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Swisscom Spirit

How do I turn employees into ambassadors?

Employees serving as ambassadors for a company is not a new concept. However, social media is opening up a lot of opportunities in this regard, and the subject is gaining new significance. But how do we enable employees to use these opportunities to their, and our full advantage? What are realistic expectations? How do you encourage this?

Marcel Brandtner, Business Owner Online
01 March 2021

Seven steps to a successful social ambassador initiative – and what questions to expect.

Employees serving as ambassadors for a company is not a new concept. However, social media is opening up a lot of opportunities in this regard, and the subject is gaining new significance. The central goals of a social media ambassador initiative are to strengthen corporate messages and raise the social media profile of recognised company experts. But how do we enable employees to use these opportunities to their, and our full advantage? What are realistic expectations? How do you encourage this?

Even business customers use online resources when making purchasing decisions

When making purchasing decisions, the behaviour of our business customers is changing. The way we market in this new environment needs to change:

B2B decisions are often influenced by recommendations. The role of experts with an established presence in their field on social media and social media influencers is therefore gaining in importance.

B2B decision-makers face challenges that they have to resolve for their companies. They search for the right answers online and on social media.

An average of 6 people are involved in every B2B purchasing decision. Our employees can use social media platforms to identify and connect with these people. They can share relevant content with potential business customers and help solve their problems.

Employees have to be visible and connected online

Our employees are digitally connected. Any employee can be a gateway to a potential business customer. We should use this to our advantage! As social ambassadors, employees focus on spreading relevant content in their networks. This content is intended to help B2B decision-makers solve their problems. Our employees thus establish a two-way communication with potential business customers. The goal is for the employees to position themselves as an expert or influencer for the business customer, to provide answers and solutions and to raise their profile through their expertise.

Principles of a successful social media ambassador initiative

There is no ‘one size fits all’ for companies when it comes to setting up a social media ambassador initiative. However, there are some principles that must be followed from the outset and taken into account in your strategy:

Empower and support your employees.
It is important that your employees remain authentic.
As always, quality is more important than quantity.
Observe and monitor, but do not control.
Measure performance and communicate successes.

Seven steps to a successful social ambassador initiative

But how do we enable our employees to act as social media ambassadors for the company? The role of marketing is to train employees to become ambassadors and to embed a social media culture within the company. Drum up enthusiasm and show your employees how they can become ‘famous’ courtesy of social media.

Follow these 7 steps to win over your employees:

Start with in-person training or live webinars to show your employees how to establish themselves on social media with the thought leadership approach and a professional image. Sales employees and product experts are best suited to this. Your employees need to know
- How to behave on social media,
- How to create a professional profile (personal branding),
- How to cultivate customer relationships and find new contacts,
- How to find and share relevant and interesting content, and
- How to become a thought leader.

Add e-learning elements to the courses to cover as much content as possible.
Organise social selling days or Tweet-ups at the company to enhance social ambassador activities.
Communicate employee success stories.
Define key performance indicators. Measure successes and provide regular information about them.
Provide your employees with quality content from a central source. Specialist content from your own company that is relevant to the ambassadors and their contacts.
Identify experts, sales and other employees who can create content for the company. Support them with the creation of the content.

Questions that require answers

Your social ambassador initiative will be an important catalyst for change. It will also bring some challenges for your company. It is therefore important to prepare yourself for the following questions:

Where does private life end and business begin?
Are we willing to relinquish some of the control? Do we have the necessary error culture? What is the risk of not having control over the activities of employees?
Are employees allowed to post their own content related to their job in the company?
How do we motivate employees without working against our own goals? How do we avoid creating ‘living chatbots’ that post inauthentic content about our company?

No matter how you answer the questions for your company, don’t forget that your employees will use social media in any case – with or without your support, and with or without benefiting your business.