THE IMPACT OF USING SOCIAL MEDIA ON A PERSONAL BRANDING STRATEGY AS A PART OF A COMPANY’S OVERALL DIGITAL BRANDING STRATEGY
A research project submitted to the Digital Marketing Institute
in part fulfilment for the Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Marketing
Word count: 4,697
(excluding References and Appendix)
Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary – 3 –
2. Research Methodology – 3 –
2.1 Research objectives – 4 –
2.2 Qualitative approach – 5 –
2.3 Interviews – 5 –
2.4 Significance of Research – 6 –
3. Target Audience – 7 –
4. Evolution and Impact of Digital Technology Relevant to the Target Audience – 9 –
4.1 Evolution of Digital Marketing – 10 –
4.2 Impact of digital marketing to the target audience – 12 –
5. Digital technologies and their impact on the industry, locally and globally – 15 –
6. Future trends that will impact the target audience and industry – 18 –
7. Conclusions – 20 –
References – 22 –
Appendix 1 – 23 –
Appendix 2 – 24 –
Appendix 3 – 25 –
Appendix 4 – 30 –
1. Executive Summary
The primary purpose of this research is to present an analytical discussion on the development, maintenance and promotions of one personal brand and its impact on the corporate brand. The paper will use the case study of Stephen Hamlet, who is the CEO of Russel Bedford International. Stephen has used LinkedIn as his central platform to rebrand himself and his company to greater heights by simultaneously boosting the reputation of the company and his brand as well. Personal branding is the process of actively managing the impressions, skills and abilities of a person. Tools such as Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and blogs are all practical in personal branding. Through developing a personal brand, one can interact with their consumers in a way that reflects their skills, abilities and lifestyle. This is achieved through the cultivation of digital presence. Underpinning the process of personal branding is the role it can play in a business’s marketing strategy.
2. Research Methodology
Regarding ontological and epistemological assumptions, this study takes an interpretivism and constructionism paradigm approach, which lends itself well to qualitative research (Jackson, 2014). The methodology of this study is based entirely on the qualitative approach, where the results are highly reliant on the primary data.
The proposed research method will be an interpretive phenomenological approach (IPA) which will allow the reader to explore and understand (Davey, 2014) the role that personal branding on social media plays in corporate branding strategies. Many businesses are using social media as a way of reaching out to as many clients as possible. The main intention of this research is to explore how the use of LinkedIn, specifically, can enhance one’s brand and that of their company. The primary source of data comes from qualitative interviews. The performance of structured an in-depth interview with the CEO (Stephen Hamlet) provided data for this study. The CEO was informed beforehand of this project, making it easier to conduct the interview. The snowballing sampling method to choose a set of subjects to be discussed; where the respondent provides answers to what he feels is beneficial to the discussion. The main objective of this study was to get how people apply digital marketing and personal branding. The subject was both a personal and professional use of social media with a clear understanding of social media platforms as an individual and corporate marketing tool. Underpinning the study will be secondary research in the form of books, websites, journals and theses that have been written on the subject and how they influence the chosen area of study.
2.1 Research objectives
The purpose of this research is to give the reader a detailed understanding of how specific digital marketing technologies, namely social media, can be utilised in an effective personal branding strategy. Additionally, how such an approach can have a positive impact on the company’s branding efforts. The study will provide a detailed analysis of the evolution and impact of digital technology towards the target audience in this case Stephen Hamlet. The examination of digital channels will be in a comparative manner as a way of ensuring that the detail that appertains to social media use in marketing and branding. This study will then lend itself nicely to looking at how other organisations can incorporate similar approaches into and their digital marketing strategies.
2.2 Qualitative approach
The research performed ensured that there was an explanation of the personal identity of the target audience through the images on social media. The study researched the evolution and the impact that the digital market has on the target audience rather than the quantitative analysis of it.
2.3 Interviews
Leech (2012) described semi-structured and unstructured interviews as the primary forms of interviews for use in a research process. They are generally less structured than the surveys which can be said to be a more common type of interviews in the quantitative research approach. During surveys, the question and the process of interviews are structured to obtain high reliability and validity. When conducting qualitative research, whether semi-structured or unstructured, the answers are, on the other hand, focused entirely on the person’s perceptions and attitudes. They are expressed as the viewpoints of the person interviewed, and the focus is on a qualitative interview. As a result, I chose the semi-structured interview for this study. The respondent had open-ended questions, and they were free to make elaborations on their answers. As a way of achieving high; level understanding the interviews were more in-depth. This study includes one interview conducted in English. The interview was recorded by audio and then transcribed by a third party service. The interview duration was scheduled for 30 minutes but was about 15minutes due to the respondent’s diary commitments. The main risk in this form of research is from the researcher having known the respondent professionally, and there might be bias in their responses. Additionally, as the two parties work for competing companies, there is a risk that full disclosure of strategy might not be disclosed if it risks the respondent’s competitive advantage. The main advantage is the flexibility and the possibility of adjusting the questions based on the respondent’s answers. Given the small pool of participants, this study would not have representative samples as the population is too small to utilise any useful quantitative techniques. Previous studies using similar methods successfully include Cantor and Bernay (1992) and Walton (1997).
2.4 Significance of Research
The research seeks to explore the link between building a personal brand and its effect on the corporate brand using a social media platform. When creating a brand for a business, much consideration is made in how the company positions itself in its industry and the personal branding strategy of those running the company must align seamlessly. Conclusions drawn from this study can be used in making a case for other professionals to embark on a personal branding and how this can be done in conjunction with the overall corporate branding strategy. In this era where identity is blurred in the overlap between real life and digital, the power of social media cannot be ignored across all spheres of business and marketing. Many companies are using social media as a way of effectively reaching out and securing more space in the market. This paper will, therefore, contribute to gaining insight into the changing digital landscape and how companies can enhance their communications and branding strategies by incorporating a personal branding strategy for their people.
3. Target Audience
The target audience for this study is C-level executives within the accounting industry – particularly those who lead and govern accounting membership organisations. The research seeks to make a connection between a CEO’s branding strategy and that of the business, an in-depth look at one such CEO will form the persona of the study.
The main persona will be Stephen Hamlet, who is the award-winning CEO of Russell Bedford International, an award-winning international network of accountants. Stephen Hamlet was recently named personality of the year with Russell Bedford winning network of the year at the 2019 Digital Accountancy Forum and Awards (IAB, 2019). With over 20 years’ experience in professional services, Stephen Hamlet has risen quickly from a business development manager and then regional director for EMEA regional at BKR to CEO at IAPA and then CEO at Russell Bedford from 2017. Stephen Hamlet’s LinkedIn profile describes him as a business development specialist who has had a track record in reenergizing, enhancement and expansion of global membership organisations. As an expert in the development of international groups on a global scale, Stephen Hamlet has proven to have the skills required in building international relationships and consolidating membership key business locations and creating an expanded range of practical benefits and service offerings as a means of encouraging the younger generation into new business opportunities for member firms.
Stephen Hamlet is a frequent user of Twitter and LinkedIn, through which he has many of followers who he regularly connects. Increased use of these platforms since taking the reins at Russell Bedford has allowed him to rebrand as a progressive, engaged, energetic, driven and enthusiastic CEO. This image has trickled down to the organisation itself: a quick search on the International Accounting Bulletin appears to show a link between the increased appearances of Stephen Hamlet and also Russell Bedford in the publication (Appendix 1). This hints at a symbiotic dual branding effect that as he pushes his brand, it has also enhanced the profile of the company he works. The link appears to be very intentional as looking at his LinkedIn Posts; one will find there are no posts from before his tenure with Russell Bedford (Appendix 2).
This study used an interview as a primary data source. The main intention was to get first-hand information on Stephen Hamlet’s thoughts on the use of personal branding through social media and how it connects to corporate branding and marketing. Of course, the study does not assume the current wave Stephen Hamlet and Russell Bedford is riding is solely due to the branding and marketing strategy. Both the individual and the organisation have had a long, highly professional history built through effective leadership, communication, and pursuing profitable strategies.
4. Evolution and Impact of Digital Technology Relevant to the Target Audience
Hasnat (2019) alleges, there is a way a company can communicate directly to their consumers through social media that is visual and compelling. Many firms have recognised the potential of talking directly to the target markets. Over the years, Hasnat (2019) notes that market orientation is one of the most concentrated focus of many businesses in a shift towards understanding the consumer. This clearly shows that it is progressively becoming more relevant to know how consumers can relate to the products and services that a company is offering. Consumers can connect with the products and services offered when they are reminded of the constituents and benefits. Due to the shifts in power, Hasnat (2019) alleges that there is a way into which consumers are greatly influencing how the company make decisions, especially in the field of marketing and branding. Social media has facilitated the essential factor the world requires in marketing.
Presently, there are many channels and ways into which a person and a company can relate and develop their brand. However, social media has proven to be the one entity that is utilised successfully (Baltes, 2015). Tom Peters (1997) defined personal branding as a way of introducing your brands and the mechanism for specifically standing out. Without a strong personal brand, positioning oneself in a competitive market can be challenging. It is generally important to recognise that there are characteristics that make a company so distinctive from its competitors. When consumers become aware that there is competition, there is the importance of being what consumer claims, being genuine and being an important part of the market. At its core, digital marketing is about influencing consumers and creating a brand entity that relates to the perceptions and feelings of identity. Baltes (2015) argues that branding is just not supposed related to companies alone. Successful branding is the management of perceptions and effective control of how the public is influenced.
4.1 Evolution of Digital Marketing
The term digital market first appeared in 1990 at the time of web 1.0 platforms which enabled users to find necessary information but never allowed them to disseminate the information to others over the internet (Royle & Laing, 2014). At this time, marketers and the market were not aware of the use and significance of digital marketing. They were unsure of the strategies that were applicable on the internet and the widespread deployment. Websites were essentially virtual shop windows with little possibility for consumers to interact in any meaningful way.
In 1993, the first clickable web-ad banner was live (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). By 1994, the technologies