Every time I publish a blog post (twice a week — you should really check them out), I make sure to alert the rest of the Buildicus team.

The posts aren’t really for them, and I expect that a few (most?) of them don’t even look at them.

I send them the links, however, because I hope they’ll share them anyway.

I hope, actually, that they have enough pride in our product that they’ll want to share the posts, because the posts are part of the Buildicus service.

It’s called being brand ambassadors, and it’s what you should strive for with your employees.

 

How to turn your team into brand ambassadors

Brand ambassadors promote the product

Team members who believe in your product, service and/or business are a great asset when it comes to promotion. A team member that believes will shout it from the rooftops — or on social media, as the case may be.

My boss, Irma, once told me about an experience she had on Twitter. She had Tweeted a question at a company and had gotten a very quick response. She praised the company for its promptness and almost instantly, a half dozen of its employees Retweeted her.

That right there is effective brand ambassadorship. The employees had such pride in their company, they wanted others to know when it received a compliment.

You can see the benefit, right? My boss’s compliment instantly became a testimonial for the company, which was then seen by 6x more people (give or take, depending on number of followers).

What do brand ambassadors do?

So, what exactly does being a brand ambassador entail? It’s simple:

Contribute to conversations about your company or brand.

Sometimes that means starting the conversation, like when I ask Buildicus team members to share content. And sometimes that means contributing to an existing conversation, like the employees that Retweeted Irma’s praise.

Awareness is the key. Team members need to know where the conversations are being held — on Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, in blog comments, etc.

How to create brand ambassadors

Here’s the best way to create brand ambassadors:

1. Start with a great service or product. Your team members have to have something they can promote with pride.

2. Let your employees know that they’re essential to the growth of your company. Don’t assume they know. Actually tell them, “We can’t do this without you.”

3. Share the analytics. Show them how much more engagement a web page or blog post gets when the whole team contribute to its promotion.

Brand ambassadorship may not happen overnight

My boss says she hopes Buildicus will get to the point where our team is as responsive as the company she praised on Twitter. We’re not there yet.

I still have to ask for team members to share our content. I still have to remind them to invite friends to Like our Facebook page.

My hope is that someday they’ll do all that without prompting from me. In the meantime, I’ll continue to ask for their contributions, because it is definitely worth it.