By Peter Sherwood King, Senior Digital Manager

The role individual employees play in a brand’s external marketing is more important than ever. While many brands sport robust, multi-channel social strategies, some are still neglecting the power of employee and exec-led content. After all, one of the main drivers of adoption in the B2B world is trust, and what better place to build trust than through employees?

Across the full seniority spectrum, brands that allow their employees the room to share their own expertise will reap the benefits of an audience that is both engaged with that individual, and the brand they represent. What’s more, they’re supporting the creation of reputable thought leaders.

But ultimately a major part of any reputation starts at the top. Research shows that 92% of professionals are more likely to trust a company whose senior executives use social media, and trust and reputation is a fundamental component in the B2B buying journey.

In this blog, I’ll cover where brands should begin on their social exec profiling journey, and how to build up reputation. Be sure to read through to the end to see how our scorecards could help you get started today.

Getting started

As marketers, it all begins with a social media audit. It’s important to get the lay of the land. How active are execs on social? What are they talking about? Are they a serial re-sharer of corporate page content, or are they an active contributor to the community? This is where opportunities begin to poke out.

Not only should we be viewing their content through a magnifying glass, but also their profiles. A profile is an incredibly important piece of real estate that is often overlooked. Too many execs follow the status quo of writing their profile through the lens of a recruiter. They consider, how can I make myself look like the best candidate for a future role? Instead, an exec should ask themselves, how can I make myself look like the best partner for a future client?

By shifting this mindset, we uncover all the optimisations we can make. It’s about making the profile customer-centric, rather than recruiter-centric. The headline, the bio, the job experience – all opportunities to highlight how an exec can deliver for their clients, and why a prospect should work with them.

Building reputation 

It’s time for execs to post on social. A silent exec is a missed opportunity. 

“If an exec doesn’t make a sound in a forest of potential prospects, does it make a lead?”  

(…Sorry)

Butchered philosophical quotes aside, think about why PR practitioners look to secure quotes in media. It’s about improving reputation. Think of social as the opportunity to share quote after quote, with direct access to your ideal customer profile. It’s a potential gold mine!

Reputation is built through thought leadership and expertise, and no other channel does thought leadership like LinkedIn. A report by the FT revealed that 91% of CEOs use thought leadership to build their watchlist of interesting companies to talk to, while that same report highlighted that 92% of business leaders agree high-quality thought leadership has influenced their decision to award a deal to a company.

But thought leadership isn’t just sharing owned content. It’s about having a finger on the pulse of the wider industry, the broader conversations, the insights, and applying expertise – while not forgetting to engage with peers and colleagues (it pays to build a community!).

At Missive, we fiercely target business outcomes, confident in our ability to make a measurable difference. That’s why we start any exec profiling activity with a scorecard to benchmark performance across a number of areas before, during and after any dedicated activity – see below for a taster.
 

We’re proud of our integrated approach to exec profiling – from traditional media through to social media. If you want to find out how your execs rank today, get in contact with us and we’ll deliver scorecards for your top two execs gratis.