In a commercial entity, executive roles and functions are as significant for companies as the products or services those companies are offering to their consumers and clients are. Executives are assets of organisations. They are responsible to help organisations grow and be profitable using their knowledge, skills, connections, networks, experience among other things they have to offer. “Their personas and personalities impact their image and reputation which are tied to their organizations’ reputation” (Fetscherin, 2015). When the media for instance wants to know about the well-being of an organisation, executives, in particular CEOs are the first to provide insight to the outside world.
It is not only personas and personalities that impact on executive image and reputation, actions can also be added to that. The recent corruption reports implicating former Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula who is alleged to have accepted a bribe of R 2.5 million while she was minister of SANDF. She is currently doing everything within her powers to avoid going to jail. Jooste who is said to have recently committed suicide leaving behind a debt of over R 500 million acquired through corrupt means during his tenure as CEO of Steinhoff, shows how executives can be vulnerable to the whims of power and influence.
Let us look at ways to create, curate and share content to grow an executive brand on social media. World Statistics released a report that shows the amount of time Africans spend on social media using global ranking. Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana and Kenya were the leading African countries.
There is a lot already written about social media in both academic and non-academic platforms, and this article is meant to highlight some of the factors executives need to focus on to grow their brands.
Executive power and responsibility
Before we elaborate on executive branding, firstly let us be clear about what an executive is. This is because definitions differ based on how different sectors understand what executive are and their roles. It is also important to note that in Africa executives understand themselves differently, than their Western or Eastern counterparts would because of cultural dynamics. They are sometimes defined based on what they do, who they are, and the type of organisations they work for as well as the dynamics of a country they are in.
The Cambridge dictionary defines an executive as someone occupying a high position, especially in business, who makes decisions and ensures that they are actioned.
Three elements are mentioned in this definition which are a higher position, decision-making and the operational functions or rather duties. This definition defeats the idea that when someone has reached the high echelons of their organisation, they now stop working and all they do is to give instructions. Truth of the matter is that executive power comes with great executive responsibility.
Executive power has increased over the years because of the enormous responsibility that is placed on executives. Karaduman (2014) is of the idea that their role has evolved which makes them to be more visible, social, connected, and accessible than ever before. This evolution of roles is also seen in how they have to be stewards of policy-making processes, procurement of services and products, corporate governance, ethics, overall management, corporate social responsibility, labour matters, risk assessments and security, executive decision-making and many more. All these responsibilities are putting a bright spotlight on executives who also have to adhere to various statutes that govern their sectors and the King Codes which is a set of guidelines for business governance. In most countries like South Africa, executive power is given and regulated by the Companies Act.
Challenges faced by executives
Executives are faced with all kinds of challenges which could lead to failures. These are at both micro and macro level of the organisation. In a world with a system where being an executive is often associated and means aligning to a particular political ideology, such challenges can come in buckets loads. Some of these include acceding to the demands of political deployment by a ruling party, being unskilled or inexperienced for the position appointed to, maladministration, mismanagement of resources, abuse of executive power, insubordination, socioeconomic changes, state capture, corporate sabotage, resource allocation and vandalism, corruption, collusion, managing systemic racism and tribalism and many others. There are a number of organisations that have experienced failure at executive level such as the Public Protector, KPMG, Steinhoff, SABC, Masterbond, CNA, PRASA, Eskom, Transnet and many more.
An executive appointment is not as glamorous as we are made to believe. All that glitters is not always gold and the huge packages, benefits and prestige that are often offered come with so much sacrifice which often is the kind that compromises family stability, health, reputation and one’s overall wellness. Vusi Thembekwayo a global speaker and venture capitalist commented in one of his talks that being in such a position is not glamourous. You often have to do all the stuff that nobody wants to do and make all the decisions that nobody doesn’t want to make. It is for this reason that discussing executive branding is important, especially in an age of social media, a tool that has contributed to the rising and downfall of many in executive positions.
Defining executive branding within a social media context
The term branding or brand is almost in everyone’s lips, especially in this “woke” generation. It cuts across every sphere of society making it omnipresent. Maurya & Mishra (2012) agree that brands are omnipresent; they penetrate almost every aspect of our life such as economic, social, cultural, sporting, even religion. Such omnipresence touches the lives of executives as well.
In an article posted in 2023 on LinkedIn by IMERGY, executive branding is defined as a process of creating and promoting a personal brand for an individual in a leadership or executive position. In essence, executive branding is personal branding, the difference is that a personal brand in this case is an executive. It can be considered to be the self-commodification of an executive. This means that all that could be considered as attributes of a personal brand can also be attributed to an executive brand. Such attributes include personal vision, values, value proposition, talents, expertise, leadership style etc. All these are used to benefit the organisation, more so to position the brand image of an executive.
Jenny L. Davis (2015) defines social media from a perspective of its functionality. She says they are the set of interactive internet applications that facilitates creation, curation and sharing of user-generated content. In this definition it is already clear that there are three significant aspects of how social media can be used to its optimum, and these are content creation, content curation and content sharing.
How social media can be used effectively by executives
Content creation – social media is a big part of our lives and executives will do well to leverage on its power and reach. It has somehow been proven that the social media has become so much part of our lives that it is the first thing we check when we wake up and the last thing we interface with before going to sleep. Now that is power. We have mentioned the world statistics earlier on this article and to leverage such power, executives must create content that will position them the way they want to be positioned in the minds of stakeholders.
