Employer Branding Part 6:
Your Staff, Your Ambassadors

Success­ful employ­er brand­ing relies on authen­tic­i­ty. Staff members expe­ri­ence a compa­ny from with­in and they do so on a daily basis. So why not give them the chance to commu­ni­cate this expe­ri­ence – in a way that is both elegant and bene­fi­cial for everybody?

In the latest issue of our Expert Tips on Employ­er Brand­ing, we intro­duced the major clas­si­cal ways to use employ­er brand­ing. Today’s issue deals with a way to promote employ­er brand­ing and corpo­rate market­ing at the same time: Make your staff your ambas­sadors for your corpo­rate and employ­er brand!

Study: Many would Like to Get Engaged

A 2017 study of PR agency LEWIS Commu­ni­ca­tions Limited1 showed that almost half of employ­ees would like to put in a good word or do more for their employ­er in social media. Back then offi­cial corpo­rate news, videos, photos and HR news were in the fore­ground, where this was possi­ble. At the same time, it would be easy to get the most common obsta­cles out of the way:

· A gener­al ban on using social media at the work place,
· Insuf­fi­cient support in method­ol­o­gy and handling,
· Inse­cu­ri­ty as to present­ing content and corpo­rate values in the context of person­al appearance.

More­over, the pandem­ic has substan­tial­ly increased online skills and accep­tance. So the condi­tions for ‘home-made’, cost-effi­cient influ­encer programs, both in the corpo­rate and the HR sphere, are very good.

The Recipe: the House Special­ty Influencer

Typi­cal­ly, compa­nies in the construc­tion and real estate sector are very tech­ni­cal in nature, often focus­ing on B2B only. What people expect from influ­encers in this envi­ron­ment is tech­ni­cal exper­tise and ’indus­try cred­i­bil­i­ty’. And this is exact­ly what you will find in your own compa­ny! As a first step, you could iden­ti­fy suit­able colleagues and contact them, or start a broad­cast search. Recruit members of your social media expert team from these candi­dates and – very impor­tant­ly – provide them with the rele­vant resources:

· Clear guide­lines: how to handle which corpo­rate infor­ma­tion and how to deal with feed­back from the internet
· Coach­ing or work­shops on social media know-how – rang­ing from the differ­ences between social media chan­nels or creat­ing texts and images to ques­tions of commu­ni­ty management
· A content pool, which hosts arti­cles and tech­ni­cal resources, such as stud­ies, links to the indus­try’s forums, special­ized search engines, etc

Triple Effect: This Must Be a Great Employer!

For sure, provid­ing the follow­ers with tech­nial infor­ma­tion is what is in the fore­ground of this strat­e­gy. It will, howev­er, display a posi­tive effect for your employ­er brand­ing as well. For it is gener­al­ly very convinc­ing when compa­nies have their employ­ees speak for them. This is also the main differ­ence compared to conven­tion­al testi­mo­ni­als: It is not about market­ing glam­our but about authen­tic­i­ty. So minor bloop­ers and pecu­lar­i­ties should defi­nite­ly be tolerated.

As a side effect, it will be easi­er to retain your experts who are involved in this: Speak­ing out for your employ­er makes you more loyal and more moti­vat­ed. Besides, this kind of commu­ni­ca­tion can be used for recruit­ing and even as a bonus: “Join our team – and you, too, will have the chance to impress the world with your knowledge!“

(1) LEWIS Commu­ni­ca­tions Limit­ed 2017: Survey on Employ­ee Advocacy