The voice of employees for an image that stands out

2024-01-23 12:32:29

Beyond the differentiating elements of your products or services, what makes a company different from its competition? The human beings making up its teams! Take advantage of a new trend that is emerging to make your organization stand out from the crowd: leveraging the power of your staff’s brand image.

The voice of your employees or colleagues can successfully amplify your key messages by instilling the authenticity and personal touch that resonate with potential customers, prospects and partners. What are some best practices to help them look their best?

What do companies gain by leveraging their employees’ personal branding?

In other words, why does employee voice benefit your company or employer brand? The short answer: through the power of social proof! More specifically, passing the mic to your team members by encouraging them to develop their personal branding adds authenticity to your key messages – whether they are your customer or employee value propositions (CVPs). .

This function of proof uses the principle of psychology which states that when making a decision, people give more importance to the testimonies and opinions of “real” people than to speeches or companies.

In a B2B context, the brand image of your employees can therefore become a powerful lever of notoriety and credibility. This strategy, known as employee advocacy, involves encouraging your employees to become advocates or spokespersons for your brand, by making your values ​​and mission resonate through their own experience and networks.

For this strategy to be effective, however, it is important not to force your teams to become machines for publishing branded content, but rather to encourage them to share their own experience and ideas. Important nuance!

Employee branding, employee branding, brand ambassadors or employee advocacy?

Let’s sort it all out with a stop at the definitions.

Employee branding is a strategy aimed at getting your staff to adhere to your MVV (mission, vision and values) with the aim of motivating them to embody and naturally transmit these key messages to your customers, talents, their colleagues and prospects of all kinds.

Employee branding is how your prospects, partners and other stakeholders perceive your company and employer brands across your teams. It is therefore a question of aligning different personal brands with that of the organization.

Brand Ambassadors engage with and share your content, often posting key messages that are personalized and tailored to their voice, situation, and personal brand. This initiative is mainly carried out in a structured context, which may have certain incentives. As for creating original content aimed at promoting the company, see point 4!

Employee advocacy (the promotion or defense by employees) allows your ambassadors from point 3 to move up a gear by equipping them and developing their ability to actively endorse and promote products, services and values ​​of the organization. All organically! By helping to articulate the voice of employees who wish to play this role, you might benefit from both the power of attraction of the testimonial and increased notoriety. Your organization might gain visibility beyond its own ecosystem, notably on your employees’ personal social media, in your industry events, but also through word of mouth.

Also read: Outdated brand identity? The 8 clues that don’t lie

The benefits of harmony between employee voices and company voices

Benefits for the organization

• Possibility of more sales thanks to social selling (using social networks in the sales process): increased awareness and trust in the brand increases the generation of qualified leads – especially since 75% of B2B buyers use social networks. social media to make purchasing decisions, according to LinkedIn!
• Employer and company brands humanized thanks to the involvement of employees and the multiplication of internal points of view on the brand and its daily life.
• Credibility of the brand and authenticity of its messages increased tenfold for prospects, talents, business partners, but also for current employees.
• Better staff engagement – ​​pride in the involvement and valuing of employee voices.
• Better visibility and organic reach on social media for the company via the online presence of its spokespersons. Your employees have their own networks, often varied and complementary to that of your company!

From a broader perspective, harmony between employee and organizational voice can foster a positive corporate culture and pleasant working environment, which can impact talent attraction and retention. , but also on reputation with partners and potential or current customers.

In the digital and technological age, human interactions have more and more value. Making the voice of your employees or colleagues heard can therefore have even more impact!

Benefits for staff

• Online presence that becomes like a portfolio of accomplishments and commitment to work.
• Role that allows you to take on new challenges or create internal opportunities and fuel professional advancement (for example by highlighting skills unsuspected by the employer, who can then help develop them) .
• Professional influence outside of work – possibility of standing out and participating in conferences, launching a podcast or a personal newsletter, becoming a guest contributor to the company blog, etc.

Pro tip: As an organization, don’t be afraid to highlight the successes of your employees or colleagues. This is one of the most authentic ways to demonstrate openness regarding the balance of professional and personal lives of your teams. A major asset for troop recognition and engagement!

5 practices for adopting employee branding among your teams

How to encourage your staff to put their shoulder to the wheel by working on their personal brand image?

Be encouraging and set the tone. Depending on the size of your company, it is essential that management sets an example by being active online and open to passing the microphone as well as actively listening to what the teams have to say. .

Guide your spokespeople with a clear agenda. Clarify your expectations – whether by adding an annex on employee advocacy to your ambassador kit, to centralizing your resources and combining training efforts. Be careful, it is important not to supervise them too much either, otherwise their voice risks losing its authenticity!

Help them find their niche. It’s not regarding providing them with key messages to relay: you need to encourage your volunteers to develop their voice by drawing on their own experiences, expertise and interests. What is their role in the organization and its evolution, what are their hobbies outside of work and what elements of their life or journey might be shared? (Remind them of the three main ingredients of a personal brand: a perspective original contribution to the organization, values ​​– which resonate with those of the organization! – and unique contributions depending on experience and professional background or studies.)

Provide the support, tools and time (realistically) needed. Depending on needs, your spokespersons might have access to linguistic correction tools, publication management platforms or visual content creation platforms (like Canva).

Always depending on the context of their tasks, time might be allocated to this new role, both for the creation of content and for a little online monitoring, for example, topics that might inspire them or articles to share. You might also encourage them to build virtual relationships with colleagues who share their interests or who have similar backgrounds. Perfect for coming together or getting inspired!

Measure the impact of personal brands. To find out if your teams’ efforts are paying off and to redirect them if necessary. The important thing is to choose the right key performance indicators (KPIs) for different employee advocacy contexts – online or in person.

The basis for social networks? Track the number of posts (activity) of each spokesperson, overall engagement with those posts (reactions, comments, reposts), engagement with the organization’s posts, reach of their posts.

Result? Diversified online presence and corporate image in harmony with employee voice

Just as feedback is worth gold to fuel your customer journey, the principle also applies to your teams to refine your candidate and employee journey! Actively listen to what staff have to say – from internal feedback to their views expressed online – and equip them to develop a unique voice, a strong personal brand! They can have positive repercussions for your company and employer brand images.

Finally, this harmony can also have strategic advantages. It can help better align the company’s goals with those of its employees, which can lead to better goal achievement and improved business performance.

Armed with definitions, arguments as to the advantages of such a strategy and ways to take action, you perhaps have a few questions left to avoid false notes? Our branding enthusiasts listen to your questions!

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