Why employees are the best brand ambassadors

When people are dispersed and on the move, it’s a challenge to maintain those relationships. And this connection is a required part of building a strong brand.

When employees feel connected, engaged, and empowered within their roles, their passion for working goes far beyond the daily responsibilities, extending into their own social circles. They feel proud to talk about the company they work for and are excited to share the value of what their employer brings to the world. And the results can profoundly impact your business goals. When oranizations such as the American Cancer Society implement employee communications platforms, they report an increase in company and brand awareness as well as an increase in reach of social media campaigns. However, in order to do this successfully, companies need to ensure employees are on message and aligned with the company’s own brand messaging.

This is why it’s so important that you give employees a platform to share that wealth of inspiration alongside clear guidance. Giving employees an easy way to express themselves on social media and share approved company information can reinforce company culture and boost brand equity in an authentic way.

Consistent leadership communication

The best way to activate your employees as brand ambassadors starts at the top. When leadership effectively communicates and engrains its company core values and mission into daily operations, employees can truly feel connected to the company on a deeper level.

Employees feel empowered when they’re engaged at both an individual and company-wide level. Getting them the right communication is critical to this. It’s important to train executives and management on what your brand messaging is – and do it regularly—so that they can continue to reiterate that to their teams. Though upper-level roles may have greater influence internally, employees have greater influence externally. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, regular employees (54 percent) are trusted more than CEOs (47 percent).

Employees offer a unique perspective about a company, especially when they work across different roles, locations, etc., and contribute to expressing company culture both internally and externally. In some ways, you’re turning every employee into a salesperson for your company, which makes it even more important to know what they’re saying.

This not only requires your executive teams to stay consistent in their communication to employees, but it’s also essential that you build a sustainable system reinforcing it.

Developing the infrastructure

Using a platform like Firstup can give companies an easy way to encourage brand advocacy and employee ambassadors. Today especially, everyone is turning to online resources and social spaces where they can connect and learn more about companies.

If you’re hosting virtual conferences, these are great opportunities to activate your workforce, expanding your reach to potential customers. In order to do this successfully, you need the right technology to connect your employees.

Extreme Networks completely changed the way they communicated with Firstup. All employee communications are distributed on their E360 branded platform and in doing so, are able to correlate sales productivity with platform engagement: 60% of the reps that regularly exceeded quota use the platform and engage with the content daily!

With the Firstup platform you can keep your entire workforce informed and engaged with mobile-optimized, personalized content that fosters richer connections between employees and your organization. Build trust and transparency with authentic communication from your executive team. Ensure visibility into relevant announcements around corporate initiatives. Firstup helps you improve your employer brand by making every employee feel more connected.

Focus on workforce wellbeing

Authentic employee engagement has never been more important, with workforce wellbeing reaching a new tipping point. The number of employees leaving their jobs has spurred a revolution that is now being dubbed, “The Great Resignation of 2021.”

Our independent survey, The Deluge of Unhappy Workers, uncovered the reasons behind the mounting dissatisfaction among workforces, and how it’s becoming a global problem.

When asked about how companies could create a better experience and make them feel more valued as employees, the highest responses were in reference to the ways in which companies could foster better communication:

39% want employers to ‘create a better line of communication between executives and employees’ and 21% want ‘company communications and messages delivered to the places I spend my workday.

Additionally, visibility into company decision making was found to boost feelings of worth and significance in the workplace, and businesses would do well to support the 33% of respondents who called for improvements in transparency.

What motivates employees is a crucial point for employers and workforces to understand, not only to retain existing talent but also
attract new talent into the business and uphold the company’s reputation.

Learn more from our comprehensive report, and how Firstup is already addressing this challenge for customers today, giving them the agility to address the dynamic nature of workforces now and into the future.