Are you stuck attracting more followers on your social media platforms?
Do you want to learn how to become a brand ambassador?
Dr. Darryl Glover, Jr. and I had the extreme pleasure of inviting Dr. Kristie Nguyen to the Eye Care Marketing CLUB’s stage on March 28, 2021.
Kristie shared her story with us on how she grew her social media following as well as how she became a brand ambassador for the eye care/eyewear and skincare industries.
Grow Your Social Media Platform
Taking the road less traveled, Kristie decided that, instead of working on growing her Instagram account initially, she enjoyed engaging with and developing a large Linkedin community. She was a bit surprised at first that this would be the fastest-growing platform to gain followers, but quickly realized it made sense since many of her colleagues and industry leaders were quite active on Linkedin.
How Kristie Grew Her Social Media
Kristie took a few months to really pay attention to how people used Linkedin, how they grew their following, and how they engaged with their followers there. Once she felt confident in the methodologies for maximizing Linkedin, she began posting the following types of content:
- Positive quotes,
- Educational postings on eye care and skincare,
- Optometry-related videos – short ones to let patients know who she is, and
- Lots of pictures of reviews/testimonials and people being successful with the different brands’ products.
Kristie also gave us some other great pointers on how she posts and grows her network on Linkedin:
- She doesn’t add links directly to the posts – she adds them in the comments,
- When adding people to her network, she’s open-minded in order to diversify and grow her following, and she does NOT send them a connection message, she just looks at their profiles and hits the “connect” button,
- She’s still very aware of whom she wants to market to, and adds them to her network,
- Now that her network has grown recently, she’s a bit more selective on whom she adds, looking at their profile, making sure they’re not someone who wants to spam her. She realizes the importance of quality connections.
Advice on nurturing your Linkedin network:
- Once connected, she recommends that you DO DM your new connections, especially when you have something that may add value for them; watch for Linkedin’s special reminders or suggestions about wishing them a Happy Birthday, congratulating them on a new job or work anniversary, any special commendations, etc.,
- Always sends a personal message if they Like and Comment on your posts,
- Do respond to them both publicly and privately where appropriate.
If you’d like to check out the types of posts that gained Kristie’s large following, check out her Linkedin profile here (tell her Dr. Sandi sent you!): Dr. Kristie Nguyen Linkedin Profile.
Become a Brand Ambassador
Before we discuss the tips that you can take to become a brand ambassador, I want to share with you what Kristie said about why she wanted to become a brand ambassador…
She revealed to us that things took off all of a sudden for her in early 2020. One company reached out to her on Linkedin, then another, and another… But, again, it was all the hard work Kristie put into growing her following as described above that caught their attention.
All they wanted was for her to post on social media about their companies. She agreed… as long as it didn’t deviate from her values. Kristie is extremely clear about this – she MUST believe in their product(s)!
In fact, she will always ask them:
“What do you stand for, what are you looking for, how do you see us working together?”
Right now, Kristie doesn’t even receive monetary compensation for being a brand ambassador, however, she does receive and get to keep some of the products she promotes. Personally, I believe she is now appropriately positioned to become a paid micro-influencer (receiving appropriate compensation for her posts).
I also mentioned to Kristie that I had just learned about an amazing new company at CartRev.com and recommended she sign up for their program. She is a perfect candidate for what they are offering.
General tips on becoming a brand ambassador from Kristie
- Grow your social media platform(s),
- Brag about the brands you love, get more followers for them, tag them, add their location as part of the geotagging abilities on many platforms, and demonstrate why you love their products,
- Reach out to the brands after they see what you’re doing (after they have engaged with your content about them somehow),
- Leverage 1 company for the next company – once a single company comes on board, post about it often, then reach out to other companies and let them know you have begun being an ambassador for another (hopefully, non-competitive) company.
Other Thoughts
- Make sure you’re optimizing your Linkedin profile (I’ve included a fantastic article by one of the most prominent experts on growing your Linkedin following and social selling, Melonie Dodaro – be sure to follow her for tips),
- Consistency is imperative to grow your brand (consistency of branding your content and consistency of time),
- You have to make it a job, branding yourself…
- You can grow your following with patients as well as students and other ODs,
- Be authentic,
- Connecting with people at conferences offline has been great for becoming a brand ambassador!
- Find the social media that works for you,
- Clubhouse may be another great platform to consider!
If you’d like to see which brands Kristie is now representing as a brand ambassador, check out her Facebook post by clicking here.
Join Us on Clubhouse!
You’ll need to be on your mobile, then click on the link below to download the app (currently only on the iPhone or iPad operating system).
Access the Clubhouse Notes
Download the PDF Clubhouse Notes
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