Your Professional Brand
Guest Blog by Brand Wizard & CultureTalk Certified Partner Mike Taylor
Why your brand is your most significant business asset
“The future belongs to those who are building brands now.”
| Bernard Kelvin Clive
A couple of months ago, I read an article in the Sunday New York Times, “Their Brand? Burned Out”, about how younger workers who embraced the idea of “Me Inc.” struggle to find work-life balance. Those that monetize their online presence have seen that “building a personal brand blurs the divide between an identity and a job. It puts pressure on families. It demands that every intimate experience is mined for content.”
This article has stuck with me because this personal branding approach doesn’t apply to many of us who work in corporations or provide professional services, individuals with skills and experience from manufacturing to technology to nursing, or experts in a field of study. Yet, we need a solid professional brand to be our most significant long-term business asset for our careers.
Our professional brand is built carefully over time, becoming our business reputation in our industry. Instead of worrying about daily posting to the ever-downward spiral of social media, we step back and share our stories when it matters and where they can do the most good within our industry and community. Of course, you’ll still need a strong profile on LinkedIn because that’s where others in your business go to find you. Through the years, your business asset will generate a handsome return on investment without wasting your time on an activity that, in the end, doesn’t matter.
There’s no clear delineation between my work life and my personal life.
| Kahlil Greene, “The Gen Z Historian”
At Mike Taylor Consulting, we’ve created an approach called Ambassador BrandingTM, which generates even more value by bringing the Business’s Brand and the Employee’s Professional Brand together through Co-Branding.
Investing in your employees’ Professional Brands increases their value, engagement, and loyalty. Through co-branding, you increase their understanding and engagement with the business brand to empower your best ambassadors and advocates.
This work delivers an exponential increase for your company’s brand and business.
Here’s why:
- Employees have ten times more connections than the brand can reach in other channels.
- Brand messages reach 561% further when shared by employees vs. the same messages transmitted via corporate.
- People only trust official corporate messages 33% of the time, but they trust employees 90% of the time.
- Content shared by employees received eight times more engagement than content from the organization.
"People do not buy goods and services. They buy relationships, stories, and magic."
| Seth Godin
Archetypes are essential to achieving the best return on each of these business assets: the Business Brand, the Professional Brand, and the Ambassador Brand.
That’s why we became a Certified Partner with CultureTalk, the only platform that offers an interconnected view of an organization and its leaders and teams. CultureTalk makes a timeless code for understanding human behavior actionable through a platform for modern business.
- The most successful Business Brands have the best stories. Archetypes are so powerful because they are story-driven, enabling you to get to the heart of your brand and emotional connection with your customers.
- Building your Professional Brand is hard because you can’t read the label when you’re inside the jar. Archetypes enable you to see yourself as others see you.
- Culture is crucial to your company’s success. With CultureTalk, you can turn culture into a tangible asset that can be measured, managed, and led.
If you’d like to know more about Ambassador Branding, here’s a short video.
You can also download our free eBook—Ambassador Branding™, Better Employee Engagement, Customer Experience, Branding, and Business Growth.
