Think Of Your Brand As A Planet

Guest post by Cheryl Burgess and Mark Burgess, co-authors of The Social Employee.

What is your brand’’s relationship to its employees?

A brand cannot communicate externally unless it first learns to communicate internally. To better understand your brand’s pull on its workers, and how it can unlock the imaginations of its social employees by building dynamic, transparent communication channels, we have created this handy infographic.

As a handy metaphor, think of your brand as a planet, and your employees as satellites drawn into your orbit. It is your brand’s duty to generate enough gravity to hold those employee satellites in place. Otherwise, you may find them drawn to other brands with a stronger pull. If this happens to your workforce, you don’t just risk losing some of your employees, you risk losing your best employees.

It doesn’t have to be this way!

In an era where employee job satisfaction is startlingly low, brands have an increased responsibility to build thriving cultures of engaged social employees. By doing so, companies can drive brand value and learn to generate measurable and sustainable ROI in the digital bazaar. It all begins by building strong collaborative relationships among employees, across departments, and driven by the C-Suite.

We’ve gone behind the scenes with several leading brands—such as IBM, AT&T, Dell, Adobe, Southwest Airlines, Cisco, Acxiom, and Domo —pulling the lid off the inspiring social business success stories that have propelled these companies into the 21st century. These cutting-edge brands have all come to the same realization: the path to social business lies through empowering the social employee.

Remember, the social employee journey starts today. Is your brand ready to join the social employee revolution?

This post was originally posted on Blue Focus Marketing Blog.

Cheryl Burgess is a social media expert, co-founder, and managing partner with Mark Burgess of Blue Focus Marketing — an award-winning social branding agency. Connect via Twitter @ckburgess @mnburgess @BlueFocus @SocialEmployee.