Corporate influencers: multipliers of internal and external communication

What are corporate influencers?

Companies are increasingly focusing on authenticity in communication, both internally and externally. A popular tool for this is to let real employees have their say. Regardless of whether they call themselves “employee advocates,” “corporate ambassadors,” or “corporate influencers,” they mean the same thing: real employees who speak for the company and its interests on social networks such as LinkedIn.

Companies such as E.ON, Deutsche Telekom, OTTO and Deutsche Bank have been working with this concept for a long time and have achieved some important successes. But more about that later. ‍

Which employees are suitable as corporate influencers?

Corporate influencers are typically real employees from a wide variety of areas of a company. This means that the participants work in a completely normal job and are not specifically recruited or employed as influencers. It is best if the company's network of influencers is as diverse as possible so that every external target group can be picked up and feels addressed. Accordingly, a tech ambassador is just as relevant as an influencer from production.

What does a corporate influencer have to bring along?

In principle, it should not be reserved for any employee to be employed as corporate influencers. However, it is advantageous if candidates available for selection:

• bring along an existing network in the respective sector
• find posting and content production easy and fun for them
• Don't find maintaining your own network on social media, for example, annoying
• have a positive attitude towards their employer

What are the benefits of a corporate influencer program?

Real employees who act as corporate influencers bring a variety of benefits to a company.

First, they convey an authentic image of the company and its culture to the outside world, as they represent the brand first-hand. They have the opportunity to talk about their work and the company from their personal perspective, which makes the content authentic and credible. The very positive side effect here is a major advantage when competing for talent. It is much faster and much more successful to generate new applicants through the reach of corporate influencers. Of course, this also lowers hiring costs, as intensive talent acquisition can be dispensed with.

Corporate influencers can help increase the visibility of the company. They can use their own networks to make the company and its products or services better known. They can also help achieve greater reach for business content by sharing it on their own channels. ‍

What tools does a corporate influencer need in everyday life?

Successful use of corporate influencers requires not only selecting the right people, but also providing the right tools. Here are a few of the most important tools that make work easier for corporate influencers.

1. Content production enablement tools

They enable corporate influencers to create content faster and more efficiently. This can be achieved, for example, through the availability of professional image and video tools, a library of stock material, or prescribed storyboards for video posts on social media.

2. Clear topic briefings

These are important so that corporate influencers know exactly what they should talk about and how they should do it. They provide a clear idea of what content is expected and what message should be conveyed. In this way, every corporate influencer can create their content accordingly and appropriately while still using their own tonality.

3. Time-saving content production

This helps corporate influencers to do their actual job in addition to their public presence on social media. Planning and simple implementation are the A.O.

Asynchronous collaboration allows corporate influencers to communicate regardless of their location and time zone. This enables them to create and publish their content more flexibly, regardless of their workplace and time.

4. CI-compliant templates

Templates are important to ensure that all content has a consistent look and that the company's brand is consistently represented. This can be achieved, for example, through the availability of corporate design guidelines and branding assets. The level of branding on corporate influencer content must be coordinated with the respective organizational teams.

How do I ensure that corporate influencers remain CI compliant?

First off: Requirements always entail barriers. Employees who volunteer to participate in these programs in addition to their job can quickly become unsettled when they feel they can do something wrong.

However, there are ways in which they can still be supported by the company:

Internal content training

They are a good way to ensure that corporate influencers convey the right messages and represent the company image correctly. This training should include the company mission statement, brand message and corporate design guidelines to ensure that all corporate influencers are on the same level of knowledge and consistently represent the company's brand. These trainings can be easily integrated into “influencer onboarding” at the beginning and should not last longer than an hour. At the same time, they should be used to eliminate the fear of doing something wrong.

Recurring internal workshops

These workshops can be used, for example, to train, use tools, or create content. Joint brainstorming sessions or creative workshops can also be offered.

To start setting up a corporate influencer program, among other things, it is also suitable Cofenster. Especially for the production of Employee Generated Videos Is it important to remain time and cost efficient, otherwise a new project such as a corporate influencer program will quickly be crushed again by the board of directors.

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How can cofenster support your corporate influencer program?

With cofenster, corporate influencers can create videos in a very short time and in just a few steps. These are always brand-compliant with the help of preset design templates. With a cofenster account, LinkedIn can achieve twice as much reach as with pure image or text postings. No previous experience in areas such as video editing, video editing or video recording is required with cofenster.