Personal Branding For Employees

Do you ever see someone talk about their work, a team goal that was accomplished, or a fun at work activity online? These social media posts are an example of employee branding.

Also known as employee personal branding or employee advocacy, these activities exist in other virtual spaces and in person. That's because, your employees, no matter their title, are marketers for your business.

So what does it mean to have an employee brand or to encourage your employees to develop theirs? I want to share with you the good, the bad, and the really good about employee branding.

First up, the bad. When people first hear of employees building personal brands they think - oh, they're just going to leave. Once they become more visible, people outside of our company will see the great work they do and poach them.

The great resignation is on everyone's mind so it's especially understandable right now that this is something to consider. Remember that employee branding is a form of professional development and it's one way you can help encourage them to stick around. 

Another thing to remember is that while your employees are employees we have the opportunity to empower them to speak on behalf of the business, its values and accomplishments. Even when employees leave, as long as they've had a positive experience, they can continue to be advocates of the company. 

It's part of their job to advocate, to speak on behalf of the company that they work for.  So how can we formalize this and strategically build upon what they're already doing? 

So, the fact that your employees may leave your organization, which is true whether you support their brand advocacy or not, is the "bad" news. The good news is that, to some degree, all of your employees are already employee advocates. Are they in a client facing role, sales, or customer service this is especially true. Your employees who are internal, such as accounting and human resources, all have a personal and professional network that they speak about your company to. 

Employee advocacy is formalizing this. It's giving your team the tools like, key messages and social media training, to feel confident enough to talk about the company regularly.

Now for the really good...the excellent...the business building! When you have a formal employee brand advocacy program your business can build trust much faster with your stakeholders.

On average, people have 930 connections on LinkedIn. Your employees have some overlap in connections, but largely they will be unique, and once they begin posting their connection count will grow. This means your company brand can reach many more people!

So you are able to utilize some of the trust that they've already developed with those groups and create that same affinity with your company.

LinkedIn is the best place to build your employee branding program. Decision makers are on the platform and your employees have access to them. Potential customers and potential employees have access to your teams' profiles – and they are looking at them when deciding whether or not to move forward with your business.

We are living in a time when there's a lot of mistrust of big businesses out there. And so people trust people. People especially trust the people that they know. And so you're leveraging the trust that's already in place. 

You see this in start up tech companies and it can be very, very effective in traditional or much more established workplaces. Whether you have a small, but mighty team of ten or a of hundreds harnessing the power of your employees brands and networks helps your company build trust and reach its objectives faster.  

As a personal branding strategist I can create a custom program for your employees to develop and use their personal brands in support of the company's goals. Contact me today and let's talk about how employee branding can support your business.