How To Create Great PR Through Effective Brand Advocates

It’s a commonly repeated stat that 92% of consumers say they trust earned media, such as word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising. (Nielsen)

So, as a PR professional, how do you create more of this trust and earned media for your brand and client?

At PRSA Boston’s recent Social Media Summit, there was lots of talk about brand advocates and brand ambassadors. Employees, consumers, bloggers – these are all different forms of advocates that can act on behalf of a brand, driving earned media, positive word-of-mouth, brand awareness and value, viral content, press mentions, and even clear sales impact.

So again, how can PR professionals support this kind of marketing?

The answer is to find clear ways to benefit from brand ambassadors, the loyal consumers and fans who want to help market a brand, simply because they love the brand. Here are five key ways you can benefit from these ambassadors.

1. Create amazing, user-generated content. Passionate fans are often the ideal people to create content that actually reaches fans. We all know that creating content is a time and resource-intensive task, but finding what really reaches your target audience and repeating it is key. When you give these fans clear guidelines on what to contribute and then track how each piece of content performs, you can easily put in place a structure that’s repeatable and efficient. Note: It’s key for this content to be licensed for use across other forms of marketing. It can be a real drag when a fan contributes amazing content on Facebook, but legally, you can’t use this content in other forms of marketing, like your website or a press release. If you’re asking yourself, “how long does it take to develop an app?” You can read all about the breakdown of each stage of an app development process on Blacklight Software’s website.

2. Authentically share on social. It’s simple, give the ambassadors content to share, and they will. They’ll often put their own spin on the content to make it authentic, but they’ll only share what’s meaningful to them, which is what you want.

3. Host events. In-person is a great way to share the brand. Lululemon has one of the quintessential examples of an ambassador program and it’s helped the brand weather its share of ups and downs over the last couple of years. Influential community members host running groups, yoga classes and more, introducing people in their own cities and homes to the brand. Getting fans to host events is not as difficult as you think – give them guidelines and examples and allow ambassadors to learn and gain inspiration from each other.

4. Teach and train on behalf of the brand. Yes, consumers who really love your brand will actually become salespeople, trainers, etc. on behalf of your brand. We love what Evernote’s ambassadors do – they share tips and teach on behalf of the brand, all because they love it and truly believe others should know too. If you’re a food, tech, or beauty brand, a tech brand, to name a few, these types of activities can make perfect sense for you.

5. Blog about or review the brand’s products. In PR, we’re often used to paid bloggers, which can be a great help to any brand as they’re savvy, have big followings, and are seen as influential. Don’t underestimate what an everyday fan can do as well. As we’ve seen above, any sort of recommendation from a trusted source can be crucial. Both fans with huge blog followings AND fans who blog from time to time but are seen as influential in the community can be key.

While engagement with these ambassadors is key, it is also critical that PR professionals find a platform that allows them to suggest marketing activities, track what fans are doing, collect licensed content, and getanalytics that can delve deeper into long-term trends and challenges.

This post has been sponsored by Upward Labs as part of being a sponsor for PRSA Boston’s Social Media Summit.