Our employees work hard to build their personal brands through writing and social media. Any advice for how I should use some of what they create to help our company too?
The following answers are provided by members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
1. Post Articles on the Company Blog
“Each time one of your employees writes an article that is relevant to your company, post the article (or a link to the article, at a minimum) on your company’s blog. This will help drive inbound traffic to your site, and also help establish your employees as thought leaders in your field. Content marketing, when used correctly, is a powerful way to generate inbound leads.”
Brittany Hodak, ZinePak
2. Encourage Op-Ed Social Media Pieces
“Your employees can comment on your product as themselves by using their personal brands — that’s not something I believe is ever taboo. Have them keep their “personal brand” hat on so to speak, and respond to your product in an honest tone true to what they’ve established through social media — it’ll add legitimacy to your product without compromising their character.”
Rob Fulton, Exponential Black
3. Empower Your Employees to Publish Content
“Allow your employees to collectively set standards and get other employees on board with publishing content. Encourage them to have a platform to be creative and publish their ideas. This will also add credibility to your company by showcasing your employees’ knowledge and industry expertise.”
Brock Stechman, DivvyHQ
4. Think Outside the Blog
“Asking an employee with a blog to write a blog post is essentially offering an apple for an apple, which can lessen their incentive and potential for impact. Offering new opportunities instead, such as quotes in videos and eBooks, can create more of a win-win that awards you both. You get new content and new faces to go with it, and they get new resources and channels for their own brand.”
Sam Saxton, Salter Spiral Stair and Mylen Stairs
5. Plan to Share
“Pro social media marketing teams cycle their posts through different accounts, which maximizes efficacy and reach. Encourage youremployees to be active on social media and to share each others’ posts. Tools like Buffer are great for making it easy to schedule out posts across different times.”
Miles Jennings, Recruiter.com
6. Retweet and Share Their Content
“If the content your team members create aligns with your brand, its mission and your customers’ goals, don’t by shy in RTing and sharing it to your social media fans and followers. You’ll quickly realize that one of your best content curation strategies may be one driven by the posts or status updates your employees already publish.”
Firas Kittaneh, Amerisleep
7. Highlight Their Hobbies
“Especially when a company is a very corporate one, it’s important to humanize the company. If an employee loves and lives biking, talk about it on your blog. Let him speak to customers who call in. If this is a passion that others can relate to, this can be a great way to start a powerful conversation and keep it going!”
