Let Your People Love You
In advertising, few things trump passion. It's the reason word of mouth is as powerful as it is. Or why people who enthusiastically share products that they love get a bajillion views on any given social media channel.
To be clear, we're not referring to influencer marketing. When strategically planned, it can generate some of that momentum, but it runs the risk of making customers/users feel tricked. Or worse, it can come across as forced. Passionate unpaid/non-sponsored customers or employees willingly acting as your brand’s ambassador will outperform any carefully crafted marketing campaign nine times out of ten.
No agency, paid partner, or rented talent can speak to your brand's greatness like an enthusiastic employee. Which is why it's so puzzling when big companies who should know better squash this passion. Like this latest example from fast-food powerhouse, Chick-fil-A.
If Your Employees Want to Promote You, Let Them
A Chick-fil-A employee named Miri (known as MiriTheSiren online) has, or rather had, been a viral sensation on TikTok after sharing reviews of various Chick-Fil-A menu items. She was a new employee and shared a review of her employee meal just about every day. She loved the food and loved the brand. That passion was a hit, garnering her thousands and thousands of followers, tens of millions of views, scores of comments and shares, and oodles of good vibes.
Sounds like a good thing for MiriTheSiren and Chick-fil-A, right? Correct.
Unfortunately for both Miri and Chick-fil-A, her TikToks eventually caught the eye of upper management. Rather than embracing their rising-star employee as a brand ambassador and leveraging her success to make something truly magical, Chick-fil-A pulled the plug on Miri’s reviews. It goes against their regulations, apparently.
Don't worry, Shake Shack swooped in and partnered with Miri to review their food, and since then, she’s gained thousands and thousands more followers. Miri’s earnest reviews worked as a far more effective endorsement for Chick-fil-A than any cow with poor writing skills. This is a textbook example of turning what should have been an easy W into a facepalming L.
Embrace Your Employees' Fervor
If a viral moment is happening around your brand, firstly, understand that you can’t control it. And if it’s positive, ride the wave. Sort of the way our client Bob Boyte Chevrolet recently did...
It’s spring time in the south, which means the weather is all over the place. Lots of rain and high winds usually make for awesome videos from overzealous weather people, or in this case, a soaked car salesman. During a particularly stormy day, salesman Logan Crowe decided to show customers that Bob Boyte’s commitment to getting them a deal didn’t stop because of rain.
The only thing harmed during the making of this video was the umbrella. Of course, the management at Bob Boyte Chevrolet would never ask their employees to make a TikTok during a storm. Logan, however, saw an opportunity to make a fun video and Bob Boyte Chevrolet decided to lean into the fun.
Owner and General Manager Tiffany Boyte-West discussed how getting buy-in from employees helps create a culture of championing the company. "Everyone on our sales team made videos, but this guys was the wildest one. That's what it takes to be in the business, though. Going above and beyond because then people get what we will do for them, whether in sales or service. We want our customers to know how good the Bob Boyte group is for them, and we want our team to know our expectations for our customers. Spending ad dollars is one way of showing that we have bought into our team because we know how great they’ll be with our customers. We do business the right way, we go above and beyond, but most of all, we really enjoy making a positive impact on our customers' lives."
If your brand is lucky enough to have ambassadors beyond their paycheck, embrace them. Help them. Feed that passion and help them tell the world how much they love you.
While we can’t create viral moments (we will take advantage of them, though), or change out-of-date corporate policies, we can create strategies that’ll help get the most out of social media for your brand. Contact a genius today and let’s talk about.