Professional Branding for Company Employees

We will discuss the benefits of allowing employees to establish a professional brand online and how businesses today can’t afford to not let them do it.

Asha Defines Professional Branding like this.

“Professional branding creates a "mark" around your name or career. This is achieved by having specific strengths and messages that people remember about you. It is how you express and communicate your skills, personality, and values—in person and online. Your brand should represent your authentic self to be truly memorable and impactful. It is the culmination of what makes you unique.”

Why Is Building A Professional Brand Important For Your Business And How To Build One For Your Employees?

A professional brand is no different than company brand recognition.  It’s all about how your community and clients see your employees.  Do they view your employees as professionals or just people with jobs?

Developing and sharing content that demonstrates proof that your employees are an expert in their field is one of the most important features of developing an effective professional brand.  You may think sharing content on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter is enough, but is it? How do you keep track of all of those posts? How can you repurpose those previous posts later (like videos and blogs)? And most importantly, how do visitors see that content in an organized manner?

Do You Want To Be Viewed As An Expert With An Exceptional Professional Brand?

Here Are Some Tools That You Need To Get Started.

·        Providing a website for your employees – There are so many website solutions on the market that you can use or have one professionally made. Websites provide a landing page for all your employee posts and content they share on social media so their clients can learn more about them and the content that your employees share.

·        Create Videos – Videos are one of the most popular forms of marketing, and there are several strategies that your employees can use to create videos on and off camera.

·        Calendar Booking Links – Booking widgets on your employees’ website help clients easily schedule appointments with them.

·        Notification Widgets – Send updates and information to your clients when they subscribe to notifications on their website to help increase sales and engagements.

·        Social Media – Send your content from your website to your social media channels such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

·        Social Media Sharing Tool – Share and schedule your content using an excellent Social Media Tool. One that provides analytics is recommended. 

How Does Enabling Employees To Have a Website Benefit The Sponsoring Business?

So, why should you invest in a program like this? I’ll give you three good reasons.

1.)   Each one of your employees will be able to have links to the corporate website on their site that will automatically create backlinks to the main website, which will help increase search engine ranking across the board.

2.)   Your Business can enable RSS Feeds from your business to your employee’s website. This will provide information pre-approved by your business's Marketing Team for employees to share on their social media platforms.

3.)   It makes prospecting easier because it allows your employees to promote the service they offer on your business's behalf with calendar booking and widgets that prove to their customers that they are professionals.

Each website can have its domain name (recommended for backlink purposes), or a subdomain can be created from the corporate website.  Also, each employee's website can look the same with minor changes such as contact information. Implementing a program like this helps to promote creativity amongst everyone on your team, expanding outreach and participation within your Marketing Department.

In today’s world, Business Leaders need to think differently, creatively, and strategically to capture market share.  Your employees and the people they know are the best low-hanging fruit that helps increase revenue for your business. 

In summary, employee websites provide several benefits to the employee and the sponsoring business.  Employees can enhance their professional branding and image within the community, and organizations can share more information with more people for a meager cost while having the added value of establishing backlinks to their website.

This article was written by Brad Klapheke, President of Better Social Branding.

Better Social Branding is located in Louisville, Kentucky. It provides B2B and B2C solutions to help professionals and businesses bring their brands to life through website design, search engine optimization, online advertising, video marketing, and social media management.