An Edelman/Bloomberg forum brought together C-Suite leaders to discuss what’s having the biggest impact on reputation right now. The consensus is that “trust and credibility have usurped image and perception as the key drivers of reputation”.

Where best does trust and credibility come from? Your people. The ones delivering the work. The combination between the company, Founder/Leadership and employee brand is where success really lies.

However, empowering employees rarely appears as a headline action in a marketing strategy, and this is a missed opportunity.

The power of employee personal brands

Employees advocating for your brand will fast-track the trust process. Hearing someone share their excitement about a particular project or launch shows potential customers the enthusiasm and expertise in your team, without having to say it.

Academic studies also find that 73% of the people who make the buying decision will trust a brand more from personal posts and thought leadership.

This means that a post from your employee talking about a project has the potential to be far more compelling for a new client than a business page post.

Yet, getting employees to talk about what they’re doing, let alone sharing it in a public forum, is a difficult ask. If it were easy, your people would be posting and building a personal brand all the time.

A Leadership Gap in Personal Branding

What is clear is that people need their senior leaders to be showing the way. People will mirror what their bosses do. Whether you’re a small founder-led team or a bigger organisation, leaders are the gatekeepers as to what’s acceptable. This includes how people show up and talk about their roles within the business.

If you’re not building your personal brand, talking about your expertise and insights, then there is no map that your employees can use to do the same. By the way, we’re not talking about reposting the odd LinkedIn company page post here.

As a founder, you need to be a part of the panel conversations, lead the insights in the latest newsletter, or even get up on stage to give talks. As the face of the business, it’s your job to sell the brand. You’re there to show the direction and the talking points. Your personal brand is like the Editor’s Letter in the opening pages, and your employees should be acting as the features that draw people in to find out more.

Let’s look at this in action

Pippa Glucklich is the former CEO of media agency, Electric Glue. Glucklich wanted to amplify the brilliant work that this independent agency was doing. We focused on her brand first, looking at how she could better tell her story and that of the agency. This incentivised the team to start talking about the successes that they were having with clients, too.

Electric Glue went from having no presence to 20k impressions and 7k engagement within just three months on LinkedIn. More importantly, five people in the leadership team started regularly posting, featuring in articles and getting their clients talking about them. That is the kind of word-of-mouth you want, but it is often so difficult to achieve.

Why Businesses Miss This Opportunity

As a business, you’ve got brilliant people who know their jobs better than anyone else. You’ve also got happy clients who stay with you. Yet, 75% of senior leaders have looked at other service providers as a direct result of seeing thought leadership content. For a business, that means your clients are possibly getting their heads turned by how your competitors are showing up, and you don’t even realise.

Employees can help prevent this.

If you’re reading this and you’re realising that your company content is the odd post on LinkedIn, a blog every so often and the annual trade show, then it’s definitely time to start thinking more strategically, especially about how your employees are showing up for your business.

Three Simple Actions You Can Do Today

Encouraging employees to build their personal brands can feel like a long-term project. However, there are some simple actions that you can do today which will help empower your team.

1. ‍Create a process for leadership content - whether you post once a month or once a week, make sure the senior team is present and showing what’s possible.‍
2. Share wins and learnings internally first - address the concerns people may have and create momentum of sharing client stories and case studies, especially those approved for external use. Let people reflect on their part in the success. Then they can share their perspective on the project with others.‍
3. Build a mini community that strives to do better - When someone posts something that performs well, flag it and engage. People respond to positive reinforcement. If an employee posts something that gets strong engagement, share your appreciation. Show the team that it matters.

Your employees have the stories that will help your brand stand out. Motivating people comes from leadership, and that is one thing that you can definitely influence as the business owner.

Running an agency, writing about B2B marketing, and building in public. If any of this resonated, I’d love to hear what you’re seeing on your end.