I’m working on this right now at my Company (note the capital C). My response to this was so vigorous that I’m linking to the post here, rather than re-creating it. Because I am working on it professionally, I welcome any contacts from those with useful points of view.
Thanks,

Here’s the direct link to the relevant post: rhetoricia.blogspot.com/2008/12/personal-brand-and-company-property.html

Sorry, I misspelled the Abby Shaw link — use this one.

I work at Schipul – The Web Marketing Company in Houston, TX, and our CEO encourages – as does our “corporate culture” – the proliferation of our personal brands.

My boss recognizes the risks you mention above. Sure, some succumb to them. He has hired smart people, and intelligent people are always looking to grow and develop themselves professionally. He even acknowledges that sooner or later, this grouping of intelligent people will probably fly out of his nest. So he invests in us as people, and tries to make us the best we can be, as individuals.

As a result, and speaking from my own observations, we are incredibly loyal to our boss and this company – and each other. He doesn’t try to stifle us; he wants us to reach our maximum potentials at his company and beyond. We know he cares about our personal growth – how many employees can say that about their bosses? We are lucky that he takes the time to invest in us as much as he does the company. We know we are his most valuable resources.

And when it’s time for me to leave – which is probably inevitable, considering the trends of my generation – I’ll know that I grew as a professional as a result of a boss that truly cared about me as a person. The tighter you try to suppress something, the worse it’s going to want to get away from you. So why cling? Perhaps it’s a bit of reverse psychology, but hey, it’s working for us!

BL: What has Scoble’s work led to for MS in social media? What are they doing now? What happened after he left. A big fail. That is not a good legacy for their corporate social media effort.

Geoff- whose fault is that? Microsoft’s, not Scoble’s.

Great post, Jeremiah.

I find this quote:

[Despite that social technologies can improve customer relationships, the risks may be too great for some companies to bear, as a result, some corporations will shy away from allowing employees to have personal brands]

Absurd. Arrogant. Naive.

Prediction: In 2009, brilliant companies will encourage their employees to unleash personality, passion and creative energy into the world in ways we have yet to see. The great ones will subsidize the employee’s side projects.

Meanwhile, industrial age companies will continue to waste $ talking about the ‘risks’ of such behavior, developing policies that get hacked. As Paul Graham eloquently noted in this essay www.paulgraham.com/artistsship.html , there are ‘costs’ involved with designing against personal expression, too.

Geoff

What makes your think Microsoft’s social media program has failed? Channel 8, 9, and 10 are still around.

Hi Jeremiah,

I run into the personal brand “dilemna” all the time. Mostly because I’m both an editor at mediabistro.com for their PRNewser blog and a PR practitioner at the Horn Group.

Given the blog, I’ve definitely developed what some may call a personal brand, although I like sticking with good old fashioned “reputation” as per Geoff Livingston’s comment.

To your above points, I believe most forward thinking companies will go with “option four” let personal brands proliferate. However, especially at large companies, you’ll often see these voices “aggregated” on a newsroom page. (www.communities.hp.com/online/)

What better way to show the collective voices of your employees? On my agency’s blog, we do the same, aggregating blogs of employees, our clients, and of course our blog roll.

Anyone who claims to have this all “figured out” is just not living in reality. It’s a case by case basis kind of thing, but I think you provided a good lay of the land in this post.

Jeremiah-

I posted my thoughts on this at my own blog: www.biske.com/blog/?p=567

People need and want to feel valued – period. Companies that actually get (and foster) this most basic human need keep their star employees for much longer periods of time. It’s companies who don’t get this who are paranoid about losing talent – and they absolutely should be.

Jeremiah,

An excellent post a usual. One example of the 3rd Reaction is running right now on our blog blog.ripple6.com where we are running a series of videos of our clients talking about how they have used our products and the challenges have they faced in implementing social media.

Thanks,
Chris

I think it’s great that people can put a face to the organization by employees building their own personal brands within a company. We encourage it because we all benefit from it.

The worry that companies have about their people being poached due to their personal brand should make businesses more accountable for creating a great work environment and giving them fair compensation and perks.

In my own experience, the reason for wanting to leave prior jobs is because I was unhappy due to being mistreated and undervalued and not afforded the flexibility. The minute you start valuing your employees, letting them spread their wings, and setting up a plan for them to be rewarded, results come and businesses flourish.

Now, I do base that on my own experience with one PR firm and then leaving with one of the co-founder to start my current firm. We have profit sharing and some other perks like genuine flexibility that keeps morale high and motivated because if a client is happy the whole team will be rewarded due to our business model.

Jeremiah

If Forrester was paying you well, letting you have ample room to grow the company as well as your personal brand, and in general treating you as the reputable adult you are… why would you ever leave?

Employees, personal brand or not, leave because employers fail them…fail to allow them to reach what the employee feels is his or her future.

Companies need to stop playing defense and play offense. If you have a franchise player (with a powerful personal brand) then feed them. If they want to be a rockstar, and they can be a rockstar, let them. Otherwise, someone else will. And then you as the company create the self fulfilling prophecy — the departure of your personal brand employee.

Wow – amazing conversation here. I work for a nonprofit and as Beth Kanter pointed out, we tend to gravitate towards the faceless option, but I’m intrigued by your mention of the second reaction and the Dell and Oracle approach of fusing employee and company. I think Jonathan Colman did that well for the Nature Conservancy.

I feel a bit schizophrenic after building my own network of nonprofit movers and shakers who are on social media and now having to build it all over again with separate accounts that represent my organization. However, as Karl Long pointed out in a great comment above, it really is all about the networks. That is especially true in the nonprofit sector.

Got some personal branding I could borrow?
is.gd/OLH

Actually I am asking our senior management team to start thinking the unthinkable – in the future, should we only consider candidates for jobs with respectable social media footprints? If so, what is respectable?

You obviously touched a nerve with the tremendous response and your great post. I think many companies still have one foot planted in 1950s when the organization ruled and employees were simply cogs in a wheel. As the responses indicate, change is coming from the bottom up and companies won’t be able to get younger employees unless they change their tactics.

And, as many folks indicated, personal brands can only make a company stronger. As has been said before, “Who wants to communicate with a Coke bottle?” People want real people behind a company.

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