On the earth of employer branding, “authenticity” is the holy grail. Everyone knows {that a} slick company video with employed actors and scripted traces doesn’t idiot anybody anymore. Candidates need to see the actual individuals 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… nicely, pressured?
If you happen to push too arduous, you get “automaton” posts that seem like copy-paste PR blasts. If you happen to don’t push in any respect, you may 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 high expertise—and the way you are able to do the identical.
The Downside: The “Compelled 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 workers really feel like they’re doing unpaid advertising work. And the viewers—your potential candidates—scrolls proper previous it.
Laura Masters highlights that the most important problem is navigating this area with out making the message really feel pressured. You can not mandate ardour. You can not script tradition.
The Resolution: The Virtuous Cycle
As an alternative of a top-down mandate, Expedia Group focuses on a “virtuous cycle” method. In enterprise idea, a virtuous cycle is a recurring cycle of occasions, the results of each being to extend the useful impact of the subsequent.
Within the context of Expedia’s model ambassadors, the cycle appears one thing like this:
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Discovery: The employer model workforce identifies staff who’re already sharing nice moments (usually travel-related, given the business).
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Amplification: The corporate makes use of its platform (just like the @lifeatexpedia channels) to highlight these genuine tales.
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Validation: The worker feels acknowledged and valued for his or her contribution.
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Inspiration: Different staff see this recognition and are impressed to share their very own tales.
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Content material Quantity: The amount of high-quality, genuine content material grows naturally, feeding again into step 1.
By specializing in curation fairly than creation, the model workforce modifications its position from “director” to “documentarian.”
Constructing the Cycle: 3 Key Pillars
Based mostly on the insights from the podcast and Expedia’s seen success, listed here are three pillars to constructing this cycle in your individual group.
1. Mine for Gold, Don’t Manufacture It
Expedia Group has a definite benefit: their product is journey. Their staff are naturally posting images of wonderful journeys, workforce offsites, and “work from anyplace” setups.
However each firm has its “gold.” It may be the pet that interrupts the Zoom name, the workforce lunch, or the complicated drawback solved on a whiteboard.
2. The “Highlight Impact” as a Reward
One of the crucial 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 a large increase of visibility {and professional} pleasure.
That is the engine of the virtuous cycle. When Jane from Engineering sees that John from Gross sales bought featured on the primary LinkedIn web page for his publish 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, it’s good to steadiness freedom with steerage. Masters discusses the significance of making certain the message comes throughout appropriately with out being stiff.
As an alternative of writing the copy for them, present themes or prompts. For instance, as an alternative of claiming “Put up this textual content about our advantages,” say, “Share a photograph of the way you used your wellness stipend this month.”
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Actionable Tip: Create a “Playbook” fairly than a “Rulebook.” Present examples of nice posts, provide recommendations on taking good images, 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 really works.
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Belief: Candidates belief common staff 3x greater than the CEO or PR division.
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Attain: Worker networks are sometimes 10x bigger than the company model’s follower base.
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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 turn into your storytellers, and your employer model turns into a dwelling, respiration entity that pulls expertise who align together with your actual tradition, not simply the one in your “About Us” web page.
To take heed to the complete dialog with Laura Masters and listen to extra about Expedia Group’s employer model journey, take a look at the episode “Methods to Create a Virtuous Cycle for Model Ambassadors” on the Employer Branding Podcast.
