Engaging employees with your brand is important for several reasons. When employees believe in the company’s values and mission, they’re more likely to be passionate about their work.
They’re also more likely to have positive things to say about your company when discussing it with family, friends, and social media followers.
You want your workers to be enthusiastic brand ambassadors, spreading the word about your products and services. The following points will help you achieve this goal.
Define Your Brand
Harvard Business Review points out that organizations can’t engage employees with their brands if they don’t have clear brand identities first. Thus, an important first step is to determine what your brand stands for. What are your values? What emotions do you want people to associate your company with? Once you know your brand, you can more effectively introduce employees to it.
Encourage Sharing
Some employees may feel reluctant to discuss the brand in some capacities outside of work if they don’t know they’re allowed to do so. Sure, they might be willing to talk about your company with close family or friends, but maybe they’re hesitant to share photos from the company picnic on Instagram.
Make sure this isn’t the case by letting employees know they are allowed to share this type of content on social media. Obviously you don’t want them saying anything negative about your company, but that doesn’t mean you don’t want them posting about how much fun it is to work in your office.
It’s worth keeping in mind that allowing employees to discuss the brand on social media may be an effective way to attract future candidates. According to one survey, approximately 73% of 18-to-34-year-olds have found jobs on social media in the past.
Give Them Something to Share
Your employees still won’t be able to advocate for your brand if you don’t provide them with any content to share on social media. It’s important to provide these opportunities by planning branded events, distributing quality branded content to your workforce, and giving your workers an office worth Instagramming.
Not sure where to start? Consider researching examples of fun events major companies throw for their employees. They’ll give you ideas for your own branded experiences.
Offer Training
It’s important to remember that not all of your employees may know how to use certain social media platforms. This limits their ability to serve as brand ambassadors. While they can still represent your company in a positive way to family and friends, they can’t cast as wide a net as other employees.
Thus, you might consider training your workforce to use various social media platforms to promote the brand. For instance, Zappos trains employees to use Twitter, ensuring every team member can use it as a brand advocate.
Be Authentic
Employees won’t be effective brand ambassadors if they don’t engage with your brand in the first place. That’s why you need to make sure all major figures at the company embody the brand’s stated values in their own behavior. For instance, if your brand is supposed to be friendly and carefree, you don’t want an office environment in which managers are constantly having shouting matches in conference rooms. Employees will sense a disconnect between the company’s states values and its actual values.
Avoid this by making sure every member of your team understands the importance of brand engagement. When they do, they can embody the brand in their daily work. This results in a workforce that’s eager to advocate for your company.
