Activate Your Employees As Brand Ambassadors

Employment Branding Tips to Finding New Talent

In a climate of ever expanding social media, everyone is now more or less a brand advocate. Some companies have spotted the leverage, and are now relying on their own employees to promote products, services, or even the company’s culture in a way that is native and evergreen.

Who needs a marketing budget when employees can enjoy doing it in their free time?

Turning employees into brand ambassadors has emerged as a covert method to acquire new talent, and with the plethora of online social media and communicative tools available, it’s now easier than ever.  Team members who are seen to publically express their passion and value for their organization are likely to draw the attention of new talent, especially those within their network.

Many data analysis studies show that critical talent tends to come from the same background, whether this is an educational institution or another company, finding new talent through current employee brand ambassadorship can be a valuable tool.

Shaping current employees into tomorrow’s brand ambassadors

Influencing business values in your employees is the first step to transforming them into brand ambassadors. Staff won’t represent a company that they don’t understand or don’t feel valued by, and HR must work to fully engage staff in all areas of the company before turning them into individuals who can successfully market the brand.

These traits can be implemented through policy training, webinars and community posts that aim to connect employees with the very depths of their company. Even if doing so does not produce a pool of ambassadors, it will inform and engage your workforce.

Talent to talent selling: social media ambassadorship

Before encouraging employees to share their brand online, HR must develop guidelines for what is, and isn’t, an acceptable from of online ambassadorship. This is critical to avoid potential controversy!

Before companies can make use of brand promoters, they have to reach a certain level of transparency. It means trusting people to speak for you and granting them the freedom to do so. As we all know, this did not end well on a few occasions 😉  Not all brand advocates speak about milk and honey – some thrive on highlighting the negative aspects of their daily hustle with either an overzealous boss or an oversized workload.

The trick is finding the balance between warning staff of the ramifications of publishing negative speech without stifling their ability to sell their brand in their own words, a touch which can add a lot of personality in an environment dominated by copy and paste ads.

Outside of the realm of contemporary social media tactics, many brand ambassadors have taken the steps to establish blogs related to their daily operations, pulling in traffic from both potential talent and current employees to further the brand’s image and create higher levels of engagement.

Taking it to the next level, these posts could be shared with third party websites, linking back to your company!

Just like social media sharing, this method can be useful when acquiring new talent, as it furthers your specific reach within your industry and local community.

The benefits of relying on employees’ social engagement for advocacy, include increased awareness of the brand – as well as a better positioning in search engine results. It also makes it easier for customers to address their questions and receive fast answers from your employees.

Even HR can extract some benefit from allowing the workforce to go social.

Future leaders can be recruited from the ranks of those that show a predisposition towards being more involved with the well-being of the company. When choosing to create a foundation of brand ambassadors, asses your workforce to determine who would be the most likely to reflect the company image in the best way. This shouldn’t just apply to high-level executives, as fresher talent can also draw in new potential candidates.

Whether you are an ambitious HR Pro or an employee interested in work that is fun and rewarding, the idea of native brand advocating deserves your attention. Begin by outlining your online ambassadorship policy, and implement these guidelines to those you perceive as the most marketable individuals for your company.

© New To HR