Instagram account showcasing employees takes on a bigger life

Advocate Health Care started an Instagram campaign, #IAmAdvocate, as a way to shine a spotlight on employees and the jobs they do. The effort put into each post has earned Advocate first place in the “Use of Instagram” category of PR Daily’s 2018 Digital PR & Social Media Awards.

Each post to Instagram is shared as a photo on the health care system’s Facebook page. (The posts are also shared internally through multiple channels.) The team started out seeking subjects for their photos; now employees nominate their colleagues. All this has happened in 18 months, demonstrating that a focus on employees is rarely a losing proposition. 

Advocate Health’s employees are on the front line, from nurses, doctors and volunteers to engineers, pharmacists, housekeepers, cooks and more. The team collects ideas for who to feature on a monthly basis, then visits the featured employees on-site to capture professional (but natural) photos and hear their stories firsthand. 

Often, subjects are selected based on the national “month”—Heart Month, for example (more than 20 cardiologists were featured) and during their Women’s Health and OB/GYN campaign (with the focus on labor and delivery staff). Three to five employee profile snapshots are shared weekly, and boosted with a small budget per day. 

The frequency of posting also enables the team to put the diversity of the workforce on display along with its values while reinforcing the organization’s strategic growth themes. Virtually every post earns healthy numbers of comments, likes and shares—and more than 1 million impressions throughout its lifetime.

Congratulations to the Advocate Health Care Public Affairs and Marketing team.