“Trusted voices” are people who have been empowered to speak positively and confidently about their professional life within your organisation on social media. You might also know them as storytellers, ambassadors or social media advocates but they all have a similar aim: to give your target audiences an authentic and human insight into your work. They can have any role within the organisation and be at any level, including the CEO.
Trusted voices will all use social media in different ways, including:
- Photos and videos about what they are doing professionally as well as personally
- Sharing content from corporate channels to increase reach and engagement
- Participating in live Q&As to help people better understand their roles
- Writing blogs and articles discussing different aspects of their day-to-day roles, challenges, successes and more
- Being the faces of your organisation online through interviews, photos and videos
- Telling interesting stories from within the organisation
Why use trusted voices?
It can be difficult sometimes to communicate about all aspects of your organisation from a corporate account. People are less likely to trust faceless organisations, especially when there are limits to what you can post and your tone of voice. The research from Ipsos Mori in the graph below also reveals the different levels of trust in specific professionals. These credible experts in their field can be utilised to spread important messaging, counter misinformation and improve transparency.
Trusted voices can complement the corporate communications work you’re already doing in a number of ways;
- Improve public perception and awareness around the diverse work you do
- Support important crisis communications messaging
- Promote your corporate channels as ambassadors
- Help with recruitment
- Develop niche or local audiences that might be harder to reach
- Increase trust in senior leaders
How we help get your trusted voices speaking online
We have run a number of trusted voices programmes with organisations and every programme looks a little bit different, depending on what you want to achieve. With every programme, we work alongside you to identify a group of individuals within the organisation to be your trusted voices. Whilst these people may already have some confidence posting on social media, further training is provided for them to better understand what it means to be a ‘trusted voice’.
Once the programme has kicked off, we offer different levels of support to the trusted voices. We also advise your team on how best to work with, support and manage the trusted voices.
How could we help you?
Talk to us informally about how we approach this kind of work, ballpark budgets and timescales – or just to help you refine your brief: email [email protected]
Our trusted voices work
Representing the organisation as spokespeople
A multinational energy company was looking to create a team of credible spokespeople with the skills and confidence to represent the business online and to help it achieve its strategic objectives. We worked with 10 senior leaders across different markets to help them get started on LinkedIn and give them the confidence to engage confidently online and develop their network. Since the launch of the program, the voices are gradually asserting their position as ambassadors for the organisation.
Photo by Nuno Marques on Unsplash
Coaching senior leaders to be online
A transport regulator wanted its senior leaders and operational colleagues to directly engage with stakeholders online and showcase the diverse nature of their work. We coached their Chief Inspector as well as a number of operational staff to improve their confidence with social media.
Improving recruitment
A defence organisation came to us for help to improve staff and supplier recruitment. They also wanted to improve safety messaging and better explain what’s happening behind security fencing. As part of our delivery, we developed a trusted voices programme with twelve staff members across the organisation. They now post regular updates about their work via Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin.
Pictured is a SLAM (Single Living Accommodation Modernisation) Block at Imjin Barracks, Gloucester. Accommodation for junior soldiers who live in at their unit.
Empowering prisons to engage online
We worked with Tees and Wear prisons to empower senior staff to use their own social channels confidently. The staff were able to engage their local communities and improve listening to relevant conversations happening online.
Digital storytelling with the Royal Air Force
We’ve worked with the Royal Air Force to:
- Identify and recruit personnel who are already using social media well, to talk about their work in a personal, professional manner
- Run workshops and remote support to bring these people into a special network of RAF Storytellers
- Ensure that Storytellers receive the highest level support and are integral to communications planning
Photo by Richard R. Schünemann on Unsplash. Instagram post from Lauren Nineham