How to help your employees become on-target brand champions for your company.

Recently a friend of ours, Susie Casty, an immensely talented voice actor and singer in LA, launched her first “personal branding” video on Instagram.

Neither of us is a natural on camera. Joy is happiest behind the scenes creating visual communication, and I’m at my best at my desk writing. But we’re trying. 

Our efforts to develop better on-camera skills were jump-started by a Forrester report we read that cited two statistics that probably raised an alarm across HR departments everywhere: Forrester predicted that by the end of 2026, employees outside centralized content teams will create two-thirds of B2B content. The same report warns that ungoverned genAI will cost B2B companies more than $10 billion.*

Of course it’s essential to establish do’s and don’ts for posting anything about your business, but governance is only half the battle. Employees have many motivations for talking about their work. Many are native to social media and know that posts about work help them build a stronger reputation in their community. True enough, some may have an axe to grind, but most are simply motivated by pride for the work they do, the teams they work with, and the company they work for.

What is the use of an AI system in supporting your brand if each bit of collateral and every deck it produces follows the misguided fever-dream state of an under-educated AI system?

Turn your employees into spokespeople.

Employees going rogue on personal branding can be either a major benefit to a business or a terrifying risk, but you can’t control the actions of every employee. It’s clear that strong governance surrounding what employees may and may not publish is critical, so the important next step is helping them understand how to post in a way that fully supports your business. 

Businesses very often develop an exhaustive brand book that is nurtured by the marketing team, but rarely shared widely with staff. In the work we do with our clients, our first step is often to train teams on their own brand guidelines. 

Build skills to ensure every message is on-target.

So, once you’ve developed a strong HR policy around posting, it’s equally important to work with marketing to develop guidance on how to share information that meets a standard you define. 

Educate everyone in your company’s style.

If you’re not a marketer, you’re probably not thinking like one. We work with teams in technology and research who are out there doing the work, and often, they’re simply unaware of guidelines and how to use them. A few short sessions can actually make their lives easier by providing them with rules to follow, access to resources like images or video they didn’t know were there, and a better sense of how to present information.

Integrate well-defined standards into your AI system.

Make sure your AI system understands usage, has access to in-house rules about logo, color, fonts, and image use as well as brand voice. What is the use of an AI system in supporting your brand if each bit of collateral and every deck it produces follows the misguided fever-dream state of an under-educated AI system?

Help employees become better producers.

• Find simple ways to help them write and speak with your voice by providing them with examples and following up with how this reinforces brand recognition.
  
• Teach the non-designers about design. When training non-designers on how to use appropriate elements, we typically deliver design basics and stress the “less is more” approach. The result is a sigh of relief (it’s less work!), and a cleaner representation of your brand in visual communication.
  
• Provide on-camera training to ensure your employees, when they’re speaking for or about you, look the part and deliver with confidence. Tips as simple as lighting tricks, how to frame your shot, adding a logo, and delivering with a confident voice can turn an OK video into something they (and you) can be proud of.
  
• Reward and cultivate success by acknowledging, liking, re-posting when appropriate, and saving employee posts that represent the best “how-tos” to include in your next brand book.

The payoff is a stronger presence from the inside-out.

No doubt this is more work for HR, marketing, and managers in your organization. The downside is, surely someone will put something out there that you don’t want them to. Another risk is that the cream of the crop will stand out and get more recruiting calls from your competition. But the upside for your brand is better representation, a unified voice in the marketplace, and a more recognizable presence signaling, “this is a great place to work, our projects make a difference, and our people love bragging about us!”

We know, you’re thinking, “physicians, heal thyselves!” Well, we’re working on it, and promise to share a-certified, HR-proof video in the near future. In fact, we’ve recently added Denise Dufala, an award-winning former news anchor, to our team. She helps clients (and us) develop a screen-ready approach to delivering stronger messages.

Want some help designing a training program that turns your staff into influencers?