Just as people benefit from having champions who help guide their personal and professional successes, it’s no different for companies and organizations. Without trusted employee influencers singing the praises of your brand, products and services, profits may never meet expectations. Word-of-mouth is still one of the most powerful marketing strategies there is — that’s why companies not only court brand advocates from outside their ranks, but engage their employees as advocates too.
Studies have shown that employees are the most trusted when it comes to divulging information about an organization. This means that what they have to say carries a significant amount of weight. So, by using employees as brand ambassadors, you can leverage that weight to build your team culture and shape your organization’s image.
The Power of Sharing
Social media is an incredible way to share your company with the world, and to present yourself as a desirable employer to talented jobseekers. But to get noticed you’re going to have to cut through a whole lot of noise! You can do that by turning your employees into brand ambassadors. They can communicate and share the company’s vision on social media, on your employee engagement platform, and even 1:1 with their colleagues and friends.
Storytelling
There are plenty of ways to paint a picture of what working for your organization might be like, but an employee crafting it in their own words will more than likely resonate a lot more strongly, and connect with a wider audience, than any other way. It’s easy to mistrust a CEO or upper management telling you what life is like for the average employee at their company, but when it comes from the mouth of a team member, it is more likely to ring true.
Real Life Examples
Reading about the perks, benefits, and policies of a company is not quite the same as hearing an employee tell you what they are, and how they affect them personally. Engaged employees willingly share their real experiences of what it’s like to work for the organization, helping to humanize things and setting the tone of a positive company culture.
Increasing Brand Awareness
You can always increase employer brand awareness through traditional public relations, but there is a certain amount of authenticity that an employee endorsement can offer which these more traditional methods cannot. Employee brand ambassadors will not only make your brand more visible — they get 561% more engagement on social media posts compared to the same post shared by their company. Those numbers are hard to ignore.
Taking Part in the Conversation
Social media platforms and employee engagement technology, like Inspirus Connects, are available whether or not your company is using them. That means conversations about your employee experience are likely taking place on them right now. An employee brand ambassador can take part in that conversation and make sure it’s fairer and more balanced.
Shattering Negative Perceptions
In spite of many companies’ best efforts, and regardless of what the truth may or may not be, there are times when a damaging negative perception can have an impact. An employee brand ambassador, with an intimate knowledge of your company’s employee experience, can help remedy this issue by speaking up your behalf.
Using your employees as brand ambassadors makes sense. After all, who is more closely linked to your brand or better understands its inherent value — along with the strengths and benefits of your products and services — than your employees? Leveraging employee advocacy is a smart tactic to share your company’s value and purpose, and can help to optimize your company’s internal brand.
Topics: authenticity, culture, team culture
