Executive branding is not an option anymore for companies or for individual executives. This marketing initiative is becoming increasingly popular for businesses from Coco-Cola to Cisco and from startups to Fortune 100 companies. (Suggested Reading: 4 Steps to Develop Thought Leadership). 77% of buyers are more likely to buy from a company whose CEO uses social media (MSLGroup). While all of us are building our digital presence, executives need to pay extra attention to their own branding and thought leadership. This not only helps the companies they are running but also help themselves in the long run. Some executives are natural leaders who build followers organically. However, some others focus on running businesses without paying attention to their own brand in the industry. In 2016, more than 61% of Fortune 500 CEOs lacked social media presence. It has changed drastically since then. But yet, building branding and even more maintaining it regularly is done strategically at many companies.
Why Executive Branding is a Necessity?
People connect with people, better than they connect with brands. So, when an executive becomes the face of the company, s/he can influence large masses of audiences to connect with company’s brand, embrace products and become loyal customers. Popular executives also drive quality recruitment. Employees feel optimistic about their company’s future and believe their company is more competitive.
Executives like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs and Sir Richard Branson, have merged their personal brands with the companies they run. For example, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s brands are interchangeable. But, some executives are not very well known though they have the power to create branding and influence.
There are a few reason for that. They,
. don’t know the ROI of branding
. don’t understand how to create one
. think it’s time consuming
. don’t have internal talent and tools
Who can help building Executive Brands?
Executive branding’s first step is to recognize the need. Building individual brands follows the same process as building a company’s brand. There are several types of Executive Branding Services available. However, many executives start with their own marketing and communications team. In either option, the first step is to have a strategy that helps these individuals showcase both their professional and personal life.
Your own Marketing and Communications team
Starting with current team in place is always the best. They own company’s messaging and have access to established Publish Relations(PR) and Analyst Relations(AR) channels.
Executive Coaches
Executive branding coaches though focus on building internal reputation, dealing with teams and business management, they are a good source of bringing out many characteristics of individuals usually unknown to others.
Branding Services
Marketing agencies that offer branding services help go beyond the usual company channels. However, the major pitfall with such services are they tend to be one-time execution. There is no continuous push toward building the brand for months and years to come.
Major Pitfall: Lack of continuity in execution
Executive branding strategy tend to be once in a few years activity unless there is a huge shift in the overall vision. But the problem is execution also tend to be one-time in most of the cases. For example, there will be one-time push of an interview, video, speaking engagement, featured article or digital out reach. Though this is important initially, it won’t have long lasting impact unless done on almost a daily basis.
I have listed here a few on-going activities any executive should do in order to maintain their brands.
Daily Executive Branding activities to keep the brand fresh and growing
1. Building followers and engaging with them continuously
(Suggested Reading: How to effectively create and manage LinkedIn page for a business)
The role of digital media, especially social networks is huge in building brands. Social networks are the strongest lever to connect, communicate and engage followers. First of all, start or refresh your social media account with complete information. Yes, complete information is very critical. For example, LinkedIn’s algorithms rank profiles with no picture lower than profiles with a picture and completed information.
The single most important thing in building followers is to post regularly to your social accounts. Because followers, who basically sign up to consume your content, want to know the person they follow, their interests, companies they work for and their thoughts about current happenings.
To kickstart acquiring followers, invite all your employees and colleagues to follow you. Employees are the right audience who can create a viral effect of your posts.
MarketBeam is the only platform used by marketing teams to build Executive Branding.
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2. Content strategy for a true thought leadership
Many people make a mistake of posting monotonous content from their marketing collaterals. Personal touch and individual voice need to be maintained. Adding thoughts, knowledge, opinions and perspectives help a great deal in establishing oneself as a thought leader. Some of the examples of content are,
Industry News & Opinion: Over 60% of LinkedIn users look for industry news in their feed. It’s important to provide opinions and share knowledge about general industry news.
Latest Innovations: New innovations in the industry and how might help or affect all of us.
Activities/Causes: Any activity or cause outside of work life is great to share with followers.
(Suggested Reading: Personal Branding Strategy in 10 Steps)
3. Use Tools to Maintain Daily Activities
Posting on social media daily can be challenging and time-consuming. Therefore, the optimal solution is to delegate this task to the communications team.
I have personally heard from executives that they don’t have the time to build their own branding nor they want to share their social account credentials with their teams. So, MarketBeam solved this problem by building a platform where both executives and marketers come together to share content. Marketers will not have complete access to executives’ social accounts like LinkedIn or Twitter, however they will have the ability to post on their behalf. This guarantees both security and privacy while still allowing the marketing team to assist their executives with posting on social networks.
