If people don't feel proud to be part of it, they won't stay
Ant Davis
Here's the blog post:
Making your champions network something people want to be part of
Let's take a step back for a moment. Your network is up and running, ticking along, doing its thing. Now, what does it feel like to be part of it?
Not what does it do. Not what are the objectives. What does it actually feel like to be a member? Is it something people mention proudly in conversations? Something they put on their LinkedIn profile? Something that makes them feel like they're part of something worth being part of?
If the answer is no, or you're not sure, that's worth fixing. How your network feels from the inside is one of the most powerful drivers of whether people stay engaged, whether they recruit others, and whether the organisation takes it seriously.
Why branding matters more than you think
"Security champions network" sounds like something an IT team runs for compliance reasons. And in a lot of organisations, if we're being honest, that's exactly what it is. Which is why some people don't want to join it.
Branding isn't just about logos and colour schemes. It's about identity. What your network stands for, what it's called, what it means to be a member, and how it's talked about internally.
Look at the networks in your organisation that people actually want to be part of. Pride networks, mental health ambassadors, sustainability champions, wellbeing groups. They have names that people feel good about. They have a clear sense of purpose that goes beyond their function. They have visible leadership backing and an identity that their members carry with them.
Your network can do all of those things. But it takes deliberate thought rather than just defaulting to "the security champions programme."
What to think about when naming your network
The name is the first signal. It tells potential members what kind of thing this is before they've read a single word of description.
Think about what you want people to feel when they hear it. Ownership? Pride? Relevance? A sense that this is a peer to the other initiatives the organisation values?
Look at what works in your organisation specifically. Some organisations respond well to names that feel professional and structured. Others respond better to something more informal and human. There's no universal answer, but there is a right answer for your culture and it's worth taking the time to find it.
And why not involve your early champions in the decision? Asking them what they'd want to be called gives you a better name and gives them a sense of ownership over the network from the start. That's priceless.
Making it feel essential
The organisations where champions networks really embed themselves are the ones where the network feels as essential as the other employee networks. Not a nice-to-have. Not framed as an IT initiative. Something the organisation genuinely values and visibly supports.
Getting there is partly about substance. Running the network well, delivering real value to your champions, producing outcomes the organisation can see.
But it's also about positioning. Get onto steering committees for other employee networks. Align your model to theirs. Show up in the same spaces they show up in. When security is present alongside mental health, wellbeing, and inclusion initiatives, it starts to feel like a peer rather than something separate and technical.
That positioning changes how potential champions perceive the ask. Joining a security champions network that sits alongside the mental health ambassadors programme feels different from joining something the IT team set up.
Bandwidth through branding
Here's the practical payoff. A network with a strong identity and a name people feel good about recruits itself.
Your champions will talk about it. They'll mention it to colleagues who might be interested. They'll share things the network produces because they feel a connection to it. They'll show up consistently because being part of it means something to them.
That's reach you didn't have to create. Your message travels further, through more people, with more credibility than anything you could produce directly. And it compounds over time as the network grows.
A well-branded network with twenty engaged members who feel proud of what they're part of will outperform a poorly branded network of fifty people who joined because they were asked and quietly disengaged six months later.
Get this right before you scale
Branding isn't a cosmetic exercise. It's a strategic one. The name, the identity, the positioning, the way it feels to be a member. These determine whether your network attracts and retains the right people and whether the organisation takes it seriously.
Take the time to get it right before you launch at scale. It's much harder to rebrand something that already exists than to build it with the right identity from the start.
