Brand ambassadors are the key to a strong company brand. Imagine having hundreds of employees actively promoting and advertising your company for you.

Think about the power of a strong brand.

Why is it that we pay thousands for an Apple computer when another brand of laptop costs a few hundred?

Having a strong brand comes from having a strong culture, where employees are passionate about making your company the best.

Most companies make the mistake of putting all of their effort into their marketing campaigns, when the real secret is to put effort into your employees.

Having engaged employees will make sure that your company is able to become strong. According to research from Gallup, engaged employees are more productive, create better customer experiences, and are more likely to remain with their employers.

You need to understand what truly motivates an employee in order to get them passionate about what they do.

Employees are motivated by personal growth, they want to feel like the company genuinely cares about them and their development, and they want to feel included.

These are all very easy things to do, and if you follow these steps, you can turn your employees into brand ambassadors.

Your company should be conducting employee pulse surveys to figure out what makes an employee a brand ambassador, and also what could be improved to make employees more likely to be ambassadors.

Ask a question like:

What’s the thing that you like most about {company}?

And then you can ask questions to show that you’re interested in helping them grow.

What’s one thing {company} could do to help you grow as a person?

Let Employees Be Themselves

This is the real secret to employee engagement, and I’ve spoken about this before. The example I gave was how at Zappos, there is psychology behind why they encourage everyone to decorate their desks with funky and quirky stuff.

One of Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s favorite interview questions is “On a scale from 1-10, how weird are you?” to encourage employees to be unique, and to remind candidates that they embrace that attitude.

It’s called Authentic Self-expression. Basically, what it means is that when people start to not behave like themselves they start to question themselves and they become disengaged.

Because they start to wonder if they themselves are any good.

Written by Jacob Shriar | @JacobShriar