Social Media-Based Brand Ambassadors - Part 4

The Costs and Risks of Social Media Brand Ambassador Programs

[This post is part 4 in a series of posts related to Social Media-Based Brand Ambassadors.  This post focuses on the costs and risks associated with a brand ambassador program.]


Before an organizationchooses to empower and unleash social media-enabled employee brand ambassadors torepresent its brand and influence consumers, the organization should carefullyconsider the costs and risks associated with a social media-enabled brandambassador program – or any social media effort.  

While social mediaaccounts are generally free and can be created in less than 10 minutes, theseaccounts are of little use without the human capital (e.g., brand ambassadors)needed to add value to the organization’s social media efforts.  As such, every organization considering theuse of social media-enabled brand ambassadors should conduct a risk assessment thatwill help to identify potential pitfalls which will ultimately protect theorganization and ensure the success of the social media-based brand ambassador program.  The organization should use the results ofthe risk assessment in determining the appropriate strategy.

BloombergBusinessweek writers Michelle Conlin and Douglas MacMillan address social media risks in their blog post,“Web 2.0: Managing Corporate Reputations.”  According to Conlin and MacMillan, “Socialnetworking is a love-hate relationship. On the one hand managers want their workers to experiment so they cancultivate new-world skills.  Employees asbrand ambassadors!  Products virallytransformed into overnight hits!  On theother hand, bosses are filled with foreboding about social networking’s darkside – losing secrets to rivals, the corporate embarrassment of errant employeetweets, becoming the latest victim of a venomous crowd.”

Regardless of thepuffery taking place regarding the low- or no-cost features of social media implementations,organizations must not be fooled.  Socialmedia properly implemented costs money.  Assuch, organizations must determine the social media strategy that best fits theorganization’s risk appetite and budget.  In an effort to assist with this analysis the followingsection discusses the various risks and costs associated with social media implementations– including a social media-based brand ambassador program.

Commitment:  According to consultant Tony de Bree (www.TonydeBreeAdvies.nl),organizations have done a horrible job of taking care of their employees andcustomers.  “Clients nor employeesbelieve those companies anymore. We are far from ‘how to turn your ex-employeesinto ambassadeors/promotors.’” 

Julie Arnsdorf, President of J. Arnsdorf & Company (jarnsdorf.blogspot.com), agrees with de Bree. “It's similar to the proverbial tag ofwe have ‘quality products’ or ‘competitive rates’…it's just talk.  I've seen many marketing departments or adagencies develop brilliant tag lines for an organization, but the organizationnever implements the tag line's sentiment throughout their business orbank.  It's simply a hollow statement.”

De Bree’s and Arnsdorf’s comments are not uncommon.  Over the course of the past several decades, organizationshave lost credibility with their workers as a result of actions that have eliminatedjobs and cut wages.  Most recently, the OccupyWall Street movement brought to lightsociety’s discontent with the widening gap between the have and have-nots.

As a result of thenatural skepticism of employees and customers, organizations seeking to implementa brand ambassador program must be committed to making the long-term investmentnecessary to win over both employees and customers.  Lip service is no longer adequate and will surelyresult in failure.

Expenses:  Many publications, consultants,Web sites and other sources refer to social media as a “no cost” or “low cost”undertaking.  This advice has the effectof misleading many organizations into believing that the implementation andmaintenance of a social media strategy, including a social media-based brandambassador program, is a largely inexpensive undertaking.

In a interviewwith SmartBlog blogger Sam Taute (“A LookAt Social Media Costs And Returns With Erik Qualman”), Socialnomics author Erik Qualman stated regarding social media implementationsthat “Over 50 percent of businesses found it was more work than theyexpected.  The most overlooked cost forbig and small businesses is the soft-cost in terms of the hours employees mustcommit to engage properly in the space.”

Blogger Mark W.Schaefer presents a compelling, though potentiallydiscouraging, argument for employee social media ambassadors.  In his post “The Hidden Costs of Social Media Conversation” Schaefer statesabout social media-enabled employee brand ambassadors, “Certainly thisinteraction can humanize a brand.  But atthe end of the day, is paying your employees to be a psychotherapist to alonely widow in Pittsburgh going to sell hamburgers?  Is that the company’s core business?  And when does it end?  Do you keep adding people to have infiniteconversations?”  Schafer’s comments were in reference to aninterview by McDonald’s Social MediaDirector Rick Wion regarding McDonald’s goal of initiating socialmedia conversations.

Providing a less severeanalysis is Brand Infection blogger Nader Cserny whostates that “Social Media is affordable and you don’t need large marketingbudgets.  The only main cost is timewhile developing relationships.”  While Nader’s conclusion is largely true, as statedby Schaefer, organizations must invest time and money to develop the depth and rangeof online relationships that meet the organization’s expectations.

Heidi Cohen provides on her blog (“How To Calculate Social Media Costs”) 10 types of social mediamarketing expenses that every organization should take into consideration when developinga social media strategy.  Heidi’s list is not specific to brand ambassadors. It is a list that addresses the costs necessaryto develop an environment in which brand ambassadors can operate.

    1. Brand Monitoring:  This expense relates to the act of“listening” to conversations on the Internet. Costs can range from the software used to “listen” to the employee timespent “listening” to the time spent analyzing the conversations to the time spentproducing reports.  As previously stated,brand monitoring is a key activity for all organizations.  Regardless of the organization’s decision toenter into social media, every organization at a minimum should actively listento comments made on the Internet in an effort to better serve customers andtake proactive measures, if applicable.  Assuch, all organizations should realistically budget for this item.

