How Your Employee's Personal Brand Impacts Your Entire Company

Personal Branding for Employees gains an increasing importance in today's social media world. Before analysing the benefits, let's first have a look at what personal branding is and why it matters so much.

What is a Personal Brand?

What type of content pops up when you Google yourself? The results are the first impression recruiters, colleagues and social media contacts will have of you. If you are signed up on LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram and have previously shared some content, you do have a personal brand - whether you are aware of it or not. 

A Personal Brand is much more than a fancy profile picture and a well written summary on LinkedIn. It is the unique combination of your personality, knowledge & skills you share with others. Those make you who you are. If done right, it enables you to build trust with potential employers, your audience or customers. 

The shift of personal branding from individuals to companies

Many organizations ask themselves "Why should I invest and support my employees in building their personal brand? Won't this make them more attractive to other employers? What if they leave?" Instead of focusing on questions like these, consider the following: "What happens if you don't, and they stay? How will this reflect on your company's brand?"

For most companies, personal branding has been left to employees themselves. It used to be up to an individual's responsibility to find ways to differentiate themselves from others. Besides, Personal Branding has mainly been used by recruiters to make hiring decisions. Majority of companies currently focus on building their organization's brand. In the same time, some businesses begin to see the value of personal branding for their teams.

The benefits of Personal Branding for Employees

"Your Employees Personal Brand influences your company's reputation & growth"

Strong personal brands help grow your business. Besides, supporting development and growth among employees can lead to a happier, more productive workforce. In addition, consider the following benefits when helping your employees build a strong online presence:

Increased visibility & exposure

LinkedIn currently is one of the platforms with the highest organic reach out there. Facebook and Instagram are rather saturated. Brands need to invest in paid advertising to reach their audience on these platforms. However, LinkedIn is still at the beginning of its full potential. In the offline world, employees often represent their company's at events, conferences and networking meetings to develop their own skills and increase their company's exposure.

In today's digital world, our online presence matters at least as much, if not more than our offline presence. Therefore, company's need to focus on achieving the same exposure on social media. As your employees add your business name to their social networking profiles, their bio, and as they mention your brand during interviews, online conferences etc., you'll ensure your business is tied to more positive events. With more than 260 million monthly active users on LinkedIn, the potential reach is huge.

Better brand reputation & likeability

Long gone are the times when your customers only care about the quality of your product or service to make a buying decision. Especially, when it comes to younger generations like Millennials and Gen Z, we can see that more than 60% of consumers expect a brand to share user-generated, personalized content before making any buying decisions. Having respected personal brands for your employees, provides more growth potential for your business.

Through sharing personal content including daily work experiences, your employees have the possibility to build substantial audiences. As your business name is attached to those profiles, your brand reach, authenticity & likeability increases. This keeps you top of mind. Additionally, the ability to grow one's personal brand makes your employees feel more esteemed.

Improved results for your business

Lastly, an improved visibility through user generated content by each of your employees does not only increase brand awareness, but conversions as well. Social media influencers gain a growing importance in the online world. (For reference: The influencer marketing industry is predicted to be worth $10 billion by 2020). Enabling your employees to become authentic "in-house" ambassadors and influencers, gives you a significant advantage over your competitors.

Final Words

Don't be afraid to support and invest in trainings when it comes to building your employee's personal brand. Personal Branding should no longer be left to employees themselves. If used the right way, it can be a powerful mean to increase exposure, awareness & conversions for your business. Besides, it can help your employees enhance their skills, motivation & productivity.

I help individuals, start-ups & corporates build sustainable personal brands. If you’d like support to solve challenges inside your organization or need help with business creation, please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.