The power of brand ambassadors is undeniable. A 2012 Nielsen study reveals that 92 percent of consumers around the world say they trust earned media, such as word-of-mouth marketing or recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising.

And with the continued explosion of social media, mobile and other technology tools, creating opportunities to turn your most influential supporters into motivated champions for your products, services or causes has never been more paramount than today.

So, where do you begin?

• Identify your star brand ambassadors: Well, first, you’ll need a plan to identify your star brand ambassadors, all of the people out there who love your brand and have the influence and desire to share that enthusiasm with others. Just about every business or organization has plenty of them, but they just haven’t been identified or utilized, YET.

• Give advocates good reasons to do meaningful things for your brand: It usually takes more than just a polite ask to get your advocates to do something meaningful for the brand. You need to give them a reason to take action, and what better way to reward them for their efforts than with your own products or services? One interesting example of this is Ford, where 100 socially-active consumers were selected to drive around the U.S. in Ford Fiestas and completed appealing monthly missions related to volunteerism, adventure, style and design, broadcasting the results of the missions and adventures on YouTube, flickr, Facebook and Twitter. In exchange, they enjoyed driving around in a new Ford Fiesta for free.

• Decide what you want them to do that will have the most impact on your business: Perhaps, it’s asking them to invite their Facebook friends to “like your page,” or getting them to check-in at locations and take a picture of your product in the store and share it on Instagram. Whatever that may be come up with a plan that utilizes your brand ambassadors in the most effective ways possible.

• Organize the troops: This is not meant literally, but figuratively speaking, your army of brand ambassadors. You’ll need an organized campaign that clearly tells your advocates what they need to do, how to do it, and what’s in it for them. Keep your program simple in order to get maximum participation.

• Layer-in a healthy dose of competition: People love to be challenged, so make the program more than just a way to enjoy great perks, challenge them with games and competitions to be the biggest brand ambassador for a chance to win something really big.

• Share their endorsements through your own outreach: Once you have started generating some nice buzz and traction through your brand ambassadors, share what they are saying and doing, wherever possible, in your e-newsletter, during sales presentations, on your website and blog, other social media channels, etc.

Whether your company is large or small, every brand has a story to tell and valuable communities of fans, followers and supporters to help you tell that story. So utilize, reward and nourish them. You’ll be thankful that you did.

Olivier Baudoux is the founder & CEO of San Diego-based DrivAd, Inc. DrivAd is a unique customer engagement program that matches organizations with their ideal brand ambassadors (aka DrivAdvocates), turning them into motivated influencers for their products, services or causes in exchange for valuable rewards and a great sense of pride.

DrivAd was born in 2012 from Baudoux’s vision to create powerful and cost-effective ways for businesses to tap into their natural and most loyal brand ambassadors, who are typically under-utilized.

According to Wommapedia, a leading Internet resource on Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM), 72 percent of people claim that reviews from family members or friends exert a great deal or fair amount of influence on their purchasing decisions. This is just one of many statistics pointing to the importance of word-of-mouth endorsements from people who trust your brand.

Yet in light of how vital these influencers are to any business, brand ambassadors remain highly underutilized assets, but why?

1)    Many companies don’t know who their brand ambassadors even are or how to recognize them. Whether they’re employees, loyal customers, fans, or even friends of fans, finding and tapping into your star brand ambassadors can be a challenge, but one of the most important things you do to boost your business. A good place to start is by simply looking at your pool of customers who are repeat buyers, or employees who have served for your company for more than a year. They are likely to be your biggest supporters.

2)    A company’s army of brand ambassadors is difficult to organize. In other words, it’s one thing to hope for a positive review from a happy customer, and quite another thing, to ask them to do specific things to support your brand. You need to tell your customers and fans what you want them to do in order to get a desired outcome. For instance, if your goal is to grow your fan base on Facebook, then invite your brand ambassadors to share a photo or testimonial on your Facebook page, or invite their Facebook friends to like your page. A specific action will lead to a tangible result.

3)    Everyone is busy. Even if your company’s best supporters have good intentions and want to share their positive experiences with your products and services with other people they know, getting them to find the time and do something about it is not always easy. A couple suggestions are to reward them with something they will appreciate and making it easy for them to take action.

Every business has its own valuable pool of fans, supporters, employees, customers, etc. who have the potential to make a difference. So find them, utilize them and nurture the relationship.

Olivier Baudoux is the founder and CEO of DrivAd, a unique customer engagement program that matches organizations with their ideal brand ambassadors, turning them into motivated influencers for their products, services or causes in exchange for valuable rewards and a great sense of pride.

DrivAd was born in 2012 from Baudoux’s vision to create powerful and cost-effective ways for businesses to tap into their natural and most loyal brand ambassadors, who are typically under-utilized.

The power of Facebook for marketers is undeniable. According to September 2013 data released by the social media giant, Facebook’s total monthly active users now exceed one billion.

But while it seems that Facebook should be a natural goldmine for winning new customers and keeping existing ones engaged, still many struggle with how to make their Facebook efforts pay off. The good news, though, is that by understanding the common mistakes that Facebook marketers make, and how to avoid them, you can greatly increase your chances of success.