     2. People:  A social media-enabled brand ambassador programrequires people.  In small and mid-sized organizationsmost brand ambassadors will maintain other positions within the firm and willact as brand ambassadors as time and opportunity permits.  In large organizations, brand ambassadors maybe dedicated social media-enabled brand ambassadors whose responsibility is tocomb the social media universe for branding/influencing opportunities.  Regardless of the format used, people costmoney.  As such, to the extent that brandambassadors conduct their influencing while on the clock, the organizationincurs a cost.

      3. Content:  Contentis King!  According to the HRManagement Guide blog (“SocialMedia Costs”), “The social media are about the interaction.  The dedicated employee has to find appealinginformation and has to publish information on a regular basis.”  The content used by brand ambassadors toengage with customers and potential customers must be created either internallyor externally.  The nature, complexity andsource of the content will determine the expense.

    4. Social MediaPlatforms:  As previously noted, most socialmedia platforms are free to use.  However,there may be costs associated with their use such as the development of platformspecific pages/screens (e.g., Facebook landing pages) that require resources tocreate.  Organizations must be aware of suchcosts as part of the planning stage of a social media strategy.

      5. Support Media:  The social media strategy will determine theextent to which support media will be necessary.  For example, organizations may createmailings, newspaper advertisements and other activities to drive traffic to thesocial media platform.

   6. Marketing:  Activities needed to convert social mediaprospects to buyers.  This includes the marketingcampaigns that run on the social media platforms such as custom “apps.”

    7. Agencies:  Certain organizations may choose to outsourcesome or all of the social media activities. These costs must be taken into consideration as part of the overall socialmedia strategy.  Agencies costs may includeconsulting fees, social media outsourcing costs, and other associated expenses.

     8. Technology:  To the extent that technology support isneeded to launch and maintain a social media-based brand ambassador program,these costs must be taken into consideration. Such costs may include providing employees with social media enabledsmart phones, upgrade of computers, and any other technology that may beneeded.

     9. Analytics:  Every organization with a social mediaprogram should have in place a program to analyze the overall effectiveness ofthe organization’s social media strategy, including brand ambassadors.  The analytics provide the organization with thesocial media program’s return on investment.

   10. Complexity:  Organizations can spend verylittle on their social media efforts. Likewise, organizations with large budgets can spend millions of dollarscreating elaborate and complex social media strategies.  With social media there is something forevery budget.  This amount must be takeninto consideration as part of the planning process.

Code of Conduct:  Brand ambassador successrequires that employees commit to the organization’s code of conduct (e.g.,respectful tone, free of profanity, etc.) whenever they interact on a socialmedia platform.  Brand ambassadors mustunderstand that their personal social media activity may be interpreted asorganization-sanctioned activity. Therefore, whether on or off the clock, employees must be aware of theeffect that their interactions on social media platforms may have on theorganization.

A major challengein developing a strong Brand Ambassador Program is that employees continue tobecome less loyal.  Back in 2004 Ronald J.Alsop had the following to say about the state ofemployee relations: “Employees are more cynical and less trusting because ofall the recent cases of accounting abuse and executive greed.  What’s more, job insecurity, poor morale, andexcessive workloads have eroded employees’ commitment to companies.”  In the post-Occupy Wall Street era it is very likely that these same issuescontinue to concern workers in 2012.

Blogger LindaTucci describes in the TotalCIO blog at TechTarget.com (“SocialMedia Risks That Will Make Your Hair Stand on End”) an instance involvingan executive at a public relations firm.  The seasoned public relations executive wasflying to meet with a major client.  Uponarriving at the client’s hometown, the public relations executive tweeted thatthe client’s hometown was one of those places where he would rather die thanhave to live in.  An employee of theclient’s firm read the tweet and passed it on to senior officials at the clientand the public relations firm.  To saythat the public relations executive had some explaining to do is anunderstatement.  The embarrassment causedto the public relations firm by its executive was further exacerbated by thefact that the public relations executive was meeting with the client to pitch,of all things, social media communications! 

The publicrelations executive story noted above is an example of a major concern with socialmedia-enabled brand ambassadors.  Forthis reason it is crucial that organizations provide necessary guidance andtraining to brand ambassadors.  Ignoringthis call to action may result in similarly embarrassing situations that maydamage reputation and the bottom line.

Customer Service:  Rajib Kumar, blogger on Techncom.com, states that “When a consumer posts anissue online, he expects instant response which should be done promptly.  If the response drags, then it has a negativeeffect on the brand.  Don’t give theconsumer time to start bad-mouthing.”

While a 24X7 responseis not required for all social media programs, customers now expect to reach organizationsvia their social media platform of choice.  Further, customers expect prompt responses duringbusiness hours.  Their inability to resolveissues in that manner will go a long way in pushing them to organizations that doprovide the expected service.

To the extent thatthe organization provides customer service through a call center, it is in the organizationsbest interest to equip the service center with the training and tools needed toprovide the expected level of service.

Inconsistent Messaging:  Rajib Kumar emphasizes the importance of providingconsistent messaging by stating that “If a query has been posted on differentsocial platform, the response should be the same and consistent throughout soas not to confuse the customers.”  Assuch, “The staff managing the social media platforms needs to be organized andhave a common vision and goal so that they do not speak in different voices ondifferent platforms.”

Scale:  The HR Management Guide blog suggests that organizations should seek aslarge of a social media presence as possible to maximize use and investment insocial media.  “The social media need astrong and constant presence.  The smallpresence means no influence, and it does not bring any benefits.  The organization has to build a strong andfocused presence to be successful.”

Before developing aprogram to unleash the organization’s employees as brand ambassadors, the organizationmust ensure that it truly understands the costs and risks involved and is committedto the undertaking.  Without such a commitmentthe organization will ultimately fail in its attempt to leverage the advantagesof social media.