Brand Ambassador: Someone who embodies the brand he or she is endorsing, providing the brand with credible promotion and visibility.
This sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? And while every small business owner would love to find several Brand Ambassadors underneath their Christmas tree, it’s not that easy. No matter how much you beg, Santa isn’t going to wrap one up and stuff him down the chimney and you can’t buy one from a catalog.
Brand Ambassadors, also called evangelists, don’t just show up on your doorstep and shout your small business praises like a medieval town crier, yet they are all around you – maybe even closer than you think. And with a little work, some investment in time and a dash of patience, you can cultivate your own brand ambassadors that will serve as enthusiastic champions for your cause.
Having brand ambassadors is another way of saying there are people who are passionate about your brand. This passion can’t be bought, sold or dictated – it must come organically from the person who is endorsing your brand. Otherwise, the testimonial won’t be authentic and people will see straight through it like a politician’s latest excuse. An authentic brand evangelist is more effective than paid ads, company sponsored blogs or social media business pages.
So who can be a brand ambassador? There are three basic types - the business owner, the Employee and the customer. For the sake of brevity, this blog will examine how you can empower the employee to become effective and successful brand ambassadors for your business.
Not only are employees your most valuable assets, but potential customers will view them as a more credible source than owners or senior managers. Customers tend to believe what employees say about a business because they have less at stake than upper management.
Employees have their own networks, both online and offline. Finding creative ways to tap into those networks can give your business a huge boost in awareness and visibility.
Turning employees into brand ambassadors can be nerve-racking at times. It’s a leap of faith to turn an employee loose and speak about your product or service. You can’t control what they say or write, and there’s always the potential for something to go wrong. Many business owners feel the need to control everything. Brand ambassadorship isn’t a perfect system and if you’re looking for perfection, you’ll always be disappointed. You’ll need to loosen the reins with employee evangelists and give them room to speak in their own voice. Otherwise, their credibility will be shot and the whole purpose will be defeated.
The obvious way to make sure employees are saying good things about your business is to treat them right and have solid business practices in place that all employees can believe in. And if you take the time to properly identify the prospective brand ambassadors and empower them, the chances of something going wrong are greatly reduced.
Identifying Key Brand Ambassadors – Look for enthusiastic, motivated employees with large networks in their social media circles, clubs and other areas of influence. Just because someone has 1,000 friends on Facebook doesn’t mean they have any sway over those people. Take time to research how other people interact with the employee on his/her social media networks before you approach them about taking a more significant role.
Also, just because an employee is influential with a large network, it doesn’t mean they understand the objective of the brand. They need to ‘get’ the brand in order to talk about it.
Since blogging and posting social media updates takes solid writing skills, make sure the employee has an adequate grasp of grammar and can clearly communicate his/her ideas. Even the best of intentions can backfire if the written word gets misinterpreted by the reader.
How to Empower – There are many ways to motivate employees to become successful brand ambassadors. Perks, money, promotions, titles; all of these can motivate employees to sing your praises. Some will do it just because they believe in the company and have pride in their work. Others will become very successful evangelists for a chance at a promotion.
Whatever means of motivation you use to get an employee to become an evangelist, you need to provide them with the tools to be effective. Some companies allow certain employees to break new information first by leaking it through Twitter. Others prepare guides and statistics for their employees.
Trust the employee enough to put the information in their own words. If you try to dictate too much what they say or write, it will come across stale and calculated – then credibility will be lost. Just make sure the information is factual, accurate and consistent with the overall brand image.
©Lonnie Ledford 2017 All Rights Reserved.
