Today we’re going to wrap up this month’s series on how to make your employees love you and your brand.
Let’s jump into learning how to turn your employees into your brand’s best ambassadors.
Empowering your employees to represent and promote your company on social media is one of the simplest, most effective ways to expand your online reach. Aside from your former and existing clients, your employees are the most equipped to spread your company’s vision. They know your company and can give the “insider’s perspective.” They can humanize your brand. And they can share stories that will attract top-performers next time you’re looking to hire.
Six Tips For Creating An Effective Employee Ambassador Program
- Cast a vision. Every social media post made by your brand ambassadors should clearly communicate your company’s purpose, mission or values. Cast a clear vision to your employees that includes why your company exists, what it stands for, and what you want them to share in their social media posts. Make sure they know your brand vocabulary and brand voice, too. Social media provides the opportunity for employees to connect and share ideas even if they never work in the same place together and casting a clear vision to your whole team makes it easy for your employees to create posts that are cohesive with your company’s branding, voice, and mission.
- Use a content sharing program to simplify the process. Make it as easy as possible for employees to access your logo, key company images, etc. You may even want to have some pre-written social media posts on your intranet that employees can copy and paste onto their own social pages. This is especially effective when you have those team-building days—like when you participate in the color run or build a house for Habitat For Humanity or even when you host your annual holiday party. This gives those that don’t have strong writing skills pre-approved content that will position your company accurately in front of their audience.
- Designate a team leader. You don’t want someone to simply bark orders. You want to pick someone who has been with your business for a while already and has an understanding of the culture and vision of your company. This person will be the go-to for all of your employee brand ambassadors and will be able to help support and guide new employees who are just learning the ropes. You’ll also need to make sure to chose someone who will be able to step in when someone inevitably makes a mistake on social media. This person needs to be able to respond quickly and appropriately during these situations.
- Set them up for success. Make it easy for employees to connect with each other in the social sphere and engage with your brand. Create unique hashtags for your employees to use (i.e. Starbucks employees use #tobeapartner on Instagram to easily connect with other employees), host events where employees can take part in planning, branding, learning company history, etc. Also consider offering branded “swag” to make your employees feel more connected to the brand.
- Set expectations and reward employees. Your expectations for social media activity can be as simple or as complex as you decide they need to be. Whatever you decide, set clear expectations and consider rewarding employees with the best social media posts by reposting them on the company pages or by highlighting the best posts in your company newsletter or during staff meetings.
- Trust your employees. Allowing your employees to be themselves allows them to showcase what they love most about your company and possibly highlight things you never would have thought about highlighting. Encourage independence among your employee brand ambassador team and give them the freedom to share what it is about your company that allows them to be their best self.
Do you already have a system in place that encourages your employees to be brand ambassadors on social media?
If so, how have you built momentum? What has worked and what hasn’t for your brand ambassador team? If not, what questions do you still have? What’s holding you back from casting that vision to your employees and letting them run with it on social media? Let us know in the comments!
That’s it for this month but be sure and stay in touch with us. Next month we’ll be sharing a few of our favorite wacky tax write offs. Trust us, you don’t want to miss that!
