Personally Branded Employees as Brand Advocates Prove Excellent ROI CFO’s will love the statement ‘Personally Branded Employees as Brand Advocates prove excellent ROI’ as this fits in with budgets and financial forecasts. The truth of this is that everyone in the company should be celebrating this simple truth, it has been there all along. Both HR, IT and CIO’s CEO’s know that they should have on their staff digitally fluent marketing people, though still at a loss as to what they achieve and where the ROI is found but know that it is essential! This they have done and gotten whole bunch of likes on Facebook, many twitter followers and retweets.Google +’s and more but still battle to find the real ROI the real uptake of new clients and long term clients. Everyone is a little dazed and confused and not least the customers, who feel blasted with so much hype and noise. It is time to quieten it all down a bit and time to listen first and then talk just person to person. If we agree that connectivity and not marketing noise is the business juice we want and need for business growth then Personally Branded Employees are your must have. These are connected and digitally savvy individuals, who understand the market and want to go the distance.
Putting in the Effort to Create your Personal Brand An individual who has initiative and put in the effort to create their own personally branded website, is serious about their career, about their future, is digitally fluent and has the tools for excellent connectivity and responsible communication. The individual understands that a position within your company is not necessarily for life but for a period where each others brands may collaborate for gain. “In today’s world, with the average job length of approximately three years, employees will have
close to 15 jobs in their career. ” We all agree that “People do business with People they Know, like and Trust” It is also true that we really only connect honestly to people once we have established a relationship with them. We are not going to open up to total strangers nor are we going to take advice or listen to marketing campaigns without some sort of peer stamp of approval. Hence we go to social media, to our friends in networks to seek their opinions first before we believe big company brands. The aha ha moment is when you as CEO’s realize that you have these people, you have these connectors and can use their positional advantage to move your business and their career forward.. these people are known like and trusted by their own tribes… “Focusing on the customer can’t be JUST a great tagline in a CEO’s report to the street. It must become part of a companies DNA. Know your customer, use that knowledge to create meaningful dialog that actually ‘Says Something’ to them”.Patrick Adams, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Victoria’s Secret
You already have the connectors to do this, now you need to empower them..
How do you achieve connectivity? The answer is simple “Personal Employee Branding” If we accept the fact that traditional company marketing, now talked about as noise, is not working, what is? We are told it is real connectivity between people that creates genuine referrals that fuel company growth and are the ‘kings’ of enterprise. It is because these people are peers, friends, relations, group members to your audience – they are trusted.
Your company can shout from a mountain top adorned with lights that would shame ‘Times Square’, people won’t listen – maybe they will be amused for a while, but what are your conversions like? “If we as marketers don’t make the commitment to clean up our mass approach to engagement and start producing real-time, relevant, individual and purposeful customer interactions – our customer will stop listening to us, no longer look for us – they will give up on us….”Patrick Adams, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Victoria’s Secret
The real conversion is made via truth and authenticity, via a trusted source not a paid source, so from the bottom up your company has to deliver on its promise to its employees and its customers. Deliver to your employees first, your customers will arrive uninvited via word of mouth.. its that simple.
You are selling to a highly informed audience; the days of flash and noise are over, only honesty will survive. “No-one cares about your products and services, they care about themselves”.
It is only the people that know these people that will connect, are these your people? can you help them connect? – It’s time to start now…
How do people know who your employees are? Have you made them king of their enterprise? Are they proud of their daily industry? Are they connected? and would you know if they were?
Imagine if each employee becomes its own enterprise, in command of its station within your business and the very best at it in the industry, now imagine highlighting this via a Personally Branded Website that platformed the individual connecting him/her to her tribe. Would this not be powerful? “Prioritize getting to know consumers at the individual level before reaching out with marketing messages”.Whalter White(Breaking Bad)
What would Personally Branding Employees look like? This journey would require of the employee to be fluent in social media communication and to consider his/her passions and purpose hence professional growth and a feeling of self worth, necessitating a worthwhile journey in rudiments of Social Media and identification of an individuals differentiate. The finished product is a platform wholly owned by the individual with your company badge attached, responsible communication is a given as it is personal, in effect the modern CV. This platform is independent from your company as it is owned by the individual yet it is linked to the company site as a satellite, shining direction, providing valuable SEO. Responsibility for the content and communication from this platform lies with the individual and is a reflection of their brand ensuring that these will be positive and professional communications.It is important the individual understand the value and strength of their site as it is their new CV and a enviable tool for their future careers. Once you have this program set up you will have an extremely strong marketing reach and your Personally Branded Employees will undoubtedly prove an excellent ROI. Your company will stand above the crowd, known for its esteemed employees and their loyalty, a given from your investment in them and for a while your brands meet and flourish on this incredible journey called life.