Corporate Influencer – Employees as brand ambassadors
Corporate Influencer
Posted 29 Aug 2022
In order to capture the attention of their target groups, companies are increasingly looking for efficient communication channels. The increasingly noisy world of social media plays a weighty role in this, and not just since the Covid 19 pandemic. As social selling has become an indispensable component of customer retention in the B2B sector, networks such as LinkedIn are becoming increasingly important. This is where corporate influencers can make all the difference.
But what should communication professionals look out for? How do those responsible find the right strategy? And what is the best way to measure success? This article takes a look at the world of corporate influencers.
We answer the following questions:
– How valuable are corporate influencers?
– How do you build corporate influencers?
– How do managers achieve resounding success with corporate influencers?
B2C influencers have long since impressively proven their immense influence on brands. Companies now want to use this enormous potential for themselves in the B2B sector as well. For customers, it is an important factor that companies show presence and engagement.
One must not forget: Even if they are B2B companies, people always buy from people. And they want to feel addressed. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to convey quality and expertise through the written word.
A local spokesperson can strengthen trust here. Their authenticity and ability to build and maintain a network can have an extremely positive impact on companies and their reputation, increase employee engagement and improve contacts with stakeholders. Issues such as ESG, sustainability, AI or equal opportunities should be addressed publicly.
To address such difficult and complex issues with confidence, real leaders are needed to further enhance corporate image and provide insights into corporate culture.
First of all, it is an advantage if a corporate influencer is a likeable and charismatic identification figure that the company and its employees are proud of. Once this person has been found, it is then important that the company and the corporate influencer work together on a clear strategy to communicate the overarching corporate vision.
The overarching corporate goal should also be the basis for the corporate influencer’s goals – not the other way around. In meetings and workshops, the company’s own motives are made clear to the future representatives and at the same time it is made clear that the agreement will be beneficial for both parties. In media training sessions, the person is trained in dealing with the media. The willingness to be associated with the company in the light of publicity is accordingly essential. This sometimes exhausting and time-consuming process is important to create recognition for the company and its services or products.
However, in order to maintain the credibility of a corporate influencer’s messaging, the company should take a back seat. It is important that the influencer does NOT advertise. He should remain authentic and publicly set a direction that serves the cause of his company. A balance of autonomy and control must be created that gives the corporate influencer the necessary freedom and at the same time enforces and strengthens the company’s guidelines. Then nothing stands in the way of a successful collaboration.
You might also be interested in this:
Successful content marketing for social selling
In order to measure the success of a campaign, one must first be clear about the goals one wanted to achieve with the measure. It is advisable to define SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reasonable, Time-bound) goals in advance. If the goals are achieved, one can undoubtedly look back on a successful campaign. However, it is also clear that success will not happen overnight. A long-term relationship with a corporate influencer must therefore be the goal.
When the effects finally make themselves felt, this can happen in many ways. The social media network has grown many times over, the company sells more than in the same quarter of the previous year, or the documents of the applicants have increased in quantity and quality.
Of course, you can already observe during a campaign how your own corporate influencer is received on the market. How is he perceived? Another possibility would be to conduct surveys to investigate employee satisfaction or brand awareness among the population. However, in these cases it is advisable to conduct such surveys for the first time before the start of the corporate influencer campaign in order to be able to orientate oneself on a reference value.
In summary, it can be said that the success of a corporate influencer programme is not only measured in mere numbers, but above all in the comprehensive added value it creates for the company.
You might also be interested in this:
Share of Voice: How to measure the success of your marketing activities
In our second episode of HBI Vibes TV, Christian Fabricius, Account Director and Leader New Services at HBI, discussed the topic of corporate influencers with three experienced PR professionals from Worldcom Public Relations Group from the UK, Czech Republic and Germany.
Guest speakers in the programme are:
– Chris Lawrance, managing director at JBP, UK.
– Patrik Schober, Managing Partner at PRAM Consulting, Czech Republic
– Ebru Özalan, Account Director at HBI, Germany
The full episode can be found here:
Account Executive at HBI Helga Bailey GmbH – International PR & MarCom
Patrick Richardt has been supporting HBI since the beginning of 2022 in the areas of technology, IT and fintechs.
He is responsible for the creation of technical articles, social media management and in-depth research.
Picture source: <a href=’https://de.freepik.com/vektoren/menschen’>Menschen Vektor erstellt von pch.vector – de.freepik.com</a>
