Why every company should have a Chief Advocacy Officer.
Tom Ridges, CEO and Founder of Herdify, on why advocacy deserves a seat at the leadership table - not a line in the marketing budget.
In this episode of Trusted Voices, the team sits down with Tom Ridges, CEO and Founder of Herdify, to make the case for treating advocacy as a company-wide discipline rather than a marketing programme. Tom argues that when trust and word-of-mouth are the biggest drivers of B2B growth, someone in the business needs to own them at a strategic level.
Together they explore what a Chief Advocacy Officer would actually be responsible for, why advocacy so often falls between marketing, sales and customer success, and how giving it clear ownership changes the way a company invests in its most credible voices.
About the guest
Tom Ridges is the CEO and Founder of Herdify, where he works on how social influence and word-of-mouth spread within communities. He brings a data-led perspective on why trust between customers is one of the most underappreciated engines of growth.
- Advocacy is strategic infrastructure, not a line in the marketing budget.
- Word-of-mouth and peer trust are among the biggest drivers of B2B growth.
- Advocacy needs a clear owner - it too often falls between marketing, sales and customer success.
- Giving advocacy leadership ownership changes how a company invests in its credible voices.