| Abstract [eng] |
The startup ecosystem in Lithuania has grown by over 7 times in its value during the last five years. It has been deemed as the fastest-growing startup ecosystem in the Baltics region as well as in Central and Eastern Europe. Consequently, the development of the startup ecosystem created a competitive market for new and emerging as well as already established startups, where all these companies in the early stages of their development compete for visibility and engagements of potential clients, which can be achieved through a comprehensive brand awareness strategy. While some research has been conducted about brand awareness and its applicability to companies through the efforts of strategic communication and brand ambassadorship, there was a lack of research that would provide guidelines for startups. Startups usually have limited resources, and cost-effective brand awareness strategies can achieve visibility and engagement through the manner of employee brand ambassadors. Continuously, employee brand ambassadors should have an established personal brand, which can aid in constructive and successful communication with potential clients. The aim of this research was to provide guidelines on how employees as brand ambassadors in Lithuanian startups can strategically align their communication to attract more clients. To achieve this, a qualitative and quantitative analysis has been conducted on Linkedist employee brand ambassadors’ communication on Linkedin, as well as a client survey. The object of this research was 150 posts from employees as brand ambassadors’ communication on the social media platform LinkedIn, as well as their Social Selling Index scores, 6 public profiles, and 14 responses to online client survey. Several objectives have also been drawn: 1) to conduct a literature overview on the background of brand ambassadors, brand awareness, personal branding, and discuss the current situation in Lithuania’s startup ecosystem, 2) to provide a quantitative and qualitative analysis of employees as brand ambassador’s communication. The findings of this research suggest that to achieve more visibility and engagement on social media platform Linkedin, employee brand ambassadors should have a well-optimized personal profile and focus on networking on the platform, as well as utilize personalized, educational, and referring to company updates content in combination with visual communication. Promotional content should be present in combination with other post contents. Effective post types are single-image, gallery and text-only. Employee brand ambassadors should also include short CTAs, which clearly define a point of value, and emotion-loaded posts are more engaging as well. Clients follow employee brand ambassadors for their industry authority and valuable content for their professional interests. Consistent, visible content fosters brand awareness and client engagement. |
