Personal branding on LinkedIn as part of the employer branding strategy

People profiles have a greater reach on social media and achieve higher engagement compared to company profiles. The reason for this is obvious: people are interested in people and less in impersonal corporations. A company post usually generates less emotion, encourages less interaction and is therefore remembered for a shorter time than a post by an individual. The latter can use personal anecdotes and their individual style to make their topics much more varied and free than social media managers of a general corporate account. 
In order to become more visible with their content, many companies build up personal brands in a targeted and strategic way. These act as brand ambassadors for the entire company or an important sub-area. Social CEOs are already widespread in the USA. Prime examples include the late Apple founder Steve Jobs and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. In Germany, more and more companies are discovering the potential of personal brands that are closely linked to the company. With their high-quality content, expertise and good reputation, impressive personal brands radiate positively onto the corporate brand and give it a likeable human face. This effect strengthens the employer brand both externally and internally in the war for talent. For potential applicants and employees, the company becomes closer and they have the chance to get to know their future or current superiors better in an uncomplicated way. The personal brand can serve as a role model and inspire.

What is the potential of personal branding on LinkedIn?

There are many social networks that companies can use and new ones are being added all the time. When building a personal brand, however, you should focus on one platform. Existing capacities for qualified posts pay off more when concentrated on a network with a fixed publication rhythm than scattered posts on different platforms. The depth of content of posts generates valuable contacts and expert followers, especially on LinkedIn. Establishing yourself as a thought leader in a professional environment is particularly desirable here. 

Although Facebook is still the most used social network worldwide with 2.96 billion users according to Statista, LinkedIn has been able to establish itself for maintaining existing business contacts and making new business connections. It is true that Xing is also a social network in which members primarily manage their professional contacts. However, this business network based in Hamburg focuses on the German-speaking region with 21.3 million users in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (according to Statista).

LinkedIn is currently regarded as the business tool for communication and cooperation and is seen by many as a kind of business Facebook. LinkedIn was founded in 2003 and has been part of Microsoft since 2016. It has 875 million users worldwide. 19 million of them are from the DACH region, according to Statista. Three new LinkedIn members are added every second. Almost 60 percent of all LinkedIn users are between 25-34 years old. Every second, 101 applications are submitted. Every minute, eight new jobs are filled via LinkedIn. LinkedIn lists 14 million open jobs. There are 52 million searches per week in the LinkedIn job market. 40 million members use the #OpenToWork photo frame to signal that they are ready for a career change (data comes from Microsoft Earnings Y23 Q1, summarised by Jens Polomski). 
To be sure, it is difficult to predict how promising individual social networks are. In the case of LinkedIn, however, it seems reasonable to assume that networking here will continue to be possible in a professional atmosphere for many years to come. LinkedIn has the heavyweight Microsoft behind it, which should continuously enrich the network with its products and new developments. 

How does personal branding work on LinkedIn?

More than 95 per cent of CEOs in Germany rely on external help for professional content marketing on LinkedIn. To build a personal brand, they often cooperate with former journalists or content managers who create and coordinate content.
Why is this so? In addition to content expertise, social media know-how is needed to create and publish posts that reach as many users as possible. Which writing style should be used and is it consistent with the personal brand? What length and format should the posts have? At what time should they be published? Often, social CEOs simply lack the capacity to post continuously within the attention-relevant time slots. 

To build a brand ambassador, relevant content should be published several times a week. The posts must have added value for the readers, be entertaining and inspiring, but also contribute to the corporate strategy. Connected to this is community management, i.e. the appropriate response to comments and enquiries - in accordance with the practices of LinkedIn Netiquette. In addition, interactions with other LinkedIn members are beneficial, for example meaningful comments on other people's posts as well as networking with influencers and other experts. 
To remain authentic and credible, the digital and analogue I of the personal brand should be congruent. It is not purposeful to promote a staging on LinkedIn. The discrepancy will be noticed sooner or later and have a negative effect. 
If the positioning as a thought leader on relevant issues of the intended target group is successful, the good image of the personal brand will have a positive effect on customer loyalty and the brand awareness of the associated company. For applicants and employees, the company consolidates its position as an attractive employer. A priceless effect in times of a shortage of skilled workers.

When do you start with personal branding?

Full Moon Brandcode is happy to advise and coach you in all aspects of personal branding. As a personal branding agency with a focus on employer branding, we will work with you to develop a LinkedIn strategy that pays off in terms of your business goals and secures the attention of your stakeholders - authentically and sympathetically. 

Your contact:

RALPH BERGMANN
+49 711 925 388-21
[email protected]