The growing use of social media in the workplace has placed greater onus on how the entire team communicates. From the tone of voice they use, the message they deliver to how they conduct themselves outside of the office, employees at all levels must embody your brand to guarantee its success.

Rob Smith, digital director at Blueleaf Digital, said, “There is no one within an organisation that is not responsible for marketing in some way, shape or form. Every single person, whatever role they are doing, every time they send any form of communication out, whether it is internal or external, is representing your brand.”

Paul Harris, marketing director at UKFast, added, “Everyone must be aware that the responsibility of creating and maintaining the perception of a brand is down to them. If they link themselves with a company then their beliefs and viewpoints all become attached to that company.”

With responsibility now a cultural issue, recruitment has never been more significant. To ensure that they are communicating the right message about your brand, you must ultimately employ the right people.

Paul added, “If you have great people in a company who are passionate about what they do, believe in what they do and use their own social networking pages to promote that, it can have a really positive effect.”

Ensuring brand loyalty by building a strong online community can also provide consumers with an important interactive platform. If used correctly, this can provide further feedback and support for your company and its services.

Rachel Combie, director of strategic marketing at Marketing Manchester, concluded, “We’re asking people to support us by creating their own content so we can engage Manchester’s residents and the wider world in a two-way conversation. By encouraging users to contribute, we are looking to build a lifestyle presence that is not created by us as a promotional entity but created by the people themselves.”

Experts from the marketing world were brought together for the latest UKFast round table discussion. Aimed at uniting business leaders to share advice and provide a wealth of ideas for other developing companies, the panel also included Brendan Keegan, senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University. 

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