Research indicates that one in three clients states that the presence of an organization’s CEO on social media increases their credibility and image. One in five Gen Y candidates is interested in applying to an organization if they see an active CEO. Candidates check the CEO’s LinkedIn profile to learn about career development opportunities within the company. 81% of social media users believe that a CEO present on social media is better prepared to lead a company. These are just some of the findings that prove that the involvement of key company figures via social media significantly impacts the company’s operation and development. Communicating, and consequently building the image, of leaders becomes essential. Alongside the growing importance of employee advocacy, this is a crucial action that cannot be ignored. For this very purpose, a separate specialization of personal branding has emerged – boss branding.
Boss branding is a specific type of personal brand building. It primarily concerns C-Level executives, who are characterized by specific aspects. The activities of senior management include areas such as:
It should be noted that for C-Level executives, beyond building their own brand to generate reputational gains, there is also a focus on company development. Today, users are not interested in seeing a professional company logo, but rather its “faces”. Therefore, boss branding and its mechanisms should be highlighted. It is worth focusing on communication via the most popular social media platform currently, designed primarily for C-Level executives – LinkedIn.
C-Level executives gain the opportunity to network and build their personal brand via LinkedIn. On one hand – especially during the pandemic – this is a great privilege and facilitation; on the other, it’s a responsibility for creating appropriate content. Analyses confirm that CEOs are gradually becoming convinced of this type of communication. One of the reasons for actions aimed at building a personal brand is the aforementioned pandemic, which made it clear that the network should be an excellent complement to C-Level executives’ activities.
In discussions, C-Level executives emphasize that professional communication and building a business image become a good way to prove that a company’s leader does not handle matters solely in their office. They are a person with experience, their own habits, history, but above all, interests and their own opinion on general topics (here it is worth mentioning the idea of a T-Shaped Person – an individual specialized in a specific area, with broad general knowledge).
Therefore, it is worth providing a preliminary recipe for professional communication via LinkedIn. In this context, it is suggested to use several established rules:
By applying the above rules and tips, a boss will build a credible and natural business profile on LinkedIn. Social selling is an element that dominates today’s communication. You cannot use all the information found in guides in your activities. Social media is about naturalness, relationship-building, and credibility. These three values are necessary for effective business communication on LinkedIn.
As can be observed, the boss branding principles proposed by the author are related to the fact that building a personal brand for C-Level executives must be devoid of any automation elements and schemes whose sole purpose is to build reach through a large number of likes and comments. A boss also cannot afford to create a “team” solely responsible for building message popularity. This is nothing more than the aforementioned automation, which in the long run will be noticed and significantly impact the image. Naturalness and credibility – these are the values that will allow C-Level executives to build a professional personal brand. This is boss branding!
