If you look at the world’s most successful brands, you’ll find that the foundations of those brands were first laid from the inside out, by the collaborated work of management and staff. Before anyone, the employees first believed in the brand’s core values and best conveyed these principles to their customers.

Having a strong internal brand not only helps your employees focus their efforts toward your core values but your internal brand also serves as the best inspiration for your employees to become powerful PR machines.

Understand how strong your internal brand is

First, you need to understand where your brand stands with your employees. Do your employees really know what your brand stands for? If you called each and every one of them into a room and asked what you were in business to accomplish, could they answer (and would that answer be the same)? Do they even care about your brand?

In order to determine how far U.S. workers understand their company’s brand promises, Gallup randomly selected 3000 workers to assess their agreement with the statement “I know what my company stands for and what makes our brand(s) different from our competitors.”

Only 41% of employees strongly agreed with that statement.

They were collecting paychecks, but they didn’t even understand what they were working for…

Each decision, process and program should be geared towards your company’s overall mission – and that is communicated through your brand strategy and company name. CEOs can get mired in the day to day, tactical part of running a business, but if the foundation of your internal brand isn’t strong, you may be steering your ship in the wrong direction.

In order to keep your reason for being on every employee’s mind, it’s important to make sure that everyone is on the same page. You must lay the foundation of strong internal brand, and continue building upon that foundation on a daily basis – and that process is pretty straightforward.

• Communicate your core values: In what you might consider a no-brainer, you need to tell your employees often about your values. Communicate the brand’s strategy and core values to your employees from day one, and then again and again on a regular basis. Let them know about the brand ethos and ideology that they should live by, and set processes in place to make them accountable for maintaining the vision..

• Empower your employees to deliver brand’s vision: Let your employees know about your brand’s vision and empower them to deliver it to the end customers. If customer service is important to your vision (and it better be), empower your customer service reps to refund, to offer free upgrades and to generally delight your users, without constant supervisory approval. Give them the ability to impress and the encouragement to do so, and you’ll be amazed at the results.

• Brand ambassadors: Companies often choose celebrities or sports stars as brand ambassadors. Unless the ‘role model’ you’ve chosen is a perfect representative of your brand, consider going a different, more authentic direction.

Activate your employees to become powerful ambassadors both internally and externally. This works especially well if you’ve equipped them with the core vision and brand principles and encouraged them to delight your customers at every opportunity.

Why Employees Make the Best Ambassadors

Employees who are well engaged and committed will build a strong brand and company name without even trying. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, “Employees rank higher in public trust than a firm’s PR department, CEO, or Founder. 41% of us believe that employees are the most credible source of information regarding their business.”

Adobe is a great example in this regard. They have successfully transformed ~ 11000 of their employees into social media brand ambassadors. Leveraging their employees in this fashion helps them to build customer goodwill and increase overall sales, while continuing to reinforce their core values (internal branding becomes external brand awareness).

To do this, though, you have to focus on a few key areas. First, you need to empower them to speak on your behalf. Give them the freedom to speak to your customers. Equip them with guidelines that protect your brand, while instilling in them the confidence to speak up.

Once you’ve given them the tools and encouragement to speak, you’ll also need to measure their efforts. While you’re all on the same team, keeping score is an important way to make sure you win the game.

• Assess employee advocacy: There are a lot of ways to measure employee advocacy, but some of more efficient than others. You can set up your own scoring methods, or you can go with an industry standard system like the net promoter score. For instance, how likely are your employees to recommend your company’s product or job to a friend or family member. If that number is pitiful, work on bolstering internal satisfaction before unleashing them on social media.

• Not everyone should be a spokesperson: While you may find that most of your employees will positively reflect your core values, not all of them will be ready for this role immediately. Make being given the ability to speak on your behalf a privilege that is earned. Use social media training as a carrot. Once an employee has proven their loyalty and skillset, invite them to become an ambassador – and make social media training mandatory for these employees. This privilege to serve as an ambassador should be a coveted milestone. Groom the best to be the best and they’ll toot your horn with pleasure.

Your internal brand is vital – if it’s absent, your external brand is just window dressing. If you can effectively communicate your reason for being to your employees, and create excitement about what you are doing, you can unleash an army ready to conquer the world – starting with your competition!

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