Here’s Why You Need an Employee Ambassador Program

“Our employees are our most valuable assets.”

Many companies repeat these words because they know that an employee keeps the company going, maintains its competitiveness and financial position, and builds relationships with customers. They are the key drivers of corporate and employer brands because their perception of the company can either enhance its brand value or pull it down.

Engaged employees can make influential ambassadors for your company and brand. They know your company better than anyone else, feel motivated to give their best effort every day, and will willingly champion you to anyone who will listen. They are much more valuable as brand advocates, champions, and ambassadors than highly-paid spokespeople since they can tell genuine stories about your brand and what makes it so awesome. All of this will help you win more customers and employees and enhance your brand’s value in its industry and marketplace. 

But who exactly is an employee brand ambassador?

What do they do?

And why should you leverage employees as brand ambassadors?

To discover the answers, read on!

 

Who is an Employee Brand Ambassador?

Anyone who works for your company at any level can be a brand ambassador and advocate. This means the experienced CEO as well as the least-experienced intern. Your sales reps can be your brand ambassadors, and so can financial analysts, bookkeeping team leaders, HR managers, admin assistants, engineers, and general managers. Any of these people can talk about your brand on social media, building it up and promoting it with very little effort on your part.

Per this report, 50% of employees post pictures, videos, or messages about their employer. Another 33% of them do so proactively and unprompted, meaning they talk about their work even if the employer doesn’t encourage them. In addition, 39% of workers have openly praised their companies, while 16% have shared criticism or some form of negative comments online. In short, employees talk! The question for you is – will they talk about you in positive or negative ways? Will they be your brand ambassadors or brand critics?

Many factors contribute to creating employee brand ambassadors. One is a formal employee brand ambassador program wherein the company implements deliberate strategies to encourage employee brand activism and advocacy. Another is strong, ethical leadership. When the company’s leaders are trustworthy and show by words and actions that they themselves are brand ambassadors, they are more likely to get more employees to join in their crusade. A strong reputation, transparent communications, growth opportunities, and fair policies create a positive perception of the company and encourage employees to become its brand ambassadors.

 

What do Employee Brand Ambassadors Do?

Employee brand ambassadors help to position the company in a positive light by sharing their opinions, perspectives, and stories about their work experiences. Effective employee brand ambassadors know exactly what the organization’s brand stands for. They understand its values, vision, and mission, and are able to communicate this information to customers, potential employees, vendors, etc. They build brand recognition and awareness online and can position the company’s expertise and leadership to external stakeholders.

They may post messages or pictures about the company and thus contribute to its online brand presence. Their content appears genuine simply because they are real people and because it gives the impression that they enjoy their work and appreciate the opportunity to work with the company. Such real human interest stories grab eyeballs because they don’t appear staged, faked, or paid for – which is exactly why so many PR “spin doctors” fail to sway public opinion about a firm or brand.

 

Why You Need an Employee Brand Ambassador Program

Whether your people are praising your HR policies on social media, criticizing your training and development programs, or expressing their opinions about your recruitment cycles, you need to remember that they will talk about you. The challenge is to get more of them to say good things about you. In other words, you want more ambassadors and fewer critics. But how do you achieve this goal without being heavy-handed? How can you create more employee activists and get them to outnumber your employee detractors?

The answer lies in providing all employees with “carrots” so they want to promote your brand online with minimal prompting from you. If you can help them feel invested in their work and show them ways to feel pride in the company, you will be able to develop more employee brand ambassadors whose positive voices will drown out negative chatter. And the best way to do all of this is to establish a formal employee brand ambassador program.

Such a program focuses on making your employees your biggest cheerleaders by encouraging them to share content about the company on social media. It also gives them the appropriate resources so they can easily promote your brand online. One example is sending out a regular newsletter about the latest initiatives, campaigns, product launches, or blog posts. With the newsletter, they won’t have to go searching for information. They will also feel encouraged to share it with the world to promote your brand and enhance its value, presence, and visibility.

 

Conclusion

As we have seen in this article, your employee brand ambassadors talk about your corporate and employer brand in positive ways. These are the employees who are engaged at work, are highly motivated, and believe in and live your company’s values.

Why not leverage this powerful force to promote your brand and broaden its influence? If you have not yet considered establishing an employee brand ambassador program, we highly encourage you to start immediately. And if you require support or advice about designing the program, contact us.

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