With so many companies who are recognizing the power of inside out communications — leveraging employees as external brand advocates — this is fantastic post by Michael Brito, Edelman Digital, explains how to balance personal brand with a corporate brand. This is a definite read if you are someone who participates in a social media ambassador program or if you are a company that has launched or is exploring the possibility of one.
Original post: Managing The Conflict Between A Personal Brand And A Corporate Brand, Britopian
Everyone has a brand whether they like it or not. I am not talking about the clothes you wear or the car you drive either; that’s definitely part of it. The brand I am talking about is your attitude, how you carry yourself and the perception that others have about you; not that you have of yourself. Do you have a mediocre brand or one that is stellar and stands out from the crowd? Whatever the case, your personal brand is a direct reflection on the company you work for; especially with this new dynamic called the social web.
Some may say that there is no conflict, but I beg to differ. I have worked for some really large brands and over time built up my own personal brand because of it. There is always a potential conflict but there is also a way to manage it effectively.
Tagged as:
corporate brand,
edelman digital,
michael brito,
personal brand,
social media ambassadors
I recently discussed the value of creating a social media program to a group of individuals looking to create an ambassador program for their company. The discussion focused on how to build enthusiasm as well as recommendations on how to implement. Below is what we discussed. Enjoy!
From a corporate perspective, launching a social media ambassador program means you are recognizing that not only your consumers, but also your employees drive and influence conversations – or stories — and are wanting to tap into those conversations. The beauty of social media is that it’s an ongoing dialogue not necessarily between you and one other person, but between any and all of your social network connections. And that’s just it… recognizing that if you are already someone who has a social network profile, then you are someone that can easily be an extension of the corporate brand… a social media enthusiast or ambassador, if you will.
But, in order to do this, there are several key discussion points that should be in your social media ambassador toolkit:
1. Build Enthusiasm for Your Program — You will be asking your social media ambassadors to actively participate at least 20 minutes a day… on their own time (or whatever time frame you decide). So get them excited about doing it. Select participants who have a genuine appreciation and understanding of social media. Don’t forget to launch your program with a welcome letter that describes the program’s overall goals and objectives, defines their roles and responsibilities, the vision of the company, and how their participation contributes to meeting those goals.
Tagged as:
ambassador,
ambassadors,
Employee Engagement,
social media,
social media ambassadors,
toolkit
I don’t think any one really wonders IF they should have a corporate social media policy anymore, but rather it seems the bigger question is how to actually create one. There are many web sites that offer sample policies that are easily findable through a search; however, I thought I would highlight two web resources that I use / visit fairly regularly when researching corporate social media policies.
SocialMediaGovernance.com
http://socialmediagovernance.com/
Chris Boudreaux created SocialMediaGovernance.com to provide tools and resources for leaders and managers who want to get the most from their social media and social application investments.
Chris has also recently analyzed all of the policy documents that people from around the world have submitted into the Social Media Policy Database. The report also contains best practices for social media policies, which he developed through his work with clients across industries.
You can download the report and see what he found regarding the following questions:
- To what extent do organizations focus on risks versus opportunities in social media?
- What types of guidelines do organizations provide to employees?
- How are organizations providing guidance to employees who represent the organization in social media?
PolicyTool by rtraction
http://socialmedia.policytool.net/
I actually came across this site completely by accident when I realized that I was getting referring visits from it. The very intuitive interface of PolicyTool for Social Media walks you through basic steps to drafting policies for your website or software project.
Tagged as:
chris boudreaux,
david r. canton,
policytool for social media,
rtraction,
social media policy,
socialmediagovernance.com
This post is a continuation of my series on “How to Make Employees Social Media Ambassadors“. See further down for related links on using employees as social media ambassadors and employee engagement.
The other day, I was sitting at a restaurant bar (as I’m prone to do) and started a conversation with someone — yes, I know, I make for a captivating dinner companion — on how employees are a company’s most under-utilized asset for communicating its brand. However, as my fellow bar person pointed out, how do you have employees represent your brand if they don’t even know what it is … if they even care? So yes, before you can use your employees as brand ambassadors, you might want to not only make sure that they understand your brand, but that they actually embrace and support it — the values for which your brand stands and the services and solutions you provide.
So how do you launch a social media brand ambassador program if your ambassadors don’t know the brand?
Obviously, you don’t.
Whether or not you’re looking to launch a social media ambassador program, the key to success for any company who wants employees represent its brand is that they MUST not only appreciate and understand its value, but be able to also communicate it. And in order for them to understand it, you must effectively internalize it to them. Seems kind of logical, doesn’t it? Of course it is, but it seems to be a one of those things that are either: 1) assumed or 2) not executed effectively. So how do you educate, so that your employees can effectively communicate?
Tagged as:
ambassadors,
brand ambassadors,
employee ambassadors,
Employee Engagement,
social media,
social media ambassadors
So, as a company, you now recognize that a socially networked company makes for a more human workforce. So, what are the next steps to making employees social media ambassadors?
There really are two different approaches to empowering your employees as social media ambassadors. You can either give open access to your entire employee base or start with a “pilot group” of officially recognized ambassadors. I don’t know that either approach has more proven benefits over the other, but if you’re a conservative company like mine, you’ll go for the latter…. and here’s why:
- Allows you to embrace social media while still being cautious about how to fully deploy or manage it;
- Gives you time to further refine your social media guidelines with a small group of individuals who will eventually become leading examples to the rest of your employees; and,
- Provides the opportunity to measure your social media impact using the initial pilot as a control group.
Building a Social Media Ambassador Pilot Group
- Survey employees on social networking habits and interests. Determine what social networks your employees are using and ask them if they would be willing to use their personal brand / social networking profiles to serve as the company’s social media ambassadors.
- Lots of employees will say they are passionate about social media. But you will need to weed out those individuals who are just consumers of social media information versus the ones who are conversationalists in social media — those who create content and dialogue within their existing social networks.
Tagged as:
A.R.E.,
ambassadors,
employee ambassadors,
Employee Engagement,
social media,
social media ambassadors
