Turning to influencer marketing is a great way to get your brand in front of a large targeted audience and drive traffic to your website. Endorsements, reviews and other social media posts by industry influencers allow you to tap into their loyal following and build brand credibility. But getting the attention of, or hiring well-known thought leaders can be time consuming and often expensive…what if you don’t have the time or budget for outside sources?
You have an entire group of influencers at your fingertips—your employees! No one knows your products or services better than they do. Your team knows your story, is passionate about your brand and represents the reasons you do what you do. Their posts are sure to strike a chord with prospects because they work for you and they care! Once they start conversations about your products, social selling and even recruiting on social media, you’ll reach more people than ever before. And, by republishing the content they create on your website and social media platforms, you’ll begin building your library with thoughtful, relative pieces.
Don’t forget about your C-suite team. A keen social media presence from your CEO gives the company a human face. Engaging, personable tweets, for example, can be quickly retweeted by followers to create an overwhelmingly positive sentiment that boosts your reputation in minutes.
Be cautious about letting your internal influencers loose without rules for engagement to preserve the integrity of your brand. Providing expectations, guidelines and training are key to a successful internal influencer program.
You may want to:
Create a knowledge bank to store and organize employee insights and expertise.
Create a social media policy that includes rules of engagement
Create a company hashtag and encourage employees to use it
Create brand guidelines for content including key messages they can use in their posts
But don’t stop there! Client testimonials are also great influencers. Because they love your company, clients are most likely already recommending you to their friends. Why not use their loyalty to your company to sway prospects? All you have to do is ask.
Ready to start talking? Contact Responsory today to find out more about building your internal influencer marketing program.
