Summary : having ambassadors has a real value for brands but it’s a hard job. Ambassadors are not puppets one creates but experts whose trust is hard to deserve. More, in less appealing industries it’s hard to see ambassadors emerge while there are referent people on the matter they address. One can’t create ambassadors but should be accepted by those who are legitimate and deserve the trust of industry experts.
Which brand would not like to raise an army of ambassadors made of employees, customers or simple internauts ? The concept is appealing but the art is difficult. This leads to the same situation already experienced with communities : when they exist, ambassadors are a powerful lever. When a brand tries to create ambassadors ex-nihilo or instrumentalize them, at best it does not work, at worse it backfires.
First, what’s an ambassador ? Someone who carries your words, of course, but in a smart way. Not an ad relay that does nothing except forwarding your messages, says how nice you are and how your competitors suck. This one is a fan and not even a good one. Sometimes you would even prefer him to shut it. An ambassador is legitimate, he talks about you, explains, but in an objective way. He can admit you’re product is not the best but finds arguments to promote it. He’s credible and his credibility matters at least as the size of his online audience. In some cases some are not that “influent” online but a lot in real life.
How to create an ambassador ? First wonder if that’s possible. When I see people that I think deserve this status, the brand has nothing to do with that. That’s the result of a long term relationship between the person and the products, good feeling, and a little bit of “intuitu personae”. To become perfect ambassadors they only need one thing : a closer relationship with the brand in order not to get marketing materials but recognition, insights, means to know the brand better and….not being asked to do anything. On the contrary we can imagine what can happen when a brand gets closer to a rather influent or legitimate person with a view to “buying” him. Either the person refuses and takes offenses he accepts and will look instrumentalized and will loose his credibility.
So it’s all about legitimacy and credibility. No one can get either one or the other in relation to a brand but to a topic. How can one be ambassador a brand with no legitimacy on its industry ? How to talk about a product with poor knowledge of what it’s used for, in which context ? That’s impossible.
So an ambassador is someone legitimate on a topic who’s given the opportunity of better knowing a brand, getting closer to it. Then something happens or not. He finds the brand discourse credible or not. He finds the vision and message credible or not. He finds that despite current lacks it will play a role in the futures or not.
Of course that eliminates candidates and makes things complicated. But don’t forget these wise words : “if you product sucks, social media won’t change a thing”.
And there’s another point : not all brands and industries are equally appealing. It’s easy to be car or mobile phone manufacturer, an airline. But when you sell cleaning or personal hygiene products that’s not the same game. But there are people who are legitimate and often asked for advice on these necessary but not appealing fields. Often in forums where discussions are on descaling bathroom fittings and similar things. One more evidence that it’s easier and more credible to have “problem ambassadors” than will mention your brand that brand ambassadors as such.
Because no one likes puppets or trust contacts with sandwich boards, it will always be easier to deal with problem ambassadors that creating brand ambassadors from scratch. Learning to convince, understanding that it’s all about deserving instead of creating and manipulating people that would be “owned” and obey to any request. Not easy but more effective.