MISTAKE # 1: Overly focusing on how many fans “like” your business page. While the number of fans that “like” your business page is certainly a good thing, it’s more important to make sure that your fan base is comprised of your target audiences, i.e. new and existing customers, employees, and those who are the strong supporters of your brand with the social influence and desire to tell their own friends and social networks about it. So make it a point to ask your loyal customers, employees, friends and family, etc. to “like” your page, at minimum, and reward them for spreading the word.

MISTAKE #2: Using your business page to just sell your products and services. Social media is a conversational tool and so it needs to be treated as such. It’s OK to let people know about a new product or special offer from time to time, but using it strictly as a billboard for advertising your business will likely turn people off and can eventually result in more existing fans “unliking” your page. Instead, try to create relevant conversations through your Facebook posts, such as asking fun trivia questions or sharing an interesting article that your fans might be interested in. Then when people comment on posts, be proactive in responding to them.

MISTAKE #3: Not having a plan. Before beginning your Facebook campaign, you’ll need a plan. Many businesses make the mistake of execution before strategy when it comes to Facebook. Your plan should identify your campaign goals, target audiences, strategies, tactics, and how you will measure results.

MISTAKE #4: Assuming that just because you are generating new posts on a consistent basis, people are reading them. With more than one billion Facebook users, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. Your Facebook posts should be thoughtful, appealing, and you can often boost your response rates to posts when you include something visual, such as a relevant photo or video. If a particular post is important but not generating the kind of response or “likes” that you want, revisit the message and think about a better way to share it with your fans. It’s totally fine to post more than once about a particular message, but try to put a different spin on it and see if you get a better response.

MISTAKE #5: Not paying attention to metrics. Facebook Insights can give you a lot of good data about what is happening on your page, who likes it, what people are saying, and what they are doing about it. One good metric to pay attention to is the number of shares, which tells you who and how many people have shared a particular post from your page on their own Facebook timeline or a page that they manage. Sharing shows that your messages are being heard by your fans and with their own social networks.

In general, it’s important to remember that marketing success on Facebook often doesn’t happen overnight, but learning from past mistakes and how to avoid mistakes will definitely help.

Olivier Baudoux is the founder and CEO of DrivAd, a unique customer engagement program that matches organizations with their ideal brand ambassadors, turning them into motivated influencers for their products, services or causes in exchange for valuable rewards and a great sense of pride.

DrivAd was born in 2012 from Baudoux’s vision to create powerful and cost-effective ways for businesses to tap into their natural and most loyal brand ambassadors, who are typically under-utilized.

Following up on my previous blog post, I’d like to share three great brand ambassadorship success stories from companies we can learn from. Each shows the power.

Taco Bell: Last year, 15-year-old Illinois high school swim team member Ryan Klarner, posted a plea on Taco Bell’s Facebook page a plea to receive a customized Speedo that says think outside the buns on the back of it. Two weeks later, Taco Bell posted a reply: “What size do you wear? And what’s your address?” More than 2,600 people liked Ryan’s post, and more than 1,000 liked the reply. Ryan was already a regular customer–his post noted that he eats at Taco Bell “at least” five to seven times a week–but he is now a fan for life!

Ford: In 2009, Ford launched The Ford Fiesta Movement campaign where 100 agents were selected to drive around in Ford Fiestas for six months and complete monthly missions related to volunteerism, adventure, style and design, while broadcasting their missions on social media. The results were phenomenal, generating millions of Twitter impressions and YouTube views, and the campaign resulted in 50,000 requests for information about the car, largely from people who didn’t previously own a Ford. The company sold 10,000 units in the first six days of sales, and the results came at a relatively low cost.

Jersey Mike’s Subs: Quick-service franchise Jersey Mike’s Subs recently completed a campaign in the San Diego market with DrivAd, which after great success and feedback is now being continued with large expansion across California and nationwide. During the campaign, DrivAd worked with Jersey Mike’s Subs to recruit a large number of concentrated brand ambassadors, aka DrivAdvocates, located two miles from each store. These DrivAdvocates comprising Jersey Mike’s most influential and loyal fans, were selected to spread valuable awareness and buzz for the brand in exchange for free Jersey Mike’s Subs using moving billboards on their personal vehicles, as well as a variety of social media and digital marketing activities. According to Steve Miller, marketing specialist, Jersey Mike’s Subs, “Moving billboards get more attention / exposure. Static billboards, while good, at some point become invisible to passers-by, but if you’re sitting at a light or driving behind a DrivAd car it’s hard not to see it.”

Olivier Baudoux is the founder and CEO of DrivAd, a unique customer engagement program that matches organizations with their ideal brand ambassadors, turning them into motivated influencers for their products, services or causes in exchange for valuable rewards and a great sense of pride.

DrivAd was born in 2012 from Baudoux’s vision to create powerful and cost-effective ways for businesses to tap into their natural and most loyal brand ambassadors, who are typically under-utilized.