Onboarding and training your brand ambassadors

A well-designed onboarding and training program plays a vital role in the success of your employee advocacy platform. It's more than just encouraging users to sign up; it's about inspiring them to become enthusiastic, effective, and engaged brand ambassadors.

By dedicating time to creating a smooth onboarding process and providing ongoing training, you'll notice higher productivity, fewer mistakes, and a warmer, more lively advocacy community. This approach is essential not only for launching your program but also for keeping it thriving over the long run, which helps reduce the need for frequent support and encourages more participation.

User Onboarding: Make a Great First Impression

The goal of user onboarding is to maintain the initial excitement and momentum of new users joining your platform. A well-crafted onboarding process makes new ambassadors feel welcomed and prepared.

First, make sure to adapt and customize the User onboarding journey on the platform to your needs, as this is what your new users will experience once they first sign into the platform. 

Personalize the Email Invitation

Your invitation email is the first point of contact and needs to make an impact. This is your chance to clearly articulate the "why" behind the program and the benefits for the individual.

Update the email template in the Invitations & Registration settings, which allows you to set a default message that will be sent with all invitations from the platform. If you're using Single Sign-On, prepare and send a separate, personalized email using tools like the email newsletter feature.

Explain "What's in it for them?"

Clearly define what an employee advocacy program is and, more importantly, how it benefits the individual user. 

Help them understand how participating can position them as a thought leader, enhance their personal brand, and contribute to their professional growth. 

Include a link to resources like "Why invest my time in social media?"

 Example Text:

Congratulations! You've been selected to participate in our employee advocacy program. 

Powered by Haiilo, this initiative helps you share relevant company and industry content through your social media accounts, positioning you as an industry thought leader. 

Watch this short video to learn more about becoming a social media advocate for [Your Company Name].

Explain "What's in it for the company?"

Briefly explain how their participation contributes to the company's goals. 

This fosters a sense of shared purpose and value.

 Example Text:

Our Haiilo platform offers various topics and channels for you to follow, providing relevant content you can easily share. 

Join to get started and visit our Resources section for all the helpful information you need.

For questions, reach out to our admin team at [exampleteam@examplecompany.com]. 

Thank you for helping make our advocacy program a success!

Explain "How can I gain access and start using Haiilo?"

Clearly outline any steps new users need to take to actually join the platform. 

This should include clicking the invitation link, creating an account, and connecting their social media profiles.

 Example text

To activate your account and become a brand ambassador, simply:

  1. Click on your unique invitation link in this email.
  2. Create your account by following the prompts.
  3. Connect your social media profiles (LinkedIn, X, etc.) to start sharing.

Personally Welcome New Users

Once an invitation is accepted, a proactive, personal welcome makes a big difference. This reinforces their decision to join and provides them with immediate next steps.

  • Send a Welcome Email: Proactively send a personalized welcome email. Thank them for joining and include all necessary information for a successful start. This email can also invite them to a live training session or link to a video tutorial.
  • Automate Where Possible: If you have a continuous flow of new users, consider setting up a somewhat automated welcoming process. You can download a list of new users by joined date from the Users menu and send them a templated personalized welcome email using your platform's bulk mail function, email newsletter feature, or your own email program.

  • Hi [employee name],

    Thank you for joining our Advocacy program! Social media is a fantastic way to build your personal brand by sharing our company messages.

    To help you get started, we've gathered all the helpful information about our Haiilo platform in the Resources section: [LINK].

    If you're available, join our live Haiilo training on [date] for an overview of connecting your social media profiles and using the tool. [Instructions on how to join].

    If you can't make it, a recording will be available here: [link]. It covers the basics, including:

    • Setting up your profile
    • Customizing your news feed (subscribing to channels)
    • Sharing content with your networks
    • Proposing content to the Haiilo platform
    • Viewing your personal dashboard/analytics

    Remember to:

    1. Regularly check the platform. Sign into Haiilo [link to your platform] using your [company name] credentials.
    2. Check your inbox for new content notifications from Haiilo.
    3. Track your progress on Haiilo's leaderboard. Top brand advocates each quarter will be awarded Recognition Moments rewards!

    Thank you for dedicating a few minutes each week to share your experiences and [company name]'s content. For questions, reach out to our [example] team via [example@company.com].

Personalize the Platform Onboarding Experience

Make sure new users can easily access all the information they need right within your advocacy platform. The more visible touchpoints you have, the more welcoming and accessible it becomes.

  • Resources: Utilize the Resources section to share important information. Add key onboarding steps and links to video tutorials on platform usage or internal onboarding materials. Consider offering shorter, topic-specific videos (e.g., "Customizing Your News Feed," "Sharing and Posting").
  • Shortcuts: Add prominent Shortcuts on the homepage linking to your internal knowledge base, a help channel (e.g., Slack), or your platform's official support center. This is a great spot to include a "Contact Your Admins" link to an email address, making it easy for your ambassadors to reach out to you with any questions they might have.
  • Dedicated Haiilo Channel: Create a specific channel within your platform to inform users about new features or news regarding the platform. This provides another visible touchpoint. You can, for example, call it "Haiilo Updates".
  • Featured Post: Use the Featured post section to prominently display essential information or a welcome message for new joiners using pinned posts.

User Training: Equip Your Ambassadors

Make sure your training sessions or materials include all the important information your new users need, based on their specific roles, to help them use the platform.

  • Reiterate Benefits: Briefly remind users of the personal benefits of using the platform and why employee advocacy is crucial for your organization.
  • Platform Navigation: Show them where to find everything on the platform.
  • Profile Setup: Guide them through setting up their profile, connecting social media accounts, and managing notification settings.
  • Feed Customization: Explain how to customize their content feed.
  • Content Engagement: Teach them how to engage with, share, and propose content.
  • Personal Dashboard: Show them how to use their personal insights dashboard to track their impact.
  • Social Media Style Guide: Provide guidelines for consistent and on-brand communication.
  • For Content Creators/Admins Only:
    • Content Strategy: Detail the overall content strategy.
    • Expected Content Input Frequency: Outline how often they're expected to contribute content.
    • Expected Weekly Workload: Provide a realistic estimate of their weekly time commitment.

Further Tips & Tricks

We have a few more tips for you:

  • Follow Up on Engagement: After onboarding and training, actively check if new users have completed registration and started sharing. Promptly reach out to inactive users, offering assistance to help them connect profiles or make their first share. Learn more in Re-engaging your brand ambassadors.
  • Expand Visibility: Think outside the box! Leverage other internal tools and platforms like your intranet, Slack, or MS Teams to link to your advocacy platform, increasing its visibility.
  • Pre-subscribe to Channels: Ensure new users are already subscribed to essential and default channels so they have content to explore immediately upon joining.
  • Regular Material Updates: Keep your training materials current to reflect any platform changes or updates. Or just share the link to Haiilo's Knowledge Base so everyone has access to the latest information 😉
  • Gamification: Make participation engaging! For example, add teasers about rewards for new joiners and highlight earning points and climbing the leaderboard to spark friendly competition and motivate everyone to participate! Learn more in Driving Participation Through Gamification.
  • Encourage Peer-to-Peer Learning: Foster a supportive community by introducing "Haiilo buddies" or similar initiatives to help new joiners. Use your power users effectively!
  • Offer Ongoing Support & Encourage Feedback: Provide readily accessible resources for continuous support. Also, create feedback channels for users to provide input on their onboarding and training experiences.
  • 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.

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