As an admin and manager of your employee advocacy program, your main role during the launch and afterwards is to find and bring in the best people and teams to become Brand Ambassadors.
This article will walk you through the basic steps to select the right individuals for your program and offer helpful tips on engaging them right from the beginning.
Who Should You Include in Your Program?
To create a truly successful employee advocacy program, it's important to be thoughtful about who you invite to participate. Instead of just filling seats, aim to include individuals and groups who can genuinely help share your brand's message and make valuable contributions.
Think about the different personas and internal stakeholders that can make a positive impact:
- Marketing Team: Often a natural fit, they understand brand messaging and content strategy.
- Internal Communications Team: Given their connection to the workforce, they're an ideal choice to help share program information and reach a broad internal audience.
- Content Creators & Designers: Their expertise is invaluable for developing shareable and engaging content.
- HR / People & Culture / Talent Acquisition / Employer Branding: Ideal for showcasing company culture, attracting talent, and enhancing the employer brand.
- Executive & Leadership Team: Their participation is a must as it lends credibility and sets an example for others.
- Sales Teams: Can leverage advocacy to build relationships and generate leads.
- Social Media Stars (Millennials + Gen Z): These individuals are often already active on social media and can bring a fresh, authentic voice.
- Industry Experts: Employees recognized for their expertise can position your company as a thought leader.
- New Hires: They're often brimming with enthusiasm and a desire to connect. Integrating your advocacy program into the company onboarding process can embed advocacy as part of their employee journey.
Discover how each persona can help you achieve different goals in your employee advocacy program with our video that explores various use cases in-depth.
What to Look for in a Potential Brand Ambassador
When identifying potential brand ambassadors, consider their role and potential contribution to the program. Think about:
- Content Creation/Approval: Will they be generating original content; are they interested in creating content or just sharing content? Are they a good fit to be responsible for approving content shared by others?
- Regular Sharing: Are they likely to consistently share approved content on their networks?
- "Posting on Behalf Of": Is there a need for certain individuals to post on behalf of specific company accounts or initiatives? Such as an assistant publishing on behalf of a busy C-level Executive.
- Enthusiasm for the Brand: Look for employees who genuinely believe in the company's mission and values.
- Active Social Presence: While not strictly necessary for all roles, those with an existing, engaged social media following can be powerful advocates.
How to Successfully Recruit Brand Ambassadors
Once you've identified potential brand ambassadors, the next step is to inspire and motivate them to join your community.
| Gain Executive Buy-In | Gaining the supps is truly essential. When leaders actively promote the program, they can play a huge role in attracting participants by highlighting its strategic value and inspiring their teams to get involved. |
| Recruit Through Team Leads and Managers | On-site team leads and managers are powerful allies. They have direct relationships with employees and can effectively communicate the program's value and encourage their team members to join. |
| Leverage Internal and External Events | Company events or campaigns, whether internal (e.g., town halls, employee appreciation days) or external (e.g., product launches, industry conferences), provide an excellent platform to capture employee attention and promote your advocacy program. |
| Host Informative Meetings | After initial conversations, invite potential ambassadors to a dedicated meeting. This allows for a more personal and persuasive approach. Structure these meetings to cover:
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| Follow-Up and Onboarding |
Always follow up after your meetings by formally inviting interested individuals to join the Haiilo Advocacy platform. Once they're in, ensure they receive all necessary materials and comprehensive training on the platform. Remember that not all employees are social media experts; consider offering additional social media training to help them develop their skills. |
Further Tips & Tricks
Even after successful recruitment, continuous engagement and program management are vital for long-term success.
- Ongoing Onboarding & Training: For programs that continously get new members, establish a structured, ongoing training process. Learn more in Onboarding and training your brand ambassadors.
- Resource Allocation: Ensure sufficient resources are dedicated to program maintenance and growth. Admins and channel managers are the backbone of the program and need enough time to create content, gather feedback, communicate results, educate users, and evolve the platform.
- Engagement Schedule: Proposing a user engagement schedule for admins can bring structure and consistency to running the advocacy program, defining how often users should be reminded and the most effective reminder methods. Learn more in Re-engaging your brand ambassadors.
- Content, Content, and More Content: A constant supply of fresh, relevant, and engaging content is the lifeblood of any advocacy program. Ensure you have a robust content strategy in place to keep your ambassadors active and provide them with valuable material to share. Learn more in Defining your content creation strategy.
Focus on carefully selecting the right people, recruiting strategically, and getting them actively involved from the start, and you can build a strong team of brand ambassadors for a successful employee advocacy program.