Recruiting student ambassadors may seem like a very difficult task, but understanding where to look can help streamline your search. Finding what direction is best for recruiting the right ambassadors is the most tedious part of the process, but once you identify your ideal ambassador profile, your brand will be able to scale and perfect your student ambassador community.
Below are a few strategies that will help you uncover how to find student ambassadors and start building your brand community on campus.
Email Your Community
If you already have an email list of people who have interacted with the brand before, whether the brand is a store that sells products/services or works with housing residents, you’re already off to an amazing start! These people are already familiar with your brand and what you have to offer as a brand to a consumer. Make sure when you’re emailing them about this opportunity, you take into account these notes:
- Subject Line: Make it about the opportunity! If your ambassador program pays, make sure it stands out in the subject line. Example: Paid Opportunity: [Brand Name] Student Ambassador
- Reply email: When sending the email, make sure that the reply email to a good email to receive emails from. Students may have follow-up questions!
- Body of email:
- Who you are (if applicable)
- Who the brand is and what it offers
- The ambassador role: requirements, tasks, compensation, perks
- Call-to-action: how students can get involved with the opportunity
- Deadline (if applicable)
- Attachments: Feel free to add any attachments that help visualize the role better
Finding Student Ambassadors on Instagram
Nowadays, most people have Instagram. Whether the brand is looking for ambassadors to promote products/services, apartments, or live events, Instagram is one of the first routes to recruit ambassadors. Brands can utilize hashtags, locations, tagged photos, and more to find ambassador leads.
Finding ambassadors in the right place
Depending on what you’re looking for in ambassadors, write down some hashtags, locations, or interests. From there, you will be able to further analyze your candidates.
Example:
“Ambassadors will be [college students] who will be promoting [an app] to [fellow college students]”.
Key point: Will focus on college since it will be college to college students
Hashtags: #college #collegeblogger #ucf #fsu2023 (if looking at specific areas and graduation dates)
Locations: University of Central Florida, Florida State University, or a specific city in your target area
Accounts: Include accounts that you believe those ambassadors may be following
Analyzing Candidates
- Does this person meet the requirements? Look at the biography, and if it’s unclear, reach out anyways and let them know of the requirements.
- Does this person fit in with the brand’s image? Look at content.
- Optional: Does this person have friends that could also be good leads? Look at who is tagged in their photos and analyze their profile as well.
Reaching Out
If you decide to reach out to a candidate through Instagram direct message, follow the steps below:
Instagram Direct Message
- Follow the candidate to avoid being flagged as suspicious activity from Instagram if you are reaching out to many people at once.
- Have a message ready to paste into the text box. Make sure to include who the person reaching out is (ambassador/recruiter/etc), what the brand is, the kinds of tasks ambassadors perform and if it’s paid/unpaid, and a call-to-action to apply/join.
- Make sure to include their name in the message to prevent being flagged as spam
Hey [NAME HERE]! *copy & paste message*
Follow Up
If you messaged through Instagram and can see if they’ve left you on “Seen”, don’t worry about following up. If they haven’t opened it whatsoever, feel free to follow these steps:
- Like their 3 photos (if appropriate)
- Comment on the most recent (if appropriate): “Hey [NAME HERE]! Check your DMs [EMOJI]” For each candidate, try to use a different emoji in the comments to prevent the chances of being marked as spam.
Finding Student Ambassadors on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a great way to find students who want to be exposed to the influencer marketing world. Many students who want to grow their network or gain more experience utilize their LinkedIn to do just that! You can post about the opportunity and use relevant hashtags, and you can also seek those who are looking for more opportunities!
When looking for ambassadors from specific areas, you can narrow down your searches by which university they’re from. You can also use keywords like “marketing” “advertising” “influencer” and “ambassador” to find students who are already familiar with the industry.
When reaching out, you can request to connect with them with a personalized message. Make sure to keep the message short enough so you can not go over the character limit!
Pro-Tips for Recruiting
- Send messages during the day to increase the chances of candidates seeing and opening them.
- Address the individual by their name. You do not want to come off as a spam message!
- If possible, include why they stood out to you. This can be a really good technique if you’re not recruiting many people at a time.
- Don’t feel discouraged by those that don’t follow through or not interested. It’s better to have ambassadors excited and available to join your ambassador program!
Ready to take your ambassador recruitment strategy to the next level? Download a free copy of SocialLadder’s eBook: How To Recruit Top Ambassador Talent To Represent Your Brand.
