for companies in a B2B context.
The aim is to identify measures that companies should take to involve employees on the LinkedIn platform. The main research question is therefore: “Which communication enhancing measures do companies selling to businesses need to set in order to involve employees in the development and maintenance of social media strategy on the business network LinkedIn?”
The work is based on both theoretical and empirical research. The theoretical section analyses sources on social media strategies, digital employee advocacy and LinkedIn. The literature review provides an overview of the current state of research on employee advocacy for business-to-business companies on LinkedIn. The results of the theoretical analysis inform the empirical study. The empirical study is based on semi-structured, guided interviews with marketing managers, which were analysed using the MAXQDA coding process. A total of 16 interviews were conducted.
The results show that training adapted to the level of knowledge of the employees in the area of social media and clear guidelines are the prerequisites for user-generated content, a form of employee advocacy. Facilitative, transparent and awareness-raising internal communication are also crucial measures for success. The establishment of a corporate influencer program is another measure. The creation of valuable and interesting content is also crucial. Managers should act as role models, mistakes should be allowed, teamwork should be encouraged and clear objectives around employee advocacy are essential.