How do you crowdsource content marketing in Singapore?

So you have decided to have a brand advocate/social influencer program and found your natural brand advocates in Singapore. How do you now empower them to create content and drive conversation?

Firstly you have to share enough Singaporean as well as Asian content and information with them on an exclusive, first-see basis to inspire your brand advocates to write, post, and engage what you want them to.

Dominos in Singapore have used this to launch new menu items and new pizzas. Takefive energy drink in Singapore have also used social influencers to create content about the positive experience that the drink has had on them to counter any negative connotations energy drinks sometimes have.

The key aspect of inspiring brand advocates is that they will take your corporate speak and turn it into humanised branded content that your target audience can relate to. These Singaporean brand advocates can then lead their followers if they are inspired and trusted with your new product and services news.

You have to allow them into your secret plans and new launches to prepare their followers for exciting news and products. This is especially true of beauty brands in Singapore such as Vichy, L'Oreal, Playboy, and SkinInc who all fight for the most influential bloggers to write positively about their brand.

Not all your Singaporean brand advocates are made equally though. It’s important to manage your advocates as you would employees. Some are star performers, some are great team players. Not all should be given the same content and expect to produce stunning campaigns.

You need to give them all specific assignments and be constantly monitoring them to ensure that they complete their tasks. The best bloggers in Singapore will expect to be treated well by the brands that are targeting them.

Singapore Airlines, for example, have their pick of brand fans who are only so keen to write positive reviews about their Singaporean Airlines experience. Volvo in Singapore also share content created through their brand advocates to influence opinion of their brand.

You must also make the material that you give them easy to share. This is easy enough to do in Singapore with new launches or brand extensions of FMCG brands like Lipton and alcoholic drinks like Smirnoff where you treat those selected to exclusive launch events that they can write about.

You need the advocates to influence their followers to share. In Singapore fashion brands like Miss Sixty, Zalora, and United Nude are all keen to inspire their advocates to produce compelling content that can be shared with their followers.

In order to do this you need to make it easy for the content they receive to be shared into their network and beyond. Sharing widgets and tell a friend program are both essential in this content sharing strategy in such a competitive social media market such as Singapore where every brand is fighting for the most influential brand advocates.

It’s also imperative that you reward the best advocates and not just with money but with status, treats, surprises; money can’t buy benefits and goodies. This will particularly feed into the status drive that many social influencers fight to achieve in a status-driven society like Singapore. Their desire to be more influential is your opportunity to feed the best ones to communicate harder, faster, and more effectively than the others.

You also need to show general appreciation for all your advocates in Singapore to ensure that none feel left out and become negative advocates as opposed to the positive ones you believe them to be.

This takes careful management and a carefully thought through rewards program even at a lower mass level. Every show of appreciation from you and the brand to them will be repaid ten-fold by your advocates.

Once you have your natural social influencer program set up in Singapore content producing and starting conversations, you can always compliment it with paid-for advocates. However, be wary of this as although they may have many followers, they will just as much promote your rival's brand as yours. Whoever pays the piper calls the tune.

Don’t forget your Singaporean employees too. Many organisations think that their employees should not be part of their brand advocacy program but actually they should be the first ones that you think about when you think about brand advocacy.

Your employees are your natural leaders, they are also all aware of the company’s products, services, and strengths. They are also usually tremendously loyal and passionate about your brand. If you identify the right key employee advocates, you can empower them to compliment your social influencer program of natural brand advocates in Singapore.