Crossing of personal branding and corporate success is increasingly evident as we experience a resurgence of person-to-person connection. Traditionally, individual and corporate branding have been seen as separate entities, each with their own strategies and goals, and at times they can even appear to be in direct conflict. However, a significant shift is underway due to the growing demand for personalization.

Companies are finding that leveraging their employees' individual brand strengths can achieve greater reach and awareness. 81% of consumers admit that they trust a brand significantly affects their purchasing decisions, with 77% preferring to buy from brands they follow on social media.

The impact remains strong in both the B2B and B2C sectors. It is interesting that reputation and credibility A company's CEO and employees influence the purchasing choices of 65% of consumers. These statistics underscore a crucial point: brand credibility plays an important role in sales efforts. For a corporate brand to truly resonate and lead to tangible sales results, the personal brands within it must be strong and clearly defined.

Having been immersed in communications since the late 1900s (and yes, I find it amusing to say this), I've witnessed many brand evolutions – from the advent of email to the rise of social media and, now, artificial intelligence. However, in my opinion, no technological advancement can ever replace understanding human interaction; it only redefines what sales teams consider meaningful. You can use AI to generate leads, but if they're not relevant or meaningful to your business, do they really matter? The key lies in a strong corporate brand that invites individuals to join its journey.

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There is a synergy between personal and corporate branding

The above concept is not new. We've all seen or worked with a “unicorn” employee at some point. What makes them unicorns? Their individual brand. When employees create strong personal brandsthey bring authenticity and a human touch to the corporate narrative, making the company more relatable and trustworthy in the eyes of consumers.

This synergy not only enhances the company's reputation, but also drives engagement in places where employees are active—whether at community events, on social media, or among their friends. Employees with strong personal brands naturally amplify company visibility and influence. They become the 'unicorns' that drive qualified leads to your company. A LinkedIn Social Selling study even measured this phenomenon, finding that 92% of B2B customers are more willing to engage with sales reps who are recognized as industry thought leaders.

Encouraging personal brand development without losing control

Many businesses struggle with the idea of ​​encouraging employees to improve their personal brand, fearing that it will lower the quality of their messaging or they may lose control of their corporate story. Before I share some tactical strategies to address this, I want to point out that your corporate brand it must be solid and reliable for this to be effective.

A strong corporate brand provides a stable backdrop against which individual employee brands can shine. It provides a cohesive narrative that matches the personal stories your employees are telling. Before encouraging your employees to engage in their own branding exercises, it is essential to conduct some branding exercises at the corporate level. This ensures that your brand welcomes collaboration and instills a sense of pride in all those associated with it.

You want all individuals to feel positive about openly connecting with your company. These characteristics are essential for personal branding efforts to be effective. Otherwise, you may end up helping individuals build their personal brands, only to have them take that strength to another company that is already well positioned.

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How to get stronger individual brands without sacrificing consistency

The most fundamental way to maintain control of your corporate messaging while promoting individual branding efforts is to ensure a strong alignment between company values ​​and the personal values ​​of your employees. Here's how you can achieve this without compromising the company's branding efforts:

Set clear guidelines that describe how employees can harmonize their branding efforts with the company's values ​​and objectives. This ensures consistency and prevents any potential conflicts or off-brand messaging. That's why it's important for you as a business to have your brand already developed – so you can clearly communicate its characteristics and provide direction.

Offer training programs that help employees understand best practices for social media and content creation, including workshops on writing, personal presentation, and ethical considerations online. These can be educational and fun, giving people permission and confidence to share your branding goals.

Encourage employees to become thought leaders in their respective fields. This can be facilitated through full support of speaking engagements, writing opportunities on industry blogs and participation in industry and online discussion panels. Thought leadership enhances the individual's brand and reflects positively on the company.

Highlight the achievements of your employees in your corporate channels. This will boost their personal brand and show that the company recognizes and values ​​their contributions. One thing we have is an internal message board where examples of social posts are included with these announcements. We also send requests to AI to create social content when we ask people to share our content.

Regular monitoring and constructive feedback are essential to ensure that employee messaging remains consistent with the company's brand identity. Part of our town hall team meetings focus on the positive contributions individuals have made towards marketing. Feedback here should be consistent and mostly positive. If there is a need for redirection or negative feedback, it should always be done privately and one-on-one.

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Integrating personal branding in your business strategy creates a win-win scenario: Employees feel valued and empowered, which increases their loyalty and productivity. For the company, this alignment between individual and corporate brands leads to increased trust and better relationships.

As the lines between personal and corporate branding continue to blur, companies that recognize and leverage the symbiotic relationship between personal and corporate brands are likely to see the most significant growth and success. Indeed, at the very least, they will encourage the nurturing of better relationships and more defined sales leads.