Employee advocacy is hard work. There are tools that make it easier, but whenever such tools are available, some organizations stop doing the hard work altogether. The figure because they have deployed the tool, they have ticked the advocacy box and can move on to other things.

So it is with tools of just about any kind. The glut of eye-searingly bad infographics can be attributed in large part to the availability of tools like Piktochart, Canva, and Venngage. There is nothing wrong with these tools, mind you, and in the hands of someone with the right skills, they can help churn out some dazzling graphics. An entire movement has arisen opposed to PowerPoint because of the rising flood of mind-numbingly bad presentations we all have to sit through. But blaming PowerPoint for bad presentations is like blaming canvas for bad art. “Garbage in, garbage out” doesn’t apply only to coding.

The rise of employee advocacy has spurred the launch of several businesses designed to support it. Bambu, GaggleAMP, DynamicSignal, and others make it easy for companies to share content with employees, who can then quickly and easily share with their online communities. Enabling sharing is important, given that year after year the Edelman Trust Barometer reinforces the notion that consumers trust front-line employees and internal subject matter experts more than just about anybody else in the company.

These tools—like PowerPoint and Piktochart—are great, when combined with the other work needed to inspire employees to become ambassadors for their companies. (Full disclosure: I use GaggleAMP, and it’s a terrific product.) In a vacuum, though, their effectiveness is severely limited. So what does it take for employees to undertake advocacy efforts on behalf of their employers?

The right culture

No matter how awesome an advocacy tool is, a culture in which employees feel demeaned, belittled, marginalized, or unappreciated won’t lead to many employees wanting to do something extra for the company. When staff are posting derogatory messages to Glassdoor, it’s not likely they’ll tell their friends and family about all the wonderful things the company is asking them to share. Before undertaking an advocacy effort, make sure your employees will actually want to participate.

Companies with great employee cultures are starting to share those cultures publicly, like brewer Sam Adams:

A recent FastCompany article explored the benefits of “employer branding,” which provides ready resources for job-seekers researching your organization and creates a feedback loop with “consumers becoming candidates.”

If you don’t have a culture that could be marketed like this, you might want to consider holding off on an employee ambassador program until you do.

Access to knowledge

One reasons leaders think all they need to do is implement an advocacy tool and call it a day is that the tool does all the phrasing for the employee. There’s no need to worry that anybody will say the wrong thing or word it awkwardly. Companies that want real ambassadors who can wield real influence need to make it easy for employees to learn about the company’s products and services as well as its initiatives, its positions on issues, and its other activities. How they acquire this knowledge needs to accommodate their preferences, ranging from white paper-like reports to short videos and other snackable content.

By way of example, take a look at IBM’s YouTube channel, Think Academy, a collection of videos designed to “educate employees, clients, partners and friends on growth topics critical to the company’s success.” For employees, Think Academy is also available as a mobile app (right).

A single resource where employees can find the company’s official statement of record on each of the issues it faces is another important component of an advocacy program’s learning effort. For employees who have questions, there should be a resource where they can ask and get authoritative answers (such as from a group of volunteer subject matter experts who are willing to be available to address questions).

Inspire sharing

Inspiration in this case means something more than a rousing pep talk. Ensuring employees feel confident to share company information is a key to getting employees to do it. In too many organizations, a lack of trust in employees leads to the creation of canned content and a sigh of relief as leaders say, “As long as employees share what was written for them, they can’t cause any trouble.” Employees sharing canned content isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and in some cases when they just don’t feel comfortable explaining a complex issue, they still bring credibility to the table when they share the company’s official materials.

Wouldn’t it be better, though, if leaders and employees could believe employees are competent and qualified to address these topics? It wouldn’t take especially onerous research to find out where employees are weak in their understanding of topics and issues, then provide learning materials to strengthen their understanding. (Heck, that’s what taking IABC’s Accreditation exam did for me—even though I passed, it exposed to me my weaknesses, which led me to focus my professional development activities on those areas.) While I’d rather have employees sharing canned information than no employee advocacy at all, I’d much rather have an informed employee population that can speak accurately for themselves.

An ambassador program should include a policy that asks employees not to speak on topics about which they don’t feel comfortable, but it should also offer the resources to help them gt up to speed, should they so desire.

Gamification could help in this effort, too, helping employees see just how knowledgeable they are on a given topic, boosting their confidence in sharing.

Provide the tools

It is at this stage that it can bolster an advoacy effort by providing tools that make sharing easy. A single tool is most likely inadequate, since it won’t accommodate the needs of every employee under every circumstance. As I say, I think GaggleAMP is a fantastic tool, but in a vacuum it (or its competitors) won’t make as big an impact as a suite of tools would. For example, push notifications to employees’ mobile devices of important breaking news the company wants amplified.

Ongoing communication is important for participants in an employee advocacy program. Internal ambassadors need to know not just the latest company news, but also information about changes to social networks, new resources, and other information that will help them take better advantage of the channels through which they share.

There is also a dearth of tools that enable employee-to-employee sharing of this content. Advocating on behalf of the company with fellow employees is also important, especially as part of the effort to improve overall employee business literacy and expand the advocacy program. Yet few organizations have grasped the potential of internal social networks (like Yammer) and collaboration tools (like Slack) as a way of building understanding and advocacy within the organization.

Emulate external advocacy programs

Outside the employee advocacy bubble, advocates and ambassadors tend to be people who are both passionate and well-informed. They are prepared to talk about their favorite products, entertainers, social causes, and presidential candidates. (Been on Facebook lately?) The idea that we can bring the same kinds of influence these ambassadors have to an employee effort simply by crafting pre-written messages is foolhardy. There’s nothing wrong with pre-written messages, but only in the context of a more comprehensive effort that informs, educates, prepares, and supports ambassadors who actually want to talk about the company.