#FPF – Week 2
It’s FPF and today, we’re talking about building brand ambassadors from within your organization.
Whether you have hundreds of employees or just a couple of interns, the individuals that work for your company interact with people on a level far beyond your brand’s general area of influence. What are they saying about your business when they’re out at a networking event or at dinner with friends? What are they posting about your business on social media? Are they answering the “so what do you do for work?” question in a way that gets people excited to learn more? If the answer to any of these questions was unclear, now is the time to transform your team into a passionate group brand ambassadors.
Branding is so much more than a logo on a business card… It’s the emotional connection you have to a company. It’s the feeling of becoming a better athlete the second you put on your Reebok “Pump” sneakers (I know I’m not the only one that had them…), it’s the feeling of summer time that comes over you when you crack open a bottle of Coca-Cola… And by enlisting brand evangelists within your organization, you allow that same type of personal connection to manifest itself for you.
While you can’t always control the “messenger”, there are definitely ways to influence the message being sent along the way. It all starts with open, honest communication with your team. Speak from the heart and let them know their opinion is valid and appreciated. They will in turn appreciate you and have a deeper respect the company.
Brand Building from Within
Create a culture where management is accessible and approachable. Ensure that workers are treated with respect and are recognized for their contributions. Once the respect and trust has been earned, they will be more passionate about the brand they represent – spreading that enthusiasm to others within their areas of influence.
In that vein, here are some ways to bolster communications with your team members, and at the same time create passionate brand ambassadors:
Identify Who is Primed to Help Right Now
Share “insider info” with these individuals for posting on their blogs or socials before the news is sent to the mainstream media. By doing this, your content will have a better chance of going viral, plus your employees will feel valued that you trusted them with the news before others.
Use Analytics and Listening Tools
It’s important to know if each brand ambassador is helping (or potentially hurting) your brand. Make sure your company has some sort of way to monitor your brand and measure the results of the items being syndicated with tools such as Google Alerts – which sends you emails, as new content with your pre-determined criteria enters their index.
Without proper metrics and listeners in place, you’ll never fully know if all the hard work is actually paying off and how to duplicate those successes in the future – additionally, having these items in place will allow you to most effectively see what information could be used to improve correspondence with clients and customers in the future. (remember last week’s message about marketing in the year you live in?)
This is Bigger than You…
Let’s face it – whether you want to believe it or not, your brand is no longer in just your marketing team’s hands. Today’s employees are more technically astute, culturally diverse and well connected than ever before (and in many cases, more connected than you are). The more someone within the organization feels valued, respected and empowered, the more they have the ability to take your company to new heights in a very short period of time. So above all, treat your team members well, communicate with them regularly and follow the above steps to transform them into passionate brand ambassadors. Because if they’re not passionate about what you’re doing, how will anyone else ever be?
Thank you for reading and have a great weekend!
Kind Regards,
Jim @ Captivation