5 Tips to Turn Your Employees Into Brand Ambassadors
Brand ambassadors give you credibility, increase your reach and put a human face on your brand – and the more you have, the better. And guess what? Most of your best ambassadors could be right under your nose!
Here are five tips to turn your employees into brand ambassadors.
1. Help them
Don’t make your employees search for content to share. Regularly tell them about new initiatives and make sure they’re the first to hear about exciting company news.
If you share news with employees via email, include some suggested updates they can use on social media. Another good idea is to use a consistent hashtag that everyone knows to use.
2. Educate them
Your employees need to know your brand better than anyone. Make sure they understand what the business stands for and what its goals are, as well as important stories about the company’s history and founders.
It might also be a good idea to host a social media 101 class. Not everyone is comfortable with social media. For beginners, show them how to like your Facebook page, share your tweets and subscribe to your YouTube channel if you have one. For the intermediate, tell them how to embed your company videos and, for the advanced, help them with ways to promote their contributions to the company.
3. Include them
Here’s a guaranteed way to make sure employees share content: put them in it! If you’re making a video about the business, feature your own staff. If you’re writing a blog, profile or mention your employees or write about their success stories.
4. Let them drive
Make sure your social media policy encourages sharing and reduces fear. Yes it’s important to have guidelines, but don’t create so many rules that it deters employees from bothering to share. Letting employees share in their own way and style gives your brand more credibility and is more likely to resonate with the ambassador’s audience anyway.
5. Reward them
Giveaways like vouchers and merchandise are great, but even more important is praise. Make sure those employees who are doing a great job of promoting the company online are recognised. Mention them in staff meetings or feature them in your company updates. This makes people feel special and encourages a good culture.
It’s also important to keep them up to date with results. Share social media stats and web traffic info with them. This is a simple way to include employees and makes them much more likely to share in the future.
iFactory is a digital marketing agency in Brisbane, Australia. Get in touch if you want to find out about using brand ambassadors in your social media marketing.
