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For a few years – indeed, ever since the pandemic – all marketing research and practices have agreed on one thing.
In the traditional customer journey, which identifies and maps the way users interact with a business and their eventual conversion, the top figures at a company – the founders, entrepreneurs, managers and/or executives – are essential touchpoints if the brand is to succeed.
Back in 2005, the RepTrak model – the most popular method for measuring businesses’ and institutions’ reputation, which examines seven key dimensions – identified leadership skills as a distinctive feature of any healthy and successful organisation.
Incorporating this leadership in the communication arena therefore provides a way to achieve the right positioning more quickly and convey value to the audiences businesses are looking to reach.
The relationship between a leader and their business has never been closer: the former’s reputation influences and reflects how the latter is viewed.
In this article, we’ll examine everything that falls under the banner of executive communication – how to hone and optimise business leaders’ positioning within the digital business community (and elsewhere).
The Art of Evangelism
One of the first people to discuss key decision-makers’ new communication role was probably Guy Kawasaki – a leading figure in Silicon Valley and in the world of global innovation, who back in 2015 wrote a forward-looking article in the Harvard Business Review eloquently titled The Art of Evangelism.
In it, the author highlighted how evangelism and ambassadorship, once the sole prerogative of customers (who, having tried the product or service, start to speak positively or negatively about the experience and the company), are now, following the development of business communities (LinkedIn, intranets, business social networks, etc.) increasingly also carried out by business leaders, managers and other top company figures.
The Greek roots of the word ‘evangelism’ refer to spreading good news: in the business realm on social media, this equates to describing how products, services or the entire business can impact, and potentially improve, people’s lives. As Guy Kawasaki himself said:
“If you’re a leader, you should evangelize for your organization and what it has to offer, and you should feel comfortable playing this role both internally – in break rooms, over e-mail, through collaborative platforms – and externally, at industry conferences and via LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. In the social age, evangelism is everyone’s job.”
By doing this, you also provide an example for others to follow – like employees, business partners and other stakeholders.
Social leaders: traits and profile
Given the importance of company decision-makers being social, this begs another question: are social leaders born or made?
Long story short: both.
While with good training anyone can learn to recount their business’s values, initiatives, goods and services effectively on digital media, there are certain traits that – if the leader possesses them – provide an excellent basis on which to build.
Charlene Li wrote one of the bestselling works on this topic, also published in 2015: The Engaged Leader: a Strategy for your Digital Transformation. In it, the author and digital transformation expert identifies three key characteristics of social leaders:
- Purpose driven: the business person or manager must be inspired by a loftier purpose than profit.
- Open: the leader must open up to their organisation.
- Engaged: they must show interest, receptiveness, respect and inclusiveness to others (colleagues, business partners, etc.)
When I think about exceptional leaders, one name always comes to mind, someone who stands out from the classic business or management style: Francesca Bardelli Nonino.
As part of the sixth generation of the Nonino family, famous worldwide for its iconic grappa, Francesca is now responsible for the brand’s online communication, and she is very active online – predominantly on LinkedIn, where she is a Top Voice – acting as a genuine ambassador and evangelist for her family brand. She does it with a fresh and authentic communication style, wittily and humorously describing the company’s universe, and intertwining it with her own life.
Start with why: a good place to begin
If you’ve made it this far, I hope I’ve piqued your interest, and most importantly convinced you how effective a carefully conceived executive communication plan can be for your business. Successfully communicating your values, products and services, and business activities – and doing it through the leading figures at your organisation – can bring significant marketing and branding benefits, and in the long term help to build that highly sought-after thing: reputation.
A good place to start is with what is now considered a classic communication model and essential reading for all managers: Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle.
It all started with a TED talk, in which the author explained how his Circle worked. This video immediately captured people’s imagination, in part because the framework is so simple and flexible, meaning it can be applied across the whole world and in a vast array of different areas.
Sinek recommends completing the Golden Circle starting from the centre and working outwards (from Why to What). Applied to social leadership, it could look something like this:
- Why: which causes, purposes and vision does the leader believe in? What world do they (and therefore the business they founded and/or run) hope to see in the future, and help to shape on a daily basis?
- How: how do they achieve these lofty values and this vision? What potentially idiosyncratic and firm-specific approach have they adopted?
- What: which current products/services or things that are still in the pipeline do they use for this purpose?
This type of analysis is typically completed in partnership with the executive or manager for whom the plan is being developed, working out each of the three dimensions together.
This then provides the basis for creating an effective communication plan. Specifically, it helps answer which communication channels to choose and what editorial content to produce, while keeping in mind these essential elements:
- Storyline mapping and content mix: which topics (the storylines) are to be discussed online and through which content formats (the content mix – e.g. static, video, long form like LinkedIn Pulse or short form like Stories).
- Cross-media/transmedia approach: when the leader is visible on multiple channels, do you adopt a single editorial strategy or is it better to segment according to the channels and their audiences?
- Editorial calendar: how much content should you publish every month? Thi depends on the channels you are using and the content marketing approach you have adopted. The advice is not to exceed an average of three or four items, to avoid over-exposure. To support organic content, on LinkedIn you can use a specially created advertising format called Thought Leader Ads, which allows you to promote a specific post using the company’s LinkedIn page’s Business Manager section.
- Peer and stakeholder interaction strategy: if someone comments on your content, what do you do? And if the comment comes from a peer – in the case of an entrepreneur or CEO, from someone in an equivalent role at another firm – what guidelines should you follow in your interaction?
- Return on investment (ROI): what do you expect to achieve? What are your overarching objectives (e.g. increasing the business leader’s followers, exchanging ideas with other company channels, increasing communities’ level of engagement, increasing the equity of the brand as a whole, etc.) and how will they be measured?
Now you have a recipe to start turning the top individuals at your business into powerful content creators to support your work.
No more excuses! Ready? Get cracking!