When Companies Invest in Employees' Personal Brands, Everyone Wins.

Once upon a time, there was a company that encouraged their employees to go out in the world and talk about what they are passionate about. And they lived happily ever after. The end. 

True story. 

On Monday, July 24th, I had the pleasure of being the tweetchat expert for #contentchat (noon Mondays PST).  It's a chat run by Erika Heald, content strategist and super all-around awesome lady. It was all about how personal branding isn't just for individuals, but a way to help companies drive (and build!) thought leaders for their brand. 

I don't want thought leaders at my company!

-Said no CEO, ever. 

So, as we sat together in a co-working space in Seattle, we started talking about the intricacies of the personal brand as a topic. Between the in-person conversation and the tweetchat we were navigating, there was a lot of content we covered. Here's the gist of it!

What is a personal brand?

A personal brand is the art and science of promoting your personality and expertise to boost the outside perception of you and your unique value. It can also serve as a strategic way to generate business because you're able to demonstrate your expertise on a particular topic in a (hopefully) public way.

Some people refer to those folks with a successful personal brand as influencers. And some of those influencers do just that for a living: influence. That means there can be an exchange of money between a person and a company to help use that person's influence with their audience to drive new customers to a brand. Some influencers are less transactional and offer their expertise to an audience as a way to further demonstrate their expertise and secure speaking engagements.

​We each craft a personal brand whether or not we're intentional about it.  It's really just about the way you put yourself out in the world.  With every social media post, conversation at a cocktail party, or picture you take of yourself... you're delivering a message about you.  It's a message that tells your environment what you value, what you know, how you feel about yourself and when you're willing to take action. 

How can a strong personal brand impact a company's performance?

​If you're a company who has people who interact with clients or customers regularly, you want an aggregate of smart, articulate people in the market talking about what they do best. This helps you in two ways:

• Hiring and retaining great people. When a company cultivates the personal brands of their employees, it's a unique hiring angle.  It's the kind of soft benefit that will motivate people to become better at what they do so they can go to conferences and get recognized by their industry.  And ultimately, smart people want to work with smart people. If you're showing off the kind of work you do in a public way by way of your best people, your company will win.  
• Getting your company's unique value into the market. If you work in a highly competitive industry or with a demographic that is more challenging than most, you'll need to find a unique angle to help you close the deal.  Prospects are more likely to to trust your company if they've seen someone on your team speak about the work you're doing. It's what I like to call "the conversion fast track."  
• Personalizes the brand. No one wants to work with a nameless, faceless conglomerate.  My friend, Martin Lieberman put a fine point on it during the tweetchat when he said:

A2 People want to work with people. Not brands. So the individual personal brands of your team collectively have a big effect. #contentchat

— Martin Lieberman (@martinlieberman) July 24, 2017

What do you need to do to encourage personal branding in your company?

It's all well and good to talk about creating personal brands as a concept, but how do you put this kind of thing into practice? 

You need to do a few key things to build a personal branding strategy for your employees:

• ​Give them time to do the work. I know you're busy and your time is at a premium. I know you want your employees working hard and maximizing their output. But, if you give them an opportunity to reflect, consider and build out abstracts, content, and personal brand content you'll have thought leaders on your hands in no time. 
• Build company infrastructure. Schedule a lunch and learn to walk through the elements they'll need to succeed as a thought leader. Create brainstorming groups to help give feedback on each other's pitches. Establish someone to be accountable for the program to ensure you're making progress towards company and personal goals. 
• Have some resources. Invest in your personal branding by bringing in vendors to help build personal brand packages.  Hire photographers for headshots, videographers to record your people giving a 5 minute presentation, or an expert to help evaluate the market opportunity for your experts (pick me!).

​What's Next?

Join us on twitter to chat about all things content and strategy on #contentchat! Make sure to mark your calendar for Mondays at 12p Pacific.  Erika's a great host and the tweetchat is well attended and fast paced.  You won't leave without learning something. 

If you're interested in implementing a personal branding strategy and you need a resource, I'd love to chat. I offer one on one personal brand coaching, overarching strategies or full on corporate programs.  Read more about my personal brand services here.