As the social media space continues to grow and as more and more brands venture into the space, business are being forced to reflect on what brand is actually being built through the social media effort.
The tension for corporations lies between an individual, who through doing a great social media job also enhances their own personal brand, and brands who are looking to reinforce core positioning and communication messages through social media.
So what are the pros and cons behind each “brand” and how can corporations ensure that the company brand is actually being built?
1: My Individual Brand aka Personal Branding
- Individuals by developing their own brand can generate more interest for the company than the company would be able to do on its own. Think of Richard Branson and the value he brings to Virgin. Branson is more than plane tickets or mobile phone plans and yet is able to pass the audience into the various Virgin companies. Therefore it pays to empower employees to build a brand.
- Success will come when a tight match occurs between the individual and the corporation and when both can work together in a symbiotic way to mutually gain. If there is little alignment between an individual and brand, then the ability to generate more than simply the sum of parts is limited.
2: The Company Brand
- Social media is personal, so by putting names and faces on brands, the individual can leverage the corporate brand for personal gain. If you are a big brand, then this is valuable to the Social Media expert or agency. Corporations need to make sure all involved are aware of the value exchange.
- Companies will last longer than employees, so if corporations fail to capture an audience around a brand, then the brand is in a risky position. Corporations can mitigated this risk through asigning multiple people within an organisation to be engaged within social media activities. Think Telstra and the BigPond efforts. If you rely on one individual exhaustively, then the possible exposure to risk through events such as an employee leaving needs to be mitigated.
Really good points raised here – there are definitely mutual benefits to building both personal and company brands. Most large brands are terrified of personalising so it will be interesting to see how they jump in and evolve in the social media space
Tiphereth,
Thanks for the feedback, interesting to see how the space will play out. Especially in regards to how big corporates and small businesses atack the situation.
Great site by the way, our readers should take a look!