INTRODUCTION
[This post is part 1 in a series of posts related to Social Media-Based Brand Ambassadors. This post introduces the concept of social media-enabled brand ambassadors and sets the tone for the series of posts that will follow.]
We’ve heard ithundreds, maybe thousands of times – “Our employees are our greatestasset.” When it comes to business-speak,this phrase has become one of the most overused expressions in the trade. From annual reports to media interviews to companyrah-rah events, these words always find a way to make themselves at home. Yet no matter how trite we believe the phraseto be, it is true. There is no denyingthat in business there is little that can be done without human capital. That’s because regardless of technologicaladvancements or an organization’s name, size, products, or services, people buy from people! This point is especially critical in the post-OccupyWall Street era where humanity, honesty, and transparency havebecome the new expectation for business.
Many organizationshave known for a long time of the value that is created by employees thatevangelize on behalf of the organization. These employees are commonly referred to as brand ambassadors. Research and surveys have repeatedly found thatbrand ambassadors boost an organization’s reputation resulting in improved profitability. As a result of their excitement, knowledge, loyalty,and commitment to the organization and its products and services, brandambassadors create excitement and loyalty among customers. As such, brand ambassadors act as incrediblyeffective influencers. More effectivethan the best advertising.
An excellent representationof the ideal brand ambassador is “Flo,” the customer service representative inProgressive Insurance commercials. Flo is so effective that current commercials portray her luring toProgressive Insurance executives from a competing insurance company. This is the employee brand ambassador conceptat its best. According to a BusinessCourier article by Ric Sweeney (“Brand Ambassadors’ Give Your Business A Boost”) “All employees, regardless offunction or title, are key ambassadors for your company’s products andservices. Once motivated by seniormanagement to believe in the company and its products/services, employees can utilizetheir network of friends and colleagues to grow the company’s circle ofinfluence.”
Author Ronald J.Alsop tells a story in his book, “The 18 Immutable Laws of Corporate Reputation,” (Free Press,2004) about Larry Fish, former Chairmanand CEO of Citizens Financial Group. Alsop says “Larry Fish is rare among CEOs in that he recognizes thevalue of employees to corporate reputation and makes them his goodwillambassadors. It’s the employees who areon the front lines working with customers, suppliers, shareholders, governmentofficials, and other audiences. Theymust be your loyal allies because their effect on your reputation isimmense. They can be your biggest fansor your worst enemies.”
While thecharacteristics (excited, loyal, and knowledgeable) of the brand ambassadorsnoted in Alsop’s 2004 book are the very same characteristics that embodytoday’s brand ambassadors, the manner in which they influence has evolved. Historically, brand ambassadors conductedtheir influencing activities primarily through face-to-face interactions. These interactions took place at theiroffices, civic meetings, places of worship, and anywhere else someone waswilling to listen to them. Brandambassadors are successful influencers not because they are great salespeoplebut because they love what they do and who they do it for. Their ability to influence is the result oftheir passion – as well as the positive reputation of the organization,product, or service.
While today’sbrand ambassadors still possess excitement, loyalty, and knowledge, they are nolonger confined to face-to-face activities. Through social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn,today’s brand ambassadors can influence a much broader audience. Social media enables brand ambassadors toinfluence not only their neighbors across the street but also those livingacross the country and across the world.
Facebook, the 800-poundsocial media gorilla, boasts over 800 million active users. Active users maintain an average of 130“friends” on their Facebook social network. Twitter, another dominant social network, maintains over 100 millionactive users. LinkedIn, the socialnetwork of choice for business professionals, maintains over 135 million activeusers. And these numbers do not reflectthe millions of users that belong to other social networks such as YouTube,Google+, Foursquare, MySpace, and hundredsof others. A cadre of socialmedia-enabled brand ambassadors can produce results significantly better thanwas possible just a few years ago.
According Inc.Magazine blogger Eric Markowitz (“How To Find The Right Employees To Be Your Brand Ambassadors”), “In order to fullyrealize – and leverage – an employee’s full value, a successful company needsto find creative ways to tap into its employees’ networks (both online andoffline). Brand ambassadors, or employeeevangelists, are becoming an increasingly common way for brands to leveragetheir biggest asset – their workforce, of course – to reach new markets,generate buzz, and put a real face on the company.” Schwartz Communications blogger Allison VanNest states on the Schwartz Crossroads blog (“Must Love Snacking: Empowering BrandAmbassadors Through Social Media”) that “Employees are becoming moreengaged as company influencers.”
Regardless of the demonstratedvalue that comes from an excited, loyal, and knowledgeable cadre of employees, thereis often a discrepancy between the message delivered by the organizationthrough its marketing efforts and the message delivered by its employees. This discrepancy is the result of the organization’sfailure to formally train and deploy its employees as part of the organization’soverall branding strategy. This failureon the part of the organization denies the customer, employee, and organizationan opportunity to maximize the benefit received. The customer misses an opportunity to receivethe best possible attention. Theemployee misses the opportunity to play a larger role in the success of theorganization. And the organizationmisses an opportunity to develop a deeper and more valuable relationship withthe customer. The organization’s failurealso ensures that employees lack the excitement, loyalty, and knowledgenecessary to become effective influencers. The negative impact of this failure is compounded when the organizationdoes not make use of the leverage provided by social media platforms.
Logical Stringblogger Mayank Krishna concludes (“Employees As Brand Ambassadors”) that this failure causes customersand potential customers to question whether “The brand is true to what it isprojecting or are there things deeper than what meets the eye?” Krishna attributes the lack of employee influence-abilityto the fact that “In a majority of organizations, brand and branding is adomain that is considered the exclusivity of brand managers and marketingmanagers. For an average employee, brandmanagement doesn’t seem relevant and he/she is hardly aware of the nitty-grittyof the brands and brand management philosophies of his/her organization.”
As such, unlessorganizations create a formal Social Media-Based Employee Brand AmbassadorProgram to ensure that employees are well-trained brand evangelists,organizations will lose out on the potential benefit that comes from employeesthat decide to make it their mission to act as influencers for theorganization. A further risk is thecompetition. To the extent thatcompetitors develop their employees first, the organization puts its businessat risk.
