Are your team members Brand Ambassadors?

Is your team proud to be associated with your company? What would happen if you viewed your team members as brand ambassadors? Ambassadors whose stories attract ideal clients and future team members. How would that impact your relationship with them? How would it impact their work and professional development?

Talents developed in the Aman, Ritz or Cheval Blanc game get strengthened over the course of time, making it impossible for players [employees] to downgrade.

– Ana Andjelic

How do team members talk about your company?

Your team members talk about their work to friends and family. There is a good chance they talk about work online too. What is the story they tell about your company? As a leader, how can you create experiences or moments at work they want to talk about? The team member experience is just as important as the client experience, if not more.

Social Media

The rate at which social media changes is difficult for any one person or small team to manage. Sharing ideas and practices among the team opens the door for fresh ideas and different perspectives. What does your team experience and see in the field? Social media platforms tend to roll out updates in waves so what one team member experiences online may be different from another. Encourage your team to be the eyes and ears of the business.

• What conversations or movements are gaining popularity?
• What content or design trends do they see in images, audio, and video?
• Who are some of their favorite brands or influencers to follow?

People build relationships with people, not brands. Successful businesses know this. This is why you see brand ambassadors, influencers, commission-based sales, affiliate-based marketing, and customer retention specialists built into their growth strategy.

• Christian Dior stylist
• Tiffany’s Client Advisor

Instead of fearing how your team would use social media, leverage it as an extension of their wonderful professional persona. If they’re capable of networking locally, they can network online. We buy from people we like AND trust. Those people should include your team.

Define your Brand Ambassador Practices

What does brand ambassadorship look like for your company? Is it making the company account more collaborative? Is it encouraging team members to create individual professional accounts?

• What is the goal: awareness, sales, storytelling, building relationships?
• What makes sense for your market?
• How is success measured?
• What creative strengths of each team member can be unleashed?
• What opportunities are available through collaboration and multiple POV?
• What are the risks involved? Write these down and talk through them.

Review your company’s social media policies. Be mindful to not let fear stifle creativity and opportunity. Create a best practices document for how to share company moments while allowing room for individual creativity across platforms.

• List shareable events and moments.
• Define unshareable events and moments. (ex: clients, intellectual property)
• Create templates for posts.
• List social media handles for tagging and hashtags.
• Have a gallery of shareable photos after events.

It may help to have an online workspace where your team can roundtable ideas, share insights and tips.

PRIVACY REMINDER: Individual privacy is important. It must be protected and respected. Team members can be brand ambassadors without having an online presence. If you are capturing, recording, and/or sharing photos or videos of your team, make sure you have their written permission on file. Some states prevent the use of an individual’s name, image, or likeness for commercial purposes without prior consent.

Former DOAC Employee weighs in

UPDATE 10/06/2025: Grace Andrews, a previous employee at Diary of a CEO, shared her thoughts on employees being brand ambassadors.

Let’s talk about it then: The rise of the Employee Ambassador.

Most brands are *still* missing their biggest marketing opportunity – the people already sitting inside their business.

For years, companies have invested millions into paid reach. But the most powerful form of reach is earned, and in 2025 it could (and should) come from your own employees.

I call them Employee Ambassadors.

Not to be confused with “people who post on Linkedin about work.”

They’re the ones who bridge the brand’s purpose with their own credibility becoming megaphones for the shared mission.

– They speak in human language, not corporate tone.
– They share learnings, not press releases.
– They build connections, not clients.

And I’m speaking from first-hand experience.

When I joined The Diary of a CEO, my job was to build the show’s audience.

While our main brand accounts shared the episodes, I shared the lessons and learnings behind them to my own profiles.

My content didn’t replace what we created on the brand channels, it amplified it.

That combination built a powerful ecosystem, one that deepened trust, expanded reach, and reinforced credibility from every angle.

And the impact went far beyond social media posts. Because of the visibility I built, I was invited onto podcasts, panels, and stages – all opportunities to tell our story to new audiences and add further authority to the brand.

I wasn’t just leading the marketing team, I became part of the marketing mix.

And as my personal reputation grew, so did the brand’s perceived expertise.

When executed correctly, the mutual benefits for brand and employee are exponential.

That’s the power of Employee Ambassadors: when you invest in your people’s visibility, you don’t lose control of your narrative – you multiply its impact.

But like any marketing plan, it requires a brief, guidelines and strategy.

Career Milestones for Brand Ambassadors

The key is to create a culture and service your team members want to talk about. People can tell the difference between genuine enthusiasm and selling for the sake of it.

First Day of Hire

First impressions count. How do you welcome them to the team?  Your enthusiasm as a leader is contagious. If you’re excited, they’ll be excited and so will the rest of the team. How you show up the first day through the first 90 days sets the tone for the relationship.

Company-branded attire and office supplies are a great way to create a shareable experience. You don’t have to break the bank to create a memorable experience. Simple thoughtful gestures such as balloons, a personal card, and snacks work well. For remote team members, send a welcome package.

Ali, AEF Interiors, recently shared a team member’s unboxing of their welcome package on Instagram stories. The team member was thrilled! I enjoyed seeing her enthusiasm and Ali’s care for her team.

Anniversary

Personal Days

Team Outings

Team outings for events, retreats, summits, trade shows, and training are great opportunities to capture memorable moments. When team members are outside the office the dynamic is different and people tend to relax more. A relaxed brain is more open to new ideas and creativity.

Last Day of Hire

Company Events for Brand Ambassadors

A list of opportunities for storytelling and sharing individual perspectives.

• Brand refresh
• Client appreciation week
• Client reviews or testimonials
• Holidays
• Podcast
• Product launch
• Q&A sessions
• Service launch
• Designer showhome
• Talent recruitment
  • Hiring managers can use IG Live, YouTube, or another medium as recruiting open houses. It creates an opportunity to share company values, different roles, company culture, benefits, and answer questions. You can host a panel with current team members who can share their experiences.
• Tips
  • how to get most out of client experience
  • how to prepare for service
  • what to expect during ____
• Website refresh

Do you make it easy for your vendors to talk about the positive experience they’ve had with you and your team?

@theceoffice

Industry Events for Brand Ambassadors

What opportunities does your team have to build relationships through continuing education, trade industry, local community, and beyond? Instead of restricting visibility to the founder, include your team too.

• Attending a continuing ed. course/workshop
• Joining a cohort or mastermind
• Joining a local non-profit
• Joining a trade association
• Participating in a forum
• Participating on a panel discussion

Relationship building is a skill that requires practice. If you don’t know where to start or what to say, I recommend being useful. How can you add value to the other person? Who can you introduce them to? What insight or resource can you share that would benefit them? Focus on the other person. Ask them questions and listen to learn vs respond. Focusing on them takes the pressure of you and allows you to relax.

Benefits

Here are 3 benefits of having your team as brand ambassadors.

1. Making the team the focus improves client onboarding because they already feel connected to the team.
2. Making the team the focus supports recruiting new team members by highlighting company culture.
3. Making the team the focus sets the stage for future succession plans.

Create a culture where working for your business is seen as a status. A status earned through development, quality work, and relationships. A status that competes with Fortune 100 and premiere hospitality and luxury brands.

---