I am looking for any helpful resources on referral marketing programs and best practices when starting an advocacy program, ect.
It is difficult to answer without more information. The words you chose are confusing.
Customer Advocacy is very different from Online Marketing or Referral Marketing. It is about making sure the customer gets the best service from the company. It is very specialized customer service.
Are you looking to grow a business or brand or shape policy. Building a brand through customer advocates (what I would probably match referral marketing) is very different from issue advocacy.
That said, companies engage in grassroots/ grasstops advocacy all the time. Getting both employees and customers (whether they are other businesses or individual consumers) to weigh in on how policies might impact specific industries is important, and can be critical for startups and small businesses that need legislative or regulatory changes to stay in business.
I have created and executed advocacy campaigns for both B2B and B2C businesses. They are very different depending on what kind of customer you are trying to reach and who you are trying to influence.
There are a lot of great tools and resources out there, but every campaign is going to be different. And I would steer you in different places depending on what exactly it is you are looking for.
I am happy to talk about this further. I think I can help get you the information you are looking for.