Dan Shepherd talks about the surprising results of the agency’s employee advocacy programme
What if someone told you there’s a tool out there that helps you raise your brand’s profile, win new business, and boost team collaboration and motivation… and all for a fraction of the cost of conventional advertising?
Sure, we’d be sceptical too if we hadn’t been convinced by our co-founder, Dan Shepherd. That’s why, in spring 2025, we launched our first employee advocacy programme. Nine months on and it’s been a resounding success: We hit all our goals – and discovered some unexpected benefits to employee advocacy, too.
This stuff is too good not to share, and we’re generous like that, so I sat down with Dan to get his insights on the programme from a leadership perspective. If you’re an education leader considering employee advocacy for your organisation in 2026, don’t miss the inside scoop on the Hubbub journey.
Planting the first seeds of employee advocacy
When Dan first started thinking about employee advocacy, Hubbub Labs’ LinkedIn presence looked like most other agencies: semi-consistent brand posts and fairly flat engagement. The team had personal profiles, but most never logged on; some were lurkers, but not active posters.
In Dan’s years of experience with community marketing, he’d seen firsthand how powerfully people connect with student ambassadors, alumni voices and authentic stories. In the B2B sphere, he knew that the strongest presences on LinkedIn weren’t brand accounts, but personal profiles of professionals talking about what they cared about and how they work. He’d also noticed other brands’ advocacy programmes, and could see how effective they were.
“When I started to notice lots of people from the same organisations posting consistently, and talking about the success they’d had, that’s when I thought to myself – our team could do the same. Connecting with other people, showing their expertise, talking about their jobs, their interests – showing their human side,” he explains.
Creating the conditions for success
Lots of founders can see the value in employee advocacy, but when it comes to trusting employees enough to represent the agency in their own voices, doubt can creep in. After all, you’re giving up some control. What if there’s inconsistent messaging? What about reputational risk?
None of this was a concern for Dan. “We’re a small organisation,” he says, “We have a very flexible and trusting culture, so I wasn’t too worried about any of that. To be honest, my biggest concern was that people wouldn’t be up for it.”
With that in mind, Dan was clear on two things from the start. The first and most important was that participation had to be optional. “We don’t have any right to people’s personal channels,” he stresses, “We can’t dictate what they post – they’ve got to want to participate. We can’t force employees to spam their own accounts with branded posts.”
This approach shaped Dan’s second decision: to step back from leading the employee advocacy programme himself. “I didn’t want it to feel like people were doing it because they were worried about what I would think if they didn’t,” he explains.
Instead, the programme was employee-led, developmental and very much optional. We kicked off with training and brainstorming sessions, put lots of support in place and gave people an incentive to participate. Within that framework, there was a lot of autonomy for both individuals and the team.
Still, Dan wasn’t sure how people would respond. Would people actually post? Would it be performative or lose momentum?
Instead, what happened surprised him – and all of us.
A positive response from the team – and our clients
Team members who had described themselves as uncomfortable, even reluctant, when it came to LinkedIn, began posting. And some of those posts achieved results beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.
“We had a few viral posts early on,” Dan says, “which was fun and unexpected. Other agencies were messaging me saying, “The stuff your team is doing on LinkedIn is great.”
Clients were also noticing and approaching us, asking for more work directly in response to our posts. “Our content strategist, Taylor, posted about influencer marketing,” Dan explains, “and a client forwarded me the post the following day, asking us to create influencer marketing guidelines for their organisation.”
And the impact wasn’t just external: We set up a Slack channel where colleagues could see each other’s posts and give feedback, where there was a lot of mutual encouragement and support. The employee advocacy programme had quietly evolved into something unexpected: a community-building tool for this remote-first agency.
“It’s not just a replacement for advertising,” Dan reflects, “It’s also a tool for professional development, wellness and company culture. It’s a very holistic programme in that sense.”
Staying connected while taking a break
Halfway through the programme, Dan went on paternity leave, stepping away from both the day-to-day running of the agency and the employee advocacy initiative he had put into motion.
“It’s always hard taking that step back,” he acknowledges, “but I wasn’t too worried. It was my second paternity leave, and I knew everything was in safe hands at Hubbub.”
What he didn’t expect was how the employee advocacy programme would change his experience of being away from work and the team. “It definitely made me feel more connected. I had a sense of what was going on without being in the day-to-day.”
Looking back now, it’s clear to Dan that, alongside an evolution in Hubbub’s own marketing, there’s been a shift in how the team connects with each other and with their clients. “As people share more openly online, we’re seeing closer, more personal relationships between colleagues, as well as improved connections with clients.”
For Dan, the programme acted as a window back into the team, and gave him the confidence that the project he started was continuing without him and thriving independently.
How employee advocacy changed Hubbub for the better
Account managers have strengthened their client relationships through openness and authenticity, creatives are showcasing their expertise and experience – and everybody wins.
Perhaps most importantly, Dan sees something many founders quietly fear – employees becoming more visible, more employable, more independent – not as a risk, but as a success.
He isn’t worried about team members leaving as he’s confident in the agency he’s built alongside co-founder George Chilton. “Hubbub is a great place to work, so I’m not worried about losing team members. That said, if people do decide to move on, I feel proud we’ve given them the confidence and created the opportunity for them to raise their profile.”
Dan’s advice for other leaders: Go for it
To round off, I asked Dan what advice he would give himself if he could go back nine months, when he was on the edge of starting the employee advocacy programme.
“There are things I would refine,” he says, “More specific skills workshops upfront in writing for social media or designing carousels, perhaps.” Fundamentally, though, he wouldn’t change his decision to go ahead with the programme.
“I’d tell myself how successful it’s going to be—and to definitely go ahead with it.”
For Hubbub Labs, the employee advocacy programme started as an experiment in visibility, but over the last nine months, it’s become a way of reinforcing agency culture and team connection, as well as blossoming into a new service for the agency. We’re now supporting clients with setting up and running their own employee advocacy programmes.
For a founder who was inspired by his belief in community, the journey has come full circle.
