The shift to live broadcasting in social media is generating lots of discussion. Snapchat, Facebook Live and Periscope’s first birthday milestone is in many cases catching marketers out.

What does a marketer do when suddenly they are faced with putting staff in front of the camera to evangelise the brand they work for?

Well this is exactly what Riverdance is doing with their team. This iconic Irish brand is 20 years old and spends most of its time overseas entertaining audiences. As their tagline says, the phenomenon rolls on! Recently I had the opportunity to spend half a day with the busy cast of the Barrow crew.

@tweetsbyJSB Thanks for the great talk today! #riverdance #socialmedia #nomorethan2hashtags pic.twitter.com/ypKMQ8eV7S

— callum spencer (@callumspencer) March 24, 2016

The aim of the workshop was to share my knowledge on how the dancers can become brand evangelists for Riverdance while parachuting their own personal brand for future career opportunities.  This workshop was particularly exciting as this is exactly how companies should be moving forward.

I’m a digital marketing practitioner and I work with a range of clients to help empower them online. However, the time has come for PR behind the scenes marketers like us to hand over the social media baton to staff, but in a responsible way.

[tweetthis]Responsible social media marketing requires training, empowerment and scope for trial and error.[/tweetthis]

I developed an ebook and social media guidelines for Riverdance to help them put their vision into action.

5 Ways To Turn Your Employees Into Brand Evangelists

Create a culture of ‘socialness’

Creating a culture of ‘socialness’ takes time, I admit that. However, you have to start somewhere if you are going to encourage your team to be part of your digital storytelling strategy. When you first broach the subject with staff members they may think you have an ulterior motive, however you have to reassure them with honest action that you are shifting with the social media curve. So to do this, have a social media think-in and brainstorm how staff can get involved. Give them a voice, ask for their input and watch how they take ownership.

Be consistent in communication and keep them informed every step of the way in the change process. You will probably recognise natural leaders who may take on certain roles within the social media team and from every department in your organisation. Remember we just don’t want communications staff involved!

Set down guidelines

Everyone needs boundaries, roadmaps, guidelines and suggestions. So make sure you create your own set of social media guidelines on how staff become part of the social media team. Some examples of what to include in this are:

• Who has access to login details
• Who can post and when
• What’s the content editing protocol
• What about live video?
• Can we talk about the brand on our own social networks?
• What should we not do?
• If we have ideas, who do we speak to

Give access to your social media accounts

Don’t wait for perfect but empower with training – Brian Fanzo

I love this quote from Brian Fanzo (#thinklikeafan) whom I shared a stage with at the Social Media Summit Ireland in March 2016. Brian professes that the rise in live video requires us to embrace change rather than waiting until we have perfected every detail. When it comes to your staff fronting your social networks, don’t push them front of screen without training. Empowerment through knowledge is the most valuable way to encourage your team to become brand evangelists. Then they can evolve their style when they are active on social media.

Measure results

You should monitor any changes in your social media results once staff step into a front of house role. Here is what you should monitor and ultimately measure:

• new user-generated content
• increased followers
• a new type of follower / changes in demographics – age, gender, interests, location
• increased conversions if you are clever about your strategy
• greater engagement levels
• web traffic and related stats
• increased sales
• new customer enquiries

So will you hand over the social media baton to your staff? Is you mindset shifting with the social media revolution that we are all currently living through? If you have questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Email [email protected].