Andreas from Shield

Earned Media is on the rise. How can you benefit?

Earned Media, opposed to Owned Media and Paid Media, is all about organic attention through customers, fans and employees. Word of mouth at scale.

Imagine a Company Page on LinkedIn with 100,000 followers and 20,000 employees. If we are ultra conservative and say that each employee have just 250 connections, the organic 1st degree network size amounts to 5,000,000 compared to only 100,000 followers on the Company Page.

A few hundred employees can easily achieve a far bigger reach, more engagement, and higher quality attention. Word of mouth from someone we have a personal connection to conveys exponentially more trust and authenticity than a brand talking from a corporate perspective.

This is a fantastic opportunity that several global brands have already realised, and are already reaping the benefits from.

Less control, more freedom to act 🕊️

The downside, a corporate entity could argue, is that Earned Media is a space with less corporate control and fewer if any systematic processes, as employees are using their own personal profiles.

For legal and ethical reasons, the employer simply can’t tap into these private profiles. Nor should they.

This would compromise the authenticity and originality of the individual and turn them into an extended corporate advertisement asset. This is not advocacy and it wouldn’t resonate well with any of us.

Mutual understanding = 📈

When both employee and employer understands and appreciates the value of personal branding and genuine employee advocacy, then there are numerous benefits and advantages available from actively pursuing strategic initiatives in the Earned Media space.

Motivation among employees will be intrinsic, and enable a network effect where people will actively seek out to join these initiatives. In particular when they see their colleagues become brand ambassadors and reap the personal benefits.

🏆 The benefits

For the employee: A stronger personal brand

By being active and visible, you gather attention. Do this consistently and you will build a brand. This creates opportunity at scale, whether you want to advance in the corporate hierarchy, change career path, meet quotas or simply build and strengthen your own professional network.

When starting to add value and be active online you will immediately:

• Gain confidence and credibility

• Showcase your speciality

• Connect with your target audience

• Generate exciting opportunities.

For the employer: Inbound attention & an engaged workforce

Having a workforce full of people nurturing their personal brands will inevitably reflect back on the company- and employer brand.

This could come from graduates showing day to day life at the company, b2b sales reps or top tier consultants showcasing their knowledge and positioning themselves as thought leaders.

The contextual applications are plentiful, depending on the strategy, and will ultimately lead to:

• An engaged workforce

• A stronger brand reputation

• Exponential increase in inbound attention (General awareness, talent attraction, lead generation, customer retention, etc.)

• Improved bottom line.

Do This Today 👇

Make a post on LinkedIn. Document what you are up to, don’t try to create something amazingly innovative. Simply speak your truth and see what happens.

I promise you nothing bad will happen. Only now, you are gaining confidence and taking control of where you are heading.

‍

Andreas from Shield