At last month’s Community Manager Breakfast, the group chose to focus on a juicy discussion topic: Ambassador Programs. The fantastic Meredith Black (Who is looking for a community role, FYI!) took notes. Check out the high-level bullet points below, and join us at the next breakfast to get the full experience!
What is an ambassador?
Users who are active, engaged, show up offline, spread the word (evangelists).
How do you build an ambassador program?
DO:
- Have a strategy and plan
- (Do you want ambassadors to be pre-beta-testers? Are you looking to recruit? Etc.)
- ID the ambassadors, then reach out with money/resources/support
- Show tons of love to early participants
- Have barriers to entry for selecting ambassadors (see NextDoor)
DON’T:
- Make too many rules – instead, let the users have some say
- Build the relationship around money – instead, make it authentic
- Ramp it up too early – instead, determine ambassador milestones before the call-to-action
How do you develop a sticky ambassador program for a product/service with a 1-time use case? (Example: a site where you research which grad school you want to go to)
Top issues:
- Users have unequal experience (novice vs. expert)
- Users aren’t motivated/interested to stay engaged
- Product/service is hedged by legal/compliance issues
DO:
- Have tools in place: community blog, great platform, user profiles, following capability
- Prioritize motivating and retaining key segments that disengage
- Bucket and grow different segments BEFORE merging them
- Customize attention to build real relationships
- Get 1-on-1 = Hangouts, 15-min phone calls scheduled by users, etc
- Source content from users
- Research successes in similar programs
DON’T:
- Expect your community to solve its own problems
- Force different segments to merge too early
- Ask for company resources without a plan for ROI, milestones, or metrics
- Forget to advocate with users for your/company’s needs
- Hesitate to use exclusivity, if it adds value
- Use an ambassador program if there are legal/compliance issues – instead, find other ways