Learn how to find the right brand ambassadors, get them onboard and keep them active and engaged over time.

1. Community
Management Tips
Building a Brand Advocacy Program
Discover how to find the right brand ambassadors,
get them onboard and keep them active and engaged
over time.

2. Community Management Tips
Building a Brand Advocacy Program
In the digital age, peer-to-peer recommendations are the most powerful advertising tools
available. By leveraging pre-existing fans, you can increase brand awareness, develop
strong customer loyalties and facilitate valuable customer feedback loops.
Deciding to launch a brand ambassador program means preparing to activate advocates
all over the globe. When done right, fostering brand advocacy can lead to company wide
benefits, including an increase in sales and positive brand sentiment, as well as greater
share of voice in your industry space.
Read on to discover how to find the right brand ambassadors, get them onboard and
keep them active and engaged over time.
1. Initial Considerations
2. Getting Advocates Onboard
3. Keeping Your Ambassadors Engaged
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3. 1. Initial Considerations
Deciding to develop a Brand Ambassador program doesn’t mean starting
from scratch. If you’re active on social media, then there’s a good
chance your customers and fans are as well. The key to building a strong
advocacy program lies in leveraging existing communities, here’s a few
ways how:
Sourcing Fans:
The best place to look for ambassadors is in already established
communities. Look for users that have high social media activity, a large
influence over their following and, most importantly, interact positively
with your brand. Utilize already established email lists from your CRM,
newsletters or partners. As well, try to source enthusiasts at both online
and offline networking events.
Strategic Influencers:
“The secret to cultivating a
successful brand advocacy
program is quality over
quantity. It is better to
start with a few dedicated
individuals with specialized
talents and then look to
scale over time.”
- Stephanie Wiriahardja
Community Manager,
Global Ambassador Lead
@stephawie
As you build up your community of brand ambassadors, it’s vital to
be strategic with who you target at the beginning. A great way to find
influencers is by narrowing down your prospects by using monitoring and
measurement tools; rate a scorecard to measure specific criteria around
potential influencers. You want to attract industry professionals, with high
influence and large followings. This way, after you establish an amicable
relationship, you will be able to leverage these individuals in the future.
Employee Evangelists:
Employees are powerful advocates for your brand and can aid in
amplifying your sales and marketing efforts. By integrating social media
organization wide, you enable each and every one of your employees to
extend your brand’s reach.
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4. 2. Getting Advocates Onboard
Once you have identified who you’d like to join the program, you will need
to develop a strategy to get them onboard and excited about your new
initiative. Be sure to develop the program around valuable opportunities
and rewards for the participants. Here’s a few ways how:
“To justify creating a brand
Communication:
to sustain the program in
The way you communicate to your prospective ambassadors is key to the
sign up success rate. Be sure to set clear expectations at the beginning,
framing your messaging around the program’s benefits so that individuals
know what to expect. Get them excited to join by offering exclusive
access to knowledge, swag and opportunities for networking and
volunteer work experience.
Program Architecture:
Before you can activate your ambassador community, you need to
have a place for them to go. Whether it be on Google+, Facebook or
a private community, providing a space for conversation is vital. The
key is to get your ambassadors talking amongst themselves; once they
begin connecting with other like-minded, industry professionals, they will
become a self sustaining community.
ambassador program you
need to tie it to ROI. But
the long run, you need
to continually focus on
the benefits for your
participants.”
- David Kyle
Community Coordinator,
APAC
@davidwkyle
Allow Them to Integrate:
A large part of becoming a brand ambassador is the opportunity to get
closer to a brand you love. By integrating ambassadors into the company
fabric, you will attract higher quality candidates who genuinely care
about making your product better. Allow your ambassadors to take on
leadership roles, such as organizing branded events or hosting Twitter
chats. Consider offering ambassadors greater professional visibility by
encouraging them to add their role to their LinkedIn; this empowers them
to speak confidently about your brand and in turn, increase word of
mouth marketing.
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5. 3. Keep Your
Ambassadors Engaged
A well structured Ambassador program will expand rapidly. Before you
know it, with hundreds of brand advocates, you will be challenged with
keeping them engaged and avoiding attrition. You may even want to
consider having a program lead within your organization.
Celebrate Them:
From time to time, put your ambassadors in the spotlight. Whether it be
a guest blog post, tickets to an offline networking event or a simple tweet
from your brand’s handle. Giving ambassadors VIP treatment will make
them feel appreciated and inspired. Provide opportunities for them to
meet with executives directly; since they are working hard to advocate for
your organization, you need to reward their efforts appropriately.
Gamification:
Gamifying your ambassador program is a great way to keep things
fun and engaging for participants. A little healthy internal competition
between ambassadors can infuse your program with energy and self
sustaining momentum by offering your ambassadors badges or exclusive
swag for completing tasks. These tasks could include: hosting a meetup
event in their city, testing new technologies via beta access, or attending
industry events as a live tweeter.
Access to Education:
“One of the most important
considerations when comes
to fostering a successful
brand ambassador program
is to remember to give
before you ask. Ensure that
you have provided value or
an incentive to your brand
ambassadors before asking
anything of them. This
foundation of a mutually
beneficial relationship will
help lay the foundation for
ongoing success.”
- Destin Haynes
Director,
Freemium Community
@destinfall
Offer access to industry experts within your company; this can be
via webinars, Google hangouts or simply shared curated content. It’s
important to always circle back on the benefits and reasons why your
ambassadors joined the program and ensure that the relationship stays
mutually beneficial. On the other hand, allow ambassadors to take
leadership roles in which they would get to be the educators and experts.
In turn, they will feel tightly integrated into your company’s fabric and
highly invested in the program.
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6. Want more Community Tips?
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follow @HootClub on Twitter for updates.
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