Creating Brand Ambassadors For Your Organisation

01 Aug Creating Brand Ambassadors For Your Organisation

Encouraging CEOs and Senior Managers to Become More Publicly Visible

In reality, everyone is a brand ambassador for your organisation, from the receptionist to the CEO to your IT boffins, but what we are talking about here is hand-picking people who are encouraged and nurtured to take more of the spotlight and become more publicly visible, whether that’s to customers, suppliers, the press or the general public on social media. It could be a CEO who needs to be seen on social media to build credibility with younger customers and members of staff, or an expert that you currently have in your organisation who could potentially build a great profile and bring more credibility to the business. Or it could just be that you need a spokesperson; someone to face the public.

Choosing the right people

Sometimes, as in the case of the CEO or expert, you will already know who to work with on reputation building. At other times, you may have a few people to choose from. Why not choose them all? If you can, that’s great, as the more credible brand ambassadors you have for your organisation, the better it will be. If you need to choose one person, such as a spokesperson, however, look at people who are eager to learn, have a genuine want to find out more about social media, and don’t disappear if someone gets a camera out. Someone who can think on their feet is always useful, as is a team member who is already adept at communication.

How does the organisation benefit?

Your brand ambassador’s respected professional reputation can only reflect well on the organisation and in turn attract more skilled and talented professionals to the company. It will build credibility in the eyes of the public, and this type of learning and development for staff will enrich a whole range of skills and competencies, not to mention confidence.

 

It is good for them in that it raises their own self confidence, supports their long term career plans with the organisation and is a nice acknowledgment of the hard work and effort they have put in to get where they are now.

 

How can you help them represent your organisation?

 

The first thing is a full online and offline audit of their reputation, assessing where they are now and what you need to work on. This isn’t just about the skills and abilities they may have, but about others perceptions of them, and will include outer brand factors such as how they dress, posture and body language.

 

Next, we move onto considering expert status. How much do they  really do know about their field, which can go right back to University education right up to their last learnings. Watching people fully understand how much of an expert they really are, and how their own knowledge can be sought after and respected, is incredibly satisfying. Just watch your staff increase in confidence!

But rediscovering knowledge also means you may be uncovering gaps in that knowledge and this may mean more education, reading, training or experience. It could also mean finding out more about the organisation at a board level. Don’t skimp on this step as your ambassadors need to feel comfortable with their knowledge.

 

By the end of this process, participants are usually feeling empowered and ready and excited to move onto the next stage.

 

Turn your staff into heroes!

Making it Happen!

 

Here we start to build a profile by taking action. This will be different for everyone. In some cases it can be stepping up the social media to forge a reputation as a thought leader or connector.

In others it might be translating experience into articles for professional publications or even landing a column on an industry related website. Others may thrive on personal interaction and making connections, and may offer their skills to a charity, or even working their way into leadership in that charity, satisfying, stimulating and rewarding.

Taking time to think and plan through what and how you would like your professional reputation to look like, and considering who you can make that happen, can be incredibly empowering.

And an organisation that nurtures and helps create these public respected figures is very subtly promoting itself through them, and has to be one of the most effective forms of PR an organisation can undertake, as well as being a pure Win Win situation for everyone.

You can find out more about building brand ambassadors via my Red Programme