The way to Create a Virtuous Cycle for Your Employer Model Ambassadors

On the planet of employer branding, “authenticity” is the holy grail. Everyone knows {that a} slick company video with employed actors and scripted strains doesn’t idiot anybody anymore. Candidates need to see the actual folks behind the model—their desks, their coffees, their challenges, and their triumphs.

However right here lies the paradox: How do you get staff to share genuine content material on scale with out IT feeling… properly, pressured?

When you push too onerous, you get “automaton” posts that seem like copy-paste PR blasts. When you don’t push in any respect, you would possibly get silence.

In a latest episode of the Employer Branding Podcast, host Jörgen Sundberg sat down with Laura Masters, the Director of World Employer & Expertise Model at Expedia Group, to debate how they solved this puzzle. Her reply? Making a virtuous cycle for model ambassadors.

Right here is how Expedia Group leverages this cycle to generate wonderful, genuine content material that pulls prime expertise—and the way you are able to do the identical.

The Drawback: The “Pressured Enjoyable” Entice

Most corporations launch ambassador applications with good intentions. They establish key staff, hand them a packet of “steered social posts,” and ask them to share.

The result’s usually underwhelming. The content material feels stiff. The staff really feel like they’re doing unpaid advertising work. And the viewers—your potential candidates—scrolls proper previous IT.

Laura Masters highlights that the largest problem is navigating this area with out making the message really feel pressured. You can’t mandate ardour. You can’t script tradition.

The Answer: The Virtuous Cycle

As an alternative of a top-down mandate, Expedia Group focuses on a “virtuous cycle” strategy. In enterprise principle, a virtuous cycle is a recurring cycle of occasions, the results of every one being to extend the helpful impact of the subsequent.

Within the context of Expedia’s model ambassadors, the cycle seems to be one thing like this:

1. Discovery: The employer model crew identifies staff who’re already sharing nice moments (usually travel-related, given the business).

2. Amplification: The corporate makes use of its platform (just like the @lifeatexpedia channels) to highlight these genuine tales.

3. Validation: The worker feels acknowledged and valued for his or her contribution.

4. Inspiration: Different staff see this recognition and are impressed to share their very own tales.

5. Content material Quantity: The quantity of high-quality, genuine content material grows naturally, feeding again into step 1.

By specializing in curation reasonably than creation, the model crew modifications its position from “director” to “documentarian.”

Constructing the Cycle: 3 Key Pillars

Primarily based on the insights from the podcast and Expedia’s seen success, listed below are three pillars to constructing this cycle in your personal group.

1. Mine for Gold, Don’t Manufacture IT

Expedia Group has a definite benefit: their product is journey. Their staff are naturally posting photographs of wonderful journeys, crew offsites, and “work from anyplace” setups.

However each firm has its “gold.” IT may be the pet that interrupts the Zoom name, the crew lunch, or the advanced drawback solved on a whiteboard.

2. The “Highlight Impact” as a Reward

Some of the highly effective motivators for workers isn’t a present card; IT’s recognition. When a worldwide model like Expedia re-shares an worker’s photograph or story, IT provides that worker an enormous enhance of visibility {and professional} delight.

That is the engine of the virtuous cycle. When Jane from Engineering sees that John from Gross sales acquired featured on the principle LinkedIn web page for his submit concerning the firm hackathon, she thinks, “I need to share my story too.”

3. Present “Guardrails,” Not “Scripts”

To maintain the content material secure however genuine, you might want to stability freedom with steerage. Masters discusses the significance of making certain the message comes throughout accurately with out being stiff.

As an alternative of writing the copy for them, present themes or prompts. For instance, as a substitute of claiming “Submit this textual content about our advantages,” say, “Share a photograph of the way you used your wellness stipend this month.”

• Actionable Tip: Create a “Playbook” reasonably than a “Rulebook.” Present examples of nice posts, provide recommendations on taking good photographs, and provides recommendation on hashtags—then step again and allow them to create.

The ROI of Authenticity

Why undergo the difficulty of constructing this cycle? As a result of the info proves IT works.

• Belief: Candidates belief common staff 3x greater than the CEO or PR division.

• Attain: Worker networks are usually 10x bigger than the company model’s follower base.

• Engagement: Content material shared by staff sees 8x extra engagement than content material shared by model channels.

Whenever you create a virtuous cycle, you cease having to beg for content material. The content material creates itself. Your staff change into your storytellers, and your employer model turns into a dwelling, respiratory entity that pulls expertise who align along with your actual tradition, not simply the one in your “About Us” web page.

To hearken to the total dialog with Laura Masters and listen to extra about Expedia Group’s employer model journey, take a look at the episode “How to Create a Virtuous Cycle for Brand Ambassadors” on the Employer Branding Podcast.