Northwest Arkansas Council Drafts Ambassadors to Spread News

The nonprofit organization Northwest Arkansas Council is putting a new spin on an age-old way of promoting good news.

A marketing initiative called the Northwest Arkansas Digital Ambassadors Program was announced Nov. 14 by president and CEO Mike Malone.

Participants who register with the organization to become a digital ambassador are asked to use their personal social media networks to spread news that reflects positively on Northwest Arkansas. Registration is done online at the Northwest Arkansas Council’s website.

Digital ambassadors will periodically receive emails from the Northwest Arkansas Council with new content to share that can be posted on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn — or all three — with just a click of a mouse.

So when Neile Jones, a news anchor for local NBC affiliate KNWA-TV, received an email from the Northwest Arkansas Council on Nov. 15 saying the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport is celebrating its anniversary this month after providing service to 7.5 million outbound passengers in its first 15 years, all she had to do was click a “Share Now” button in the email to instantly broadcast the information to her legions of Twitter followers, Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections.

When the Northwest Arkansas Council let its digital ambassadors know Nov. 20 that major expansions by four Northwest Arkansas companies in the past five months have created almost 2,000 new jobs, Kevin Thornton shared the news via Twitter and Facebook in seconds.

“It makes it turnkey for someone like me,” said Thornton, a senior communications officer for The Walton Family Foundation, as well as an Elm Springs city councilman. “It’s one thing to read a headline in the paper and make the effort to forward that article around, but this makes it so easy to get out the good news about Northwest Arkansas.

“It’s innovative and a great way to tap into already existing networks that people have.”

The digital ambassadors program is monitored and tracked by SocialToaster, a Baltimore-based startup company that helps clients expand their marketing reach by better interacting with customers and fans through social media.

The tracking allows Rob Smith, communications and policy specialist for the Northwest Arkansas Council, to tangibly measure the impact digital ambassadors are having.

For example, Smith said as of Dec. 3 the Northwest Arkansas Council had sent three news blasts to its digital ambassadors. Of that content, 51 percent of social media shares were via Twitter, 26 percent on Facebook and 23 percent on LinkedIn.

By tapping into the growth of social media as a way to communicate successes, a new breed of messenger has been created: the digital ambassador.

Chambers of commerce and other civic organizations have advocated ambassador programs for decades, arming members with key bullet points of achievement, and then encouraging them to spread the word while visiting other areas.

The idea is that by capitalizing on the tremendous growth of social media, digital ambassadors can reach a larger audience as opposed to having only face-to-face encounters.

“It’s really a phenomenon of the past year,” said Andy Levine, president and CEO of Development Counsellors International, a marketing agency in New York which counts the Northwest Arkansas Council among its clients.

DCI helped pilot a digital ambassadors program for the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., which launched in May 2012, and has since helped other client organizations in Houston and El Paso with digital ambassador programs in the past year.

 “The basic concept is that rather than an organization beating its own chest, in this case someone from the Northwest Arkansas Council saying, ‘Gee, Northwest Arkansas is wonderful and it’s a great place to set up a business,’ it’s much more credible to set up third parties of local executives and residents saying things to their own networks,” Levine said.

The key, Levine said, is to send content that digital ambassadors will want to share.

Digital ambassadors also get rewarded for their level of activity. They accumulate points based on how often they are active and how they share their messages. Points can be earned in a variety of ways including content shares, driving activity through retweets and comments and referring friends who sign up for the program.

Top ambassadors can earn prizes including gift certificates, movie passes or concert tickets.

The first prize for the ambassador with the most accumulated points through Dec. 31 will be $300 toward airfare from the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, as well as a $25 gift certificate to Houlihan’s restaurant in Rogers.

Starting in January, prizes will be given to monthly winners, Smith said.

As of Dec. 3, Neile Jones was one of 274 digital ambassadors for the Northwest Arkansas Council, and its most socially savvy. Her point total through Dec. 3 had reached 5,660 — just ahead of Tyson Foods Inc. executive Gracie Ziegler, who had totaled 5,090 points — but a prize payoff isn’t Jones’ motivation for participating in the program.

She and Thornton each said they would likely deflect any prizes related to their digital ambassador activity.

“I just think it’s a really fun and innovative idea to share news about Northwest Arkansas,” Jones said.

Smith said the group is cognizant of not inundating its ambassadors with more news than they can use.

He said a news item will be sent out once a week on average, and that jibes with the frequency of other DCI clients, who average about three to five per month, Levine said.

“It’s sent out when there is something timely to say,” he said. “It’s not scheduled. You may not send one in two weeks, then you may have two in the same week. You don’t want to overwhelm people with stuff.”