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| Amazon stops influencer campaign to attract employees |
Amazon has shut down a campaign to pay employees for positive social media posts and removed online posts aimed at bolstering the tech giant's image of the potential employees it needs to keep growing.
The company launched the Executive Center Ambassador campaign in 2018 to protect the company from growing hostility to the safety and conditions of its warehouses.
Amazon shut down late last year and wiped out all traces of its influencer activity. Top Amazon executives were unhappy with the campaign's poor reach.
The campaign also failed because some fake accounts gave the wrong impression. Improving policy makers and the public's perception of Amazon's workplace has become a major concern as the company battles global regulators and seeks to expand its workforce to keep deliveries.
The company has employed more than 700,000 employees worldwide since the pandemic began, making it the second largest employer in the United States after Walmart.
But the cost of hiring new candidates and lost productivity due to the business added $2 billion to operating expenses.
Fulfillment Center ambassadors are trained to respond kindly and publicly to criticism from within the organization, including decision makers and politicians.
Despite instructions not to target journalists, specific workers have been asked to respond to what the company sees as lies peddled by politicians, labor rights activists and other critics.
The focus is now on promoting live virtual visits to facilities and other forms of traditional advertising.
Amazon disbands the Twitter army that drove it to tweet
The employees were honored on Twitter with the title Amazon FC Ambassador at the end of their name. But the identity of the ambassadors or their number is unclear.
A survey conducted by polling group Bellingcat found at least 53 active Twitter accounts. However, I found that users tend to use similar language, post the same photos, and even share account ownership. This leads to overlapping identities.
Amazon has long denied workplace abuse at fulfillment centers. Under pressure for more workplace transparency, the company recently released its first safety report.
In the report, he said that injuries leading to layoffs fell 43% in 2020 compared to 2019. But he said his camps are still more dangerous than the industry average.
While employees are paid to improve the company's reputation, it is often the CEO who creates negative publicity. Last April, Amazon apologized after it criticized US lawmakers over tweets about working conditions.