Corporate Influencers: Authentic Brand Ambassadors for Successful Employer Branding.
Tanja Fiedler, Lisa Geisler and Maritta Seitz
July 17, 2024
Authenticity is the key to successful employer branding. To present themselves authentically in the job market, companies benefit from offering transparent insights. This can be achieved through open communication about topics such as culture, expectations, and salary. Additionally, employees can act as corporate influencers, sharing their personal views of the workplace.
Corporate influencing is currently a hot topic – our employer branding experts, Lisa Geisler and Tanja Fiedler, explain why it is worthwhile for companies to encourage corporate influencers. How do employers select suitable employees and avoid unpleasant surprises? Find out in the interview.
Maritta: What are corporate influencers?
Lisa: Corporate influencers are brand ambassadors who represent companies with their entire personality. They are individuals who speak about the company they work for from their own perspective, sharing their personal experiences.
People trust people, and this applies to experiences with products just as much as it does to experiences with the employing company.
Corporate influencers offer people outside the company the opportunity to connect with the people within it, rather than a faceless entity. This creates a sense of closeness and trust.
Maritta: Where do corporate influencers appear?
Lisa: It starts with the company’s website and social media channels, whether it's LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok. When I am met with real people and see a smiling face, I can get a sense of what the company is like.
And then it continues on personal channels, where employees, for example, talk about the company they work for on their own LinkedIn accounts. Corporate influencers also appear at conferences, panel talks, and can be present at career events.
Maritta: What do companies gain from establishing employees as corporate influencers?
Tanja: Corporate influencers are primarily sources of inspiration for people who are job hunting or looking to change jobs. Part of our HR campaign for Grant Thornton included a group of people we used as testimonials in the form of videos and text on the website.
There is this idea of “You can only be what you see.”
Therefore, we consciously sought people as corporate influencers who could tell us what it means to build a career as a single mother, or what it’s like to work at Grant Thornton as a non-native speaker, or how it feels to be an apprentice and how they are supported.
Our goal was to showcase possibilities that inspire and can even serve as role models.
Maritta: Besides inspiration, what else can testimonials achieve?
Lisa: The advantage of testimonials is that they offer the opportunity to really zoom in on specific topics and perhaps even incorporate personal interests, without having to speak from the overarching corporate perspective. This is also what makes corporate influencers truly authentic ambassadors and creates a special sense of closeness.
Maritta: What kind of topics can these be, for example?
Tanja: Corporate influencers can represent the diverse life and work realities within a company. This includes topics like diversity in the workplace – diversity in terms of different cultures, age groups, and LGBTQ+ communities.
Applicants wonder: Can I grow with my life reality at this company? Will I be accepted? Can I thrive? By showing different life realities through corporate influencing, companies also extend an invitation to people who identify with those realities.
Maritta: And what about companies that are not yet very diverse?
Tanja: Such companies should honestly report where they currently stand in their development. They can also extend an invitation to people who want to help advance this topic together with the company. This brings us back to the distinctiveness through authenticity. Distinctiveness is extremely important for job seekers.
Maritta: How can a company get its own employees to act as corporate influencers?
Tanja: It becomes easy for companies to engage corporate influencers who are genuinely enthusiastic about sharing their experiences within the company when those experiences have been positive. When employees feel comfortable, can grow, be effective, and have fun, they are more likely to share authentically.
If you find these people and give them the space to talk about their experiences and work realities, you will achieve this authenticity. This also includes giving people the space to talk about things they don’t like or think need improvement. And all of this in their own words.
Maritta: What exactly do you mean by their own words?
Tanja: For example, if you are making a video, the company must be prepared to handle the language of the people. You can’t expect them to memorize texts, use scripts, or impose restrictions.
Companies must be able to tolerate mentions of things that aren't currently going well, because the power of authenticity lies precisely in this honesty.
Maritta: Can any employee become a corporate influencer?
Lisa: A key factor is how strongly employees feel connected to the company culture and how proud they are to work for the company. The stronger the connection, the more willing people are to represent and speak about it externally.
Maritta: How can employees be motivated to act as ambassadors?
Lisa: One important factor is time. Companies need to give their corporate influencers enough time and space to settle into this role. It doesn’t happen overnight, and it can’t be done alongside regular work duties. Corporate influencing needs to be adequately compensated or incentivised.
In addition to appreciation, some practical skills are needed. For example, training or media coaching on how to best handle various media platforms or how to deal with criticism, so they are prepared to respond appropriately.
Maritta: How does a company select the right employees for the role of corporate influencer?
Tanja: A good HR team can choose people who truly represent a broad range. This means having people who balance family and work, younger employees building their careers, and older employees who may have different expectations or perspectives on their daily work life.
Maritta: And how do you avoid unpleasant surprises?
Tanja: Through thorough preliminary discussions, you can understand where these people see challenges or difficulties, such as with overtime, digitalisation, or team structures. This way, the company knows exactly what to expect when they go in front of the camera.
By allowing this, you cultivate a company culture where honesty is practiced. You know very well what works and what doesn’t. So there are no surprises. Nothing is swept under the rug because this company culture, as mentioned, is based on honesty.
Companies looking to attract employees benefit from corporate influencing just as much as job seekers do. Plain speaking creates the right connections. Corporate influencers help present a realistic and credible image of the company to the outside world. They inspire potential employees by sharing their own stories and perspectives and build trust by having the freedom to address areas that need improvement.
Our experts share further strategies for authentic employer branding in this interview.