It was about 2400 years ago when this idea was expressed by Socrates who wrote that, “the way to gain a good reputation is to endeavour to be what you desire to appear.” This means that executives are responsible for the content they create, how it is created and managed. The beautiful thing about social media is that it empowers users of digital technology to be producers of content. With a single click on a gadget, one can create compelling, thought provoking and educational content. The kind of content that can position them as specialists in their industries.
Content creation can be done through audio, video, podcast, article, book publishing, speaking engagements in seminars and webinars, presenting papers and much more. This can however be daunting for executives because of their heavy schedules, activities and programs. It is for that reason that such services can be outsourced to specialists who understand branding and its execution at executive level. Whether one does it themselves or is outsourced, content creation for branding purposes is essential at executive level.
The benefits of content creation for executives are that;
1. It expands the number of your reach. The number of people you are able to connect with in a day or week, can far surpass those you can reach in person in a month or a year.
2. It diversifies the calibre of your audience. Populating content on various platforms where you can share your thoughts about your work, organisation, industry and offer informed opinions on world issues gives you leverage and exposure to audiences from various living standards measure (LSM) which are aligned to your brand.
3. It humanises you, making it easy for your stakeholders to relate with you.
4. It provides much needed perspective from inside and outside your scope of influence.
Content curation – A strong, vibrant and agile executive branding strategy must be well communicated and executed. In order to successfully do this you must curate your content. Curation of content involves discovering, carefully selecting and organising content.
This literally means that you package yourself specifically for your selected audience, through the use of curated content. As an executive commodity, you cannot be consumed by everyone, you must choose how you want your brand to be consumed. There are thousands of audios, videos, articles and podcasts that are uploaded on different social media and digital media platforms daily, which means as an executive you cannot have your data all over the internet.
It also means that you cannot use everything you find on the internet which could be from blogs, eBooks, social media, emails and news websites. You must be selective with your content and where that content should be posted. Ask yourself, what type of topics must I tackle to enrich my audience and enrich my brand?
What are the burning issues currently in my line of work or in the world that have a direct impact to what I do? What is it that I want my content to articulate and represent about me as an executive?
Whose content can I use to help me make a point?” Such and many other questions can help you organise yourself as you share your thoughts, ideas and opinions using curated content.
The benefits of curating your content are that;
1. Your content is not ordinarily found everywhere, which shows thoughtfulness, structure and the ability to manage data.
2. You focus on a niche audience.
3. You create consistency with regards to your voice on issues as your audience customizes with the kind of issues you advocate for or communicate.
4. You become a credible source of information for news-makers, policymakers and legislators on matters pertaining to your sector.
Content sharing – When you look at the Internet Minute Wheel of 2023, you will discover how busy the internet is every minute that passes. Here are a few facts and figures to illustrate my point.
In 2023 there were 18.8 million text messages sent, 2.4 million Google searches done, 694 000 videos viewed on YouTube, 3.47 million snaps created on Snapchat, 10.4 million views on Instagram, 11,035 fake accounts removed on Facebook, 6.3 million total Zoom meeting minutes, and 6.94 million emojis sent.
All this happened per minute of one’s life. In 24 hours, billions of data are shared online, which shows how much data is consumed. Within the internet traffic, what we want to communicate can get lost when shared on inappropriate platforms. There are people who have shared powerful ideas that have never been noticed or seen the light of day because they were posted in the most inappropriate platforms.
Understand your platforms, study how they work and how to use them for maximum benefit. Remember that as an executive your two most precious resources are time and information, therefore how you share and to whom you share these with matters.
To effectively share your content, consider the following;
1. Find the right platform for your type of content.
2. Study your audience. Understand that audiences that will appreciate your content may be those that want to grow in their respective fields, so appreciate the time they take to interact with you and your content. Consider that we are in an attention economy, where people can only focus on so much amidst a flood of content and events, it’s important to be deliberate about who you want to notice you.
3. Know when to post. Time and day of posting is essential because your audience may be one that has no time to check emails, texts and social media frequently. You may then consider posting or uploading when they are taking time to relax or when there is something trending, which you can link your post to.
Lastly, executive branding is a powerful way to get the message of the executive across. It affords you respect in many rooms, allowing people who don’t know you personally to learn from you, speak about you and for you. When there is a national or global issue, you become one of the voices they want to hear from on the matter. What and how you say things on social media may have a negative or positive impact on the already prevailing narrative.
Avoid using social media to fight boardroom battles as that may taint your rising brand. If Twitter could suspend Donald Trump for his untasteful rants, then you and I may not stand a chance. Build your brand one content at a time. Create, curate and share. Sibusisomfeka@yahoo.com
References
Davis, LJ 2015. “Social Media” in The International Encyclopaedia of Political Communication. (Ed) Gianpietro Mazzoleni. John Wiley & Sons, Inc
Fetscherin, M., 2015. The CEO branding mix. Journal of Business Strategy, 36(6), pp.22-28.
IMERGY, 2023. What is Executive Branding? Thought Leadership Series. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse
Karaduman, I., 2013. The effect of social media on personal branding efforts of top-level executives. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 99, pp.465-473.
Maurya, U.K & Mishra, P 2012. What is a brand? A Perspective on Brand Meaning. European Journal of Business and Management, 4(3), 2012, pp.122-133
Thembekwayo, V (2024) “You never want to be a CEO” Video Clip (Instagram)
