This presentation is designed as a step-by-step process for companies to empower employees to promote the company’s products, services and brands on social media. This session is designed for any HR professional to provide a step-by-step process for companies to mobilize employees to promote the company’s products, services and brands

1. Empowering Employees as
Brand Ambassadors
Employees are on social media: engage
them to promote your products,
services and brand

2. Write Speak Sell
 Jeannette Paladino, founder and
writer-in-chief.
 Social media is my beat.
 I help organizations to build brand
awareness to increase revenues, and
engage employees as brand advocates
on social media.
jeannettepaladino
http://WriteSpeakSell.com jeannettepaladino
@jepaladino
© Write Speak Sell 2012 Page 2

3. Today’s Agenda
 Why companies are enlisting employees as
brand ambassadors.
 How to develop a social media policy that
works for your company.
 Companies that are doing it well.
 The 6 Steps to engage your employees as your
most trusted advocates.
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4. Poll
 Does your company have a brand ambassador
program?
 If your answer was no, are you planning to
engage your employees as brand ambassadors
on social media in the near future?
 Does your company have a social media
policy?
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5. The Situation Now
 Some companies have totally banned
employees from social media.
 Some companies have totally embraced it.
 Some companies are on the fence and not
sure what to do.
Which one are you?
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6. Benefits to Your Company
 Retain and attract talent.
 Burnish your brand.
 Leverage the viral power of social networks
to reach millions of customers for your
products and services.
 Create funnel for ideas and innovation.
 Increase “Earned Media” and reduce cost of
traditional advertising.
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7. The Viral Power of One Tweet
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8. Cisco Study of New Professionals
and College Students
Cisco survey of 2,800 college students and recently
employed graduates, September 2011

9. Cisco: Requirements of New Professionals & College Students
Survey of 2,800
college students
& recently
employed grads,
September 2011
Cisco survey of 2,800 college students
Cisco survey of 2,800 college students
and recently employed graduates,
and recently employed graduates,
September 2011
September 2011
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10. Seriously?
80% said the
Internet is as
important to their
lives as food, air &
water!!
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11. If you want to attract and retain the
“Best in Class” young professionals,
engage your employees on social media!
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12. SOCIAL MEDIA POLICIES
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13. Social Media Governance
List and descriptions of 195 Corporate
Social Media Policies.
http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.
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14. Intel’s Social Media Guidelines
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15. “We expect Times journalists to behave
like Times journalists, and they generally do.”
…William Corbett, Standards Editor,
The New York Times
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16. IBM’s Social Computing Guidelines
“…Personal experience with employees
has the greatest impact on executive opinions
of our company.”
…“not mass communications,
but masses of communicators.”
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17. Coca-Cola® Social Media Principles
S
“These Online Social Media Principles have been
Developed to empower our associates to
participate in this new frontier of marketing
and communications, represent our Company,
and share the optimistic and positive spirits of
our brands.”
Coca-Cola has a Social Media Certification Program
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18. Jon Iawata, SVP,
Marketing & Communications, IBM
 Cannot control what employees say - but
employees can be trusted.
 Management knows what its people are
talking about on social media.
 Strategically, social media drives the business.
 IBM Social Computing Guidelines readily
available online http://bit.ly/3yKymv.
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19. Gap’s Social Media Policy
Title of policy*
Gap gives 134,000 employees
social media policy with 3 categories:
-"Keep in mind"
-"How to be the best”
-“Don't even think about it"
*Ragan.com
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20. Case Studies

21. Zappos.com
 Hundreds of Zappos employees on Twitter.
 1.9 million followers of CEO Tony Hsieh.
 He trusts his employees to “be real and use
their best judgment.”
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22. Zappos Gets 38,000 Applications a Year for 1,600 Positions
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23. Social Media Improves
the Customer Experience
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24. © Write Speak Sell 2012 Page 20

25. © Write Speak Sell 2012 Page 21

26. 6 Steps To Engage Your Employees
as Brand Ambassadors
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27. 1. Create Social Media Policy
 Form a committee including HR, Compliance,
CMO, PR Director, Legal Counsel and select
employees.
 Develop guidelines that promote engagement
on social networks.
 Keep the “no-no’s” to a minimum.
 Trust your employees to say the right things.
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28. 2. Survey Employees
 What social networks are your employees
using?
 Analyze their content to determine if they
would be reliable “wingmen.”
 Are they willing to serve as the company’s
brand ambassadors on social media?
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29. 3. Form Pilot Group
 Use the survey to identify enthusiastic
employees.
 Facilitate training sessions.
 Integrate social networking with traditional
marketing campaigns.
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30. 4. Provide Guidelines and Rewards
 Incorporate responsibilities and goals into job
descriptions.
 Strike a balance between free-wheeling and
over-bearing in advising employees what they
can and cannot say.
 Provide incentives and rewards.
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31. 5. Feed Information to the Pipeline
 Create branded blogs, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts
for senior executives and share content with pilot
group.
 Ambassadors comment on senior executive blogs, RT
their tweets, share articles on social networking sites
 Employees create their own content within company
guidelines for their social media accounts and blogs.
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32. 6. Measure Results
 Track business relationships established.
 Monitor key words to measure search
rankings.
 Conduct rolling surveys of ambassadors to
assess activity and make course corrections.
 Create a system to collect information about
customer interactions: complaints and kudos.
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33. To Summarize
1. Create a social media policy.
2. Survey employees.
3. Form pilot group.
4. Provide guidelines and rewards.
5. Feed information to the pipeline.
6. Measure results.
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34. You Need To ---
 Communicate social media policy and
activities to all employees. Add ambassadors.
 Be transparent in all communications.
 Accept that you cannot exert 100% control of
what employees will say.
 Trust your employees to do the right things.
They want the company to flourish – because
then they will too!
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35. QUESTIONS?
COMMENTS
http://writespeaksell.com Jeannette Paladino
Write Speak Sell
jeannettepaladino jpaladino@writespeaksell.com
jeannettepaladino Tel: 212-308-4364
Cell: 917-572-3635
@jepaladino
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36. THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING!
PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF I CAN BE OF HELP TO YOU.
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