Company versus a personal brand – who reigns supreme?

With 45% of the population on social media, such platforms are proving to be a dominant form of communication, promotion and a commercially-savvy lead generation tool.

In today’s digitally-led world, enterprises are constantly trying out new ways to innovatively engage with customers and prospects. Whether through visually striking imagery, online competitions, polls, videos or quality content – each has a part to play in the overall ‘look’ and ‘feel’ of a brand.

For many successful firms, a powerful digital tool is in fact less about what they put out directly from their channels, but instead focus on encouraging the people they employ to do so.

Businesses across the globe are tapping into what their workforces represent – and positively positioning them as employee advocates, charged with leading conversations about the organisation they work for.

Studies have shown that 81% of Millennials share information about their enterprises online. It could be an Instagram image of an ‘Employee of the Month’ gong, a Facebook post celebrating a colleague’s birthday or snappy video on Twitter of their overseas business travels. Whatever successful tact they’re opting for, staff members are activity posting about it online – and the world is watching.

Additionally, boosting a personal brand goes even further too, as workers are able to generate eight-times more engagement than if the same content was sent directly from their company’s profile.

And guess what? There’s not even an advertising budget in sight!

But why are employees the ones who are proving to be powerful brand voices over their organisations? Simply put, people buy from people.

Social media users can be a trusted source of information for others – from answering vital questions about their company’s product launch, or providing valuable insight into a service it provides. And for those actively promoting their organisation, that can be hugely influential when it comes to customer and prospect ‘buy-in’.

Enterprises have a vital role to play

However, that doesn’t mean companies should delete their accounts altogether and not bother posting again – they still have a vital role to play.

Active brand profiles can help assure audiences that it’s ‘present’, online to answer queries and provide additional ‘clout’ when promoting its latest piece of digital content.

What the ‘company versus personal brand’ debate does lean towards, is that organisations should in fact be firmly focused on the value their own employees brings. A happy staff member is someone who feels valued, listened to and respected.

Feeling like they’re playing a pivotal role in their business’s success can lead to them typically posting positively about where they work. It might be that they wax lyrical about the firm’s latest product launch or speak about the thriving company culture – all of these messages are powerful towards an audience, and enterprises willing to support them in their social media quest can be hugely motivational.

Rewarding and encouraging colleagues

But companies must remember they can’t simply rely on employees to do the hard work for them. It’s important to invest in staff – and find out how much of a role they want to play in the company’s digital presence – in order to encourage aspirational content that reflects the organisation’s tone of voice.

A great place to start for an enterprise is by introducing an Employee Advocacy Programme. This is a hugely influential tool offering a platform for colleagues to promote good stories, plug recent launches and underline company culture. And, perhaps most importantly of all, such a scheme enables greater content sharing capabilities – meaning more prospects are reached online.

Organisations and employees empowering one another

So, although personal brands can often produce far greater results than their own organisations, it’s important to never discount the power of a brand’s online presence.

A firm’s role is very much geared around maintaining customer focus, providing commercial value and making employees feel encouraged and motivated – all of which comes under an effective Employee Advocacy Programme.

With 74% consumers trusting the opinions of someone they follow online – and purchasing a product or service as a result – isn’t it time for more businesses to supercharge their social selling strategies?

If you’re interested in empowering your teams to work together, and generate leads via social media, email: info@soampli.com or call 0845 2725990. Make sure you also connect with us via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

SoAmpli turns sales teams into social selling stars, increasing sales and powering brands. Sounds interesting? Let’s have a chat: https://soampli.com/contact/demo