Brand Advocacy: How to Advance Your Brand by Helping Other Brands Win

Assuming that you’re a music lover like myself, you may have also noticed that an interesting thing often tends to happen throughout the years when listening to some of your favorite songs from your childhood.

As the years go by and you grow older, you’ll occasionally find yourself discovering either a new meaning of a lyric, a word in the song that you hadn’t noticed before, or a message within the song that had never resonated with you until many years later.

Recently, as I was listening to a song that was all over the airwaves during my childhood, one particular lyric in the song really struck me and resonated with me in a way that it never had before. In her critically acclaimed song, Ex-Factor, Grammy award-winning artist Lauryn Hill asks, “Tell me who I have to be, to get some reciprocity.”

Reciprocity. In today’s dog eat dog market where many corporate executives spend a considerable amount of their day plotting ways to crush their competitors—reciprocity, at least as it pertains to acts of kindness, is a word rarely used in business lexicon.

Notwithstanding, if your brand is currently having a difficult time gaining traction; brand advocacy reciprocity could very well be the thing that helps get it over the hump.

What is brand advocacy?

With AI being the biggest topic in Silicon Valley at the moment, can you think of something that either a CEO, company manager, or any other C-suite executive is capable of doing that AI isn’t?

Well, for as adept as AI is these days, one thing that AI absolutely isn’t capable of doing today—and probably won't ever be capable of doing in the foreseeable future (unless technology advances by eons), is reciprocate a kind gesture from the heart.

Which is often the result when brand advocacy occurs.

Brand advocacy is the act of one brand randomly lending public support towards another brand without a direct transaction being involved.

The power of brand advocacy

Behind the gruff exterior of even some of the most stoic C-suite executives—still lies a human being. And unlike AI, algorithms, and automated machines—most human beings inherently feel compelled to reciprocate random acts of kindness when they are bestowed upon them.

For those whose job it is to oversee a brand, very few acts of kindness could compare to the joy experienced when having another brand publicly advocate for their own.

Eventually, your brand will run into plenty of competitors that will literally make it their business to put you out of business. So imagine one day logging on your favorite social media platform and seeing a notification that your brand has been tagged by another brand; consisting of that brand telling their followers how great your brand's offerings are.

Wouldn’t that just warm your heart? Better yet, wouldn’t it also compel you to publicly acknowledge that brand as well? Well, that my friend, is an example of the power of brand advocacy.

Ways to advocate for other brands

Just between you and me, let’s be honest, whenever you see that someone either liked, shared, or positively replied to one one your social media posts—doesn’t it make you feel just a little extra jovial? There’s no need to be ashamed. In fact, it’s quite natural.

That's because what makes social media so addictive to millions of people, is that it triggers a release of dopamine; which is a neurotransmitter that reinforces rewarding behaviors.

So, if casual social media scrolling could cause a release of dopamine that reinforces rewarding behaviors, we could infer that if your brand were to advocate for another brand on social media to your audience—which is essentially providing them free advertising, brand awareness, promotion, which often leads to more sales revenue—key decision makers of that brand would likely keep your brand in mind and would reciprocate the gesture.

“Brand advocacy is a direct path to the top of someone’s mind.” Says John Hall, co-founder of Calendar and author of the best-selling book, Top of Mind: Use Content To Unleash Your Influence And Engage Those Who Matter To You.

Thanks to social media, brand advocacy is easier today than it has ever been. From your brand’s or your personal social media account as founder, simply show support to brands that you admire publicly by recommending, sharing posts, or leaving positive comments under those brands posts on various social media platforms.

Or as founder, CEO, or brand manager, you could simply shout out a brand that you admire in an interview, on your blog, or on a podcast.

The only downside with brand advocacy is that you’re essentially putting you and your brand’s reputation on the line for another brand. So make certain that any brand you advocate for is a brand you genuinely trust and would be okay with your audience supporting.

As Hall warns, “Again, though, authenticity is key—to shill for a brand you don’t really care about in the hopes that the company’s leadership will notice you is shortsighted. You may even end up damaging the credibility of the company. Which is the exact opposite of being helpful.”

Closing thoughts

One of my all time favorite quotes from the late Zig Ziglar best sums up the positive impact brand advocacy could have on your brand, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”

Ultimately, being helpful is a gift within itself. Sure, by helping other brands by publicly advocating and referring to them—many will reciprocate the gesture; which could instantly help grow your brand.

Nevertheless, even if some brands do not reciprocate the gesture, the act of being helpful by supporting other brands that you admire is truly a reward within itself that almost always pays off in a myriad of ways.

If you found this information valuable and would like further help advancing your brand, contact our office today to schedule a complimentary client consultation.