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In 2021, when Aditi Anand, a marketing professional, switched jobs and was looking for ways to break the ice and connect with her co-workers in a work-from-home world, she chose LinkedIn. She got active on the network designed for working professionals to express her thoughts on working remotely, write about trends that caught her attention and gather views on what the marketing community was really thinking at large. 

From 1,500 followers to more than 27,000 followers now, Anand was picked as one of the LinkedIn Top Voices of 2022. “I got appreciation from former co-workers, colleagues who I never met in my new job, peers and others from my network. I wouldn’t have got the exposure I have if I wasn’t on a platform like LinkedIn,” admits Anand. She adds that as a marketer who has worked with some of the top consumer brands like Coca-Cola, Airtel, Nokia and Flipkart, posting and daily engagement on LinkedIn has helped her simplify her creative process. It has helped her express her points of view during brainstorming sessions with much more confidence and clarity. Anand has also been getting speaking opportunities at industry events and jury invitations for advertising award shows.

Move over, influencers of yore. Anand is one among many who found LinkedIn to be a means to express themselves. The network may have been launched in 2003 as a way to connect jobseekers with recruiters, and to widen professional networks. It has 830 million users globally who generate about 8 million posts and comments every day. 

But over the last few years, LinkedIn has changed its algorithm, introducing newsfeed-like features. This has not gone down well with everybody, with some saying it is trying to be like other social platforms rather than a professional platform. 

“LinkedIn is slowly becoming like Instagram where you see videos of people dancing in suits, workation photos and creatives on leadership lessons that no one in particular is seeking,” says the chief marketing officer (CMO) of a multinational company on condition of anonymity. 

The trends are similar on microblogging site Twitter. The increasing habit of “oversharing” has led to many in corporate India and adland to open up and enhance their personal brands. But is it all getting too much? Is the pursuit to build personal brands and the race for clout clouding platforms? 

<strong>Building personal brands</strong>

Today, a set of creators who are hyperactive and catching a lot of attention on platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram happen to be entrepreneurs. In fact, this year image consultants and influencer management agencies are actively getting requests from CXOs, startup founders and even digital marketing agency chiefs to handle their personal accounts on social media and digital platforms.

These companies get paid anywhere from Rs 10,000 to Rs 2 lakh to manage these personal profiles. This includes creating content banks, pushing promoted posts to garner more followers and crisis management, if required.

Viraj Sheth, CEO and co-founder of Monk Entertainment, says entrepreneurs, especially the younger ones, have a different unabashed kind of energy. 

“They’re not low-key, they’re not building in stealth. They don’t want to hide things or keep anything discreet. They want to be open about their progress and failures. They want to share their updates with their community. They understand the importance of having reach and followers on social media. Even if the founder has 5,000 followers on a social media platform, that’s 5000 people he can introduce his product or service to. That’s 5,000 less people he has to spend his marketing money on,” he says.

Bharat Chugh, former Judge and advocate Supreme Court of India, has similar views: “An employee influencer is not the average social media influencer on Instagram. They are employees who are also brand advocates. The soft brand influencing by the employees themselves is common and effective online. Employee influencers bring a personal touch. They attract like-minded individuals who are interested in either the product/service or employment in the company they work for. Consumers also trust brands and companies who use their own employees as advocates.”

However, they do have a different set of rules to follow, a checklist they have to go through before hitting that publish button.

<strong>Perils of being vocal</strong>

Recently, a creative director of an advertising agency called out the founder of a Mumbai-based digital creative shop on LinkedIn for claiming a famous philosopher’s quote as his own. The founder quietly took the post down and moved on to his next content piece on creativity, advertising and everything in between.
 
“It’s ironic that some professionals who give creative advice to brands have plagiarised content on their timelines. All of this just for likes and shares,” says the creative head.

A marketing head of a tech startup has of late been seeing promoted posts without any disclaimer from a former colleague, who now leads a homegrown BFSI company’s branding. 

“Building personal branding needs subtle strategies. The more aggressive you are with your content approach, the more people will stay away from engaging with you,” says the creative head quoted above. Another CMO tells Storyboard18 that several former marketers are moving to a heavy personal branding push. She observes, “It looks like they are using desperate ways to draw attention. You cannot bombard your community with weekly wisdoms and WhatsApp videos with captions that don’t make sense. Some of them have truly forgotten the basics of marketing. Be authentic. That’s about it.”

Mitesh Kothari, co-founder and CCO of independent digital agency White Rivers Media, believes personal branding is more important now than ever before. He says, “It helps build credibility and strengthens your networks, leading to client retention and more syndication opportunities. As a brand’s backbone, C-suite executives must be vocal and establish themselves as thought leaders in their niche. Understanding that your personal brand is what people say about you when you’re in the room is essential. The best thing about that is you can make them think whatever you want by actively creating any environmental perception.”

Having said that, there are founders who stretch the point. Not so long ago, Shantanu Deshpande, CEO of Bombay Shaving Company, sparked a furore with a post advising youngsters to work 18-hour days in the formative years of their careers. Facing a severe backlash and trolling, he first apologised to the people who disagreed with him, and logged off from LinkedIn. But he returned in a couple of days to declare that the episode created over Rs 20 crore worth of PR for the company. Deshpande thanked all the people who sent him hate. A former marketer says, “This episode is a classic case of why consumers have trust issues with influencers. You signed off a platform and returned in no time. So was this all a part of a plan?”

Planned strategy or organic, founders who represent their brand and the company’s culture also need to be conscious of what and how they communicate to their online communities.

<strong>The rulebook</strong>

There are several founders who are creators. They give a shout-out to brands that they like to support in the business community with no returns. However, many brands are targeting vocal employees and entrepreneurs whose opinions matter. Many popular marketing heads on LinkedIn that Storyboard18 spoke to indicate that they were offered brand collaborations from categories like BFSI, consumer durables, recruitment firms and others. All of them have been politely refusing the offers due to contractual issues with their employees.

Chugh says that in recent times, many companies have even launched employee influencer policies. Some of these companies have been tailoring contracts for certain employees who have enrolled in such programmes, he says. According to him, it is advisable that the social media profile of the influencer is a professional or business account. “Be that as it may, in any event, all such brand-related content by employee influencers must strictly carry a disclosure,” he adds.

As per the Advertising Standards Council of India’s influencer guidelines, all advertisements published by social media influencers or their representatives on such influencers’ accounts must carry a disclosure label that clearly identifies it as an advertisement. A disclosure is required if there is a material connection between the advertiser and the influencer. Material connection includes employment relationships.Experts believe even entrepreneurs and employee influencers should strictly follow these rules too.

“At times, employees also moonlight as influencers. In such cases, it is not advisable for the employer to control the employees’ use of their personal social media accounts. However, it may also be advisable for employment contracts (with such influencers) to clearly mention that such employer shall not undertake any activity that may harm or bring disrepute to the employer and/or the brand,” concludes Chugh.

The rise and perils of employee influencers and founder brands

Former HUL marketing executive Shashank Mehta founded The Whole Truth in 2019 to offer healthier alternatives in packaged foods. As a consumer, Mehta, who has been through multiple weight-loss cycles in life, realised the big food brands often tell “convenient half-truths”. To solve that problem he not only launched a company that could fill that need gap but also decided to feature in the brand’s advertising.

Recently, The Whole Truth roped in comedian Rohan Joshi to create a series of videos. In the “educational mini-series”, Joshi plays the role of ‘Healthy Food’ and Mehta plays ‘The Whole Truth’, and they go on to have a conversation that highlights the “hidden chemicals” in packaged foods. In another episode, we see the many ways food is made to look irresistible in ads. For instance, the milk in the cereal bowl is actually glue and the golden honey drizzled on pancakes in ads and in product photos is engine oil.

Mehta tells Storyboard18, when he creates and features in content for his brand, he thinks “consumers can feel the honesty.” They see through paid endorsements like influencer or celebrity-laden ads, which are often forced, Mehta believes.

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<blockquote>Shashank Mehta says, "If a brand is born out of a personal struggle or passion, then the founder can make a powerful difference in the brand’s marketing strategy.” </blockquote>

<strong>Community builders</strong>

Entrepreneurs Sujata and Taniya Biswas quit their corporate jobs to sell sarees. Growing up, the duo loved looking at their grandmother’s and mother’s saree collections. It took them to “a happy place”. The Biswas sisters started the fashion brand Suta with a mission to make a new generation of women fall in love with sarees and wear sarees every day and not just for special occasions.

Initially, Taniya modeled the sarees, taking her photos in natural light with no editing, because they had a tight marketing budget. The photos were cropped in a way that one could only see the model’s body draped in a saree. On Instagram, these headless photos caught people’s attention. Since then the duo has been featuring in the brand’s reels, stills and all other brand communication. They say with this strategy, they have been able to create a community that not just wants to know more about the brand but also about the founders.

The Biswas sisters tell Storyboard18, as creators, their strategy is to keep “content fluid”. They are also often seen promoting other founders and their brands through live sessions, giveaways and fundraisers.

“Consumers often ask how we are okay promoting competitions’ brands. Honestly, especially in the category we operate in, we are like one close knit community. 

<strong>Trust infusers</strong>

Vaibhav Sisinty calls himself “a growth hacker by profession and an entrepreneur from heart.” For two years he had been building his startup Growth School in stealth mode. Earlier this year, Sisinty raised a seed round from Sequoia Capital, Owl Ventures and angel investors. He started when he was 18, and took on several jobs, including working as a marketing manager at Uber.

Through Growth School, Sisinty wants to help learners meet professionals and influencers who have become leaders in their particular industry and help them upskill. From courses on UI, UX, social media marketing, freelance businesses, NFTs, crypto investments, D2C businesses and more, Growth School is going beyond textbook tutoring. Sisinty himself creates content to bring learners together for his masterclasses and mini courses on LinkedIn and Instagram.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Btw this is how we unveiled the big news to the team :P<br><br>PS: All the actors in the video are GrowthSchool employees. <a href="https://t.co/1zDwrZgeQS">pic.twitter.com/1zDwrZgeQS</a></p>&mdash; Vaibhav Sisinty (@VaibhavSisinty) <a href="https://twitter.com/VaibhavSisinty/status/1486669841809297412?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

He says, “As a founder, it’s natural for me to think about content because people believe in people.”

Though being the brand face of your company is always a good idea, Sisinty, thinks “the brand shouldn’t revolve around the founder.” But, in the beginning, it helps in bringing the right talent on board and building trust which is every brand’s ultimate goal.

For new and small brands, especially in the crowded D2C space, using founders in advertising and marketing communications is a great way to build credibility and trust. It’s also cheaper, of course. For brands that have tight or no ad budgets to speak of, deploying founders as the face and voice of the brand is a sound and economical move.

But sometimes it’s not about creativity, frugality, budgets or brand life-stage.

In December last year, Mahashay Dharampal Gulati passed away at the age of 97. He built a Rs 2,500-crore brand, an empire of spice. Most of India, however, knew him as “MDH uncle”. Because for years the smiling face of Gulati, who always sported a white sherwani, red turban and pearl necklace, appeared in practically every ad for the spice brand. He was the one and only 'Masala King'.

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