January 31st, 2023
There are many ways in which you can create and distribute content as part of your employer branding communication campaigns. Arguably one of the best and most efficient ways to do so is through your own employees. Content shared by employees is regarded as more authentic and more trustworthy than content you share through any other medium. Therefore, we held an entire session on this topic during our monthly EB dialogues.
We spoke to HR, communication and employer branding experts combining more than 30 years’ experience in the field. Here are just of the few things we learned from them:
- Every employee is ultimately a brand ambassador. And this can go both ways, so it is very important to start from within, invest in employees, ensuring they are satisfied in their workplace.
- There are different area’s in which you can engage employee to become employer brand advocates: they can give specific trainings or workshops (online or offline), they can post on social media, they can be your ambassadors at events. You can also tailor the type of activity depending on individuals’ preferences – some may prefer to post online (in writing or in front of a camera), others to share their knowledge and offer workshops for the relevant community, for instance.
- Generally, brand ambassadors are doing this type of work voluntarily and usually are non-remunerated. They sign up for the program and then they receive training (including personal branding on social media training) and even goodies – “a brand ambassador kit” – company branded materials that help them showcase their stories. Because the work is voluntary, it is important to have sufficient brand ambassadors in order not to overwhelm just a few employees with too many extra-work activities.
- Invest in keeping them engaged. This can be done by creating space online for them – a place where they can interact with each other. In the case of social media, do not push too much content on them and let them choose when and what to post. Show them recognition – increasing their visibility within the company (i.e. meetings with higher management can be very rewarding for emplo
yees). Brand ambassadors appreciate it when the content that is about to be shared with them for further publication is first shown to them (and only after that it is being published). Give them freedom in choosing what content to share. Appreciation events for brand ambassadors can also help with maintaining brand ambassadors engaged. - Think about diversity – the program should cover individuals of all ages, experience levels, departments, interests, etc. This is because each group comes with a specific set of followers, and this diversity in a brand ambassadorship program will ensure a very wide (and diverse) audience reach.
Our discussion on January 26th 2023 with Maria Marcovici (Head of HR and Employer Branding Romania @ Continental), Adina Florescu (CSR Officer and content manager @ Michelin) and Lia Apostol (Head of marketing and communications @ Cognizant Softvision) was much longer and insightful so if you want to learn more, feel free to listen to our full podcast here: www.ebcon.ro
In our next EB dialogue on February 23rd, we’ll be meeting Dragos Gheban (Managing Partner @ Catalyst Solutions) and our guests to discuss about the state of recruitment and employer branding in 2023! Sign up to the community here:
