While reading the latest issue of Event Marketer, I stumbled upon an article about brand ambassadors entering the digital age, leveraging their social networks on behalf of brands.  It immediately reminded me of something similar I wrote here a year ago, though Sandy O’Loughlin was far more eloquent.

For an industry-wide snapshot of what kind of influence brand ambassadors are wielding – and will be expected to wield – in the social media jungle, check out EM’s article for examples like Yahoo at the Olympics, or Samsung and the Guinness World Record.

Where do you see the role of brand ambassadors going?

It's a social media jungle!

At Javelin we constantly receive resumes, head shots, and audition tapes from people looking for brand ambassador gigs – whether we’re hiring at the moment or not. The competition is stiff, and it’s challenging to stand out in a sea of highly qualified candidates.

If you want to make yourself exponentially more valuable than other equally qualified brand ambassadors, have a robust blog and active Twitter account. As experiential marketers, you inspire consumers to talk about the brand/experience/benefits, so why not provide extra value to the agency and the client by adding into the mix your personal voice, complete with behind-the-scenes, on-the-road snapshots of the “Brand X experience”?

Still not sure? Currently Javelin has a team of 42 cyclists riding across America to promote 42 Below vodka, a pure, eco-conscious brand from New Zealand. Most of the riders have active Twitter accounts from which they are tweeting updates about the scenery, promotional stops, funny people they meet along the way, and the joys and rigors of riding 80-100 miles per day. More than half of them have personal blogs where they’re writing about their experiences in more depth. These people lead interesting lives they share with the world regularly, not just when they’re on tour, and as a result they have a readership base. Have a look at http://eatsleep42ride.wordpress.com/, and at some of the other rider blogs that are linked to it.

42 Below Riders

Sure, it’s not essential to have a blog or to Twitter, but in this economy don’t you want every advantage you can create for yourself? We look forward to reading about your adventures in life!

P.S. This should go without saying but if you’re going to offer these things up as a competitive difference to agencies, use common sense in regards to what you write and use spellcheck.