Employer Branding 201: Influence
30-second read + My two cents (+1:02 watch for context)
Employer Branding 101: employee brand ambassadors
Employer Branding 201: turning a senior leader into an influencer
Who can post, tweet, record, speak, or write, and have a widespread impact on not just your employer brand, but your entire industry?
Thought leaders, not brand ambassadors.
Because they are trusted by the right people in the right circles.
Some founders, CTO’s, and in-house Sales and Marketing leaders are literal celebrities in their industries.
And they possess legit brand equity. That’s worth a lot.
If you want to graduate to EB 201, someone in leadership needs to be expressing their unique thoughts, opinions, and perspectives to the outside world.
A single well-respected leader with a niche following is worth more than a hundred employee brand ambassadors.
And if they can’t do it by themselves, then it’s your job to enable them:
Ghostwrite for them (never for social)
Build them a media team
Brainstorm and present ideas
Do whatever it takes.
This has the highest long-term ROI.
Don’t miss it.
My two cents:
We’re now at the place where we need to remember what thought leadership used to be––when inspiring thought was seen as more valuable than vanity engagement numbers––and do everything we can to represent the model that actually makes a difference.
Furthermore, having a senior leader as the example paves the way for others in the org to follow suit. But it has to start with someone who has clout. That’s how other leaders and employees grow to trust the strategy. Once others jump on board, you now have thought leadership at scale.
Lastly, I’d argue that once your company is “up and running”, the primary job of a founder (and likely other senior leaders) is to help acquire talent, alongside networking, developing partnerships, and fundraising (if that fits your business model).
The strategy that I’m laying out here enables all of those in one simple way––it gets you access to the right people.
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