Employees' Ambient Influence Is An Untapped Yet Powerful Marketing Channel

On the surface, initiatives like employee advocacy programs, community engagement, and internal brand champions suggest an organization's devotion to its employees. A closer look, however, often reveals a foundational gap in modern communications strategy. When a company fails to build the infrastructure to support public-facing employees, it leaves a powerful brand channel untapped and creates unnecessary risk.

To understand this missed opportunity, we spoke with Christina Frantom, a senior communications leader with more than 15 years of experience in crisis management and corporate reputation. Currently serving as the Internal Communications Lead for Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Frantom has built a career helping global brands navigate risk and drive growth. She explains that solving the disconnect requires companies to embrace a fundamental but simple philosophy that reframes the entire relationship. "Employees should be your first customer. Until companies understand that, they’re going to miss out on the power of their own people as brand ambassadors," says Frantom.

• Accidental influencers: Frantom points out that employees inherently represent their companies publicly through social media, personal brands, and community involvement, but too many organizations only consider this representation when it feels negative or highly visible. "Companies aren't really focused on their employees' social media activity until those employees become influencers and have millions of followers. Then they're like, 'Hey, let's get you involved.'"

• Guide, don't mandate: Instead, she advocates for treating employee engagement as a core business function, with clear, formal guidance for team members who feel compelled to participate. "It needs to be part of the culture, and you need to build the infrastructure so that people who want to take part in it can, but people who don’t, don’t have to.”

An employee’s ambient influence holds real power, yet without defined guardrails it can also create uncertainty. Establishing a process for employee-led initiatives helps prevent an ad-hoc scramble. Frantom uses the example of employees who ask their company to sponsor events they're personally involved with. "There's a community relations arm at every company, and a lot of times companies don't engage their employees in that community relations piece."

She explains how employers can leverage this opportunity to engage eager employees while capitalizing on positive face time in the community. "Communicate to the employees that you want to focus sponsorship dollars on employee-backed brand partnerships and event partnerships," she says. Then, establish a system for what that looks like. "Have employee matching, have a form to fill out, have sponsorship thresholds. There's a way to do it so that every employee isn't having to reinvent the wheel every time."

• Socializing staff: Social media is another platform where companies can treat their workforce more like customers. "There are pieces of software that encourage employees to engage with their employer's social media, like incentivizing them to comment on posts," Frantom shares. Once again, she advocates for establishing a policy with guidelines that keep it effective and safe. "That should be baked into marketing and comms plans."

By embracing the employee-as-customer philosophy and creating a deliberate strategy around it, businesses can transform the traditional marketing funnel into a self-sustaining internal flywheel. "You want it to be something as straightforward as the benefits package," Frantom says. "This is where internal comms, HR, and legal are critical allies, coming together to create a curated experience to engage employees with the brand."