How To Extend The Halo Effect Through A Brand Ambassador Program

Would you like to not just create a halo effect, but also keep it going for an entire year? In other words: How would you like to create a constant flow of new followers and customers?

Justin Bieber is so famous because he is constantly in the news. Had he been in the news once, he would have gotten some attention. But because he’s covered constantly and everywhere, he’s got millions of followers all over the world. Having content about you out there is extremely important, and if you can make it shareable and findable, then that’s the way to go. So, how do you do that?

Articles, social media, and blogs are the top three and most effective ways to create content that is both findable and shareable. In the post “Create a Halo Effect Through,” I wrote about the value of bloggers and how to get your brand or product onto the right blog and on their social media. So let’s see how to take this a step further and extend this reach to keep it going all year. You will not just get seen, found, and shared once, but all year long!

How We Work With Bloggers For Goodwill Of Orange County

Branding Personality crafted and developed Goodwill of Orange County’s brand ambassador program. Goodwill understand the value of bloggers and was eager to integrate them into their marketing strategy.

So we went to work.

We chose bloggers from our extensive network that targeted Goodwill’s audience best. Then we decided that the best way to get them excited about the organization was to actually showcase it to them. So we organized an event to show our bloggers what Goodwill of Orange County really does. They got a party, food, a presentation by one of the VPs, and a behind-the-scenes tour that showed them all the different aspects of Goodwill no one really knows about. Those were the aspects the ambassadors should bring to light.

To make the party more special, we created Orange County’s first Smash Mob to the tunes of Machlemore’s Thriftshop, which was a lot of fun, got the bloggers excited, and gave them something sharable to tweet and write about. Whatever you can do to make a blogger event more fun, personal, and memorable, is a good idea!

After the event, a selection process started. The brand as well as the bloggers had to decide the terms of the ambassador contract and agree to it.  We then mutually selected 6 bloggers to become advocates. These bloggers now provide Goodwill with coverage throughout the year, not just on their blogs, but also on their social media.

Had Goodwill selected a one-time event to reach its audience through bloggers, they would have received 260,000 social media impressions in the local market they wanted to reach. By taking the event a step further and making it the beginning of an ambassadors program, Goodwill achieved similar coverage for the remainder of the year through various events and blog posts, and received additional social media support from the selected brand advocates.

And that’s exactly what ambassadors are for.

The Trust Factor

At Branding Personality, we have an established network of bloggers and can tell the good ones from the bad. Because of these relationships, we are successful not just at choosing, but at obtaining the right bloggers for your brand. We know which blogger would be interested in your product, and more importantly, have an audience interested in your product, so you don’t waste your time shooting in the dark.

As a brand, therefore, you want to make sure to hire an agency with good connections within the online PR world to maximize the benefit of your investment. If you’re thinking of doing a brand ambassador program, you first should think of what kind of agency you want to hire to do this right.

What agency do I hire?

Your agency of choice should be able to do the following:

• Advise you on what makes most sense for your brand, your product, and your budget.
• Make the most out of your budget
• Choose the appropriate subset of bloggers. If you are in the food industry, is this agency able to reach influential food bloggers? If you are in the tourism industry, does the agency have contacts all over the country? If you are a local retailer, does the agency have connections within the local female community?
• Have connections within that subset of bloggers. If you are a tech brand and talk to an agency that doesn’t know anything about that field, it’s probably not the best choice, no matter how well they perform in other industries.
• Show enthusiam for your product. You shouldn’t have to be just another client. Your brand deserves every last bit of attention and dedication from your agency of choice to leverage its power and influence in the most effective way.

Now what?

Are you ready to get more customers? Are you thinking of blogger integration as a vital marketing option for 2014? Branding Personality offers this service and we love doing it. We offer personalized services for your brand while engaging our personal network of bloggers. As a matter of fact, the bloggers we work with value our personal dedication to them so much, they’ve become loyal partners through us for our clients. If you have any questions, comment below or send us an email. We’d love to propel your brand forward and reach your marketing goals for 2014.