Even if you don’t get the most popular influencers on social media or the A-list celebrity endorsers, you can still have an army of strong brand ambassadors. The source? Your workforce. Your employees, the insiders, the ones who know your business as much as you do, are the perfect advocates for what you do and offer. But of course, there needs to be intentionality on your part, as the business leader. You should be able to bring them into that habit and commitment of representing your brand well. That said, here are some strategies in turning your average employees into effective brand ambassadors:
Let them catch your vision
Your vision may be posted on the hallways or in every bulletin board scattered in your office, but if you don’t reiterate it in your conversations or meetings, it will only remain a poster. They will never take it to heart. They won’t reflect it in their service. They won’t have a story to tell their family and friends. So seize every opportunity to talk about your vision. Perhaps you can make it a habit before the start of a new endeavour, say, a marketing campaign or a sales pitch, that you’ll give a pep talk revolving around your company vision. Or when you give someone a promotion, ask them how they can help in realising your long-term goals. Or when you and your top executives gather for an informal dinner, talking about personal career aspirations, challenge them to align theirs with the organisation’s vision. As you inject the vision in every opportunity, over time, this will be instilled in their minds that it will be natural for them to talk about it and show it in their service.
Involve your employees in the planning
All too often, it’s only the heads of the departments that actively participate in company activities. Precisely because they should lead by example. However, what normally happens is, the rest of the employees remain to be very passive. And if they can’t participate actively in internal matters, how then can they be encouraged to go out and tell the world about your business? The key to getting the buy-in of other team members is to get them on board in planning opportunities. For instance, in your next team-building activity, form a committee who will scout for venues. And then another who will brainstorm the theme. And then another who will conceptualise your custom team jackets and find embroidery printing suppliers. The idea is that the more that they’re immersed in internal affairs, the deeper their commitment to the organisation becomes. The more natural it will be for them to be a mouthpiece for your brand.
Provide training for employees
Sometimes, there are employees who know your vision well, yet refuse to be advocates, simply because they fear that they might say or do something wrong. They might want to share on social media your new product line, but they’re afraid that there is some information they shouldn’t disclose. In these cases then, all you have to do is equip them. Give them guidelines for social media posting. Let them know what they can and can’t post. Inform them of the kind of language they should use. And to make them really good representatives of your brand, empower them with high-quality communications and personality development training.
The Perfect Mouthpiece for Your Brand
Again, you don’t need popular figures to promote your brand. Just the people who know your business well is more than enough. Tap into the best ambassadors of your brand, your employees.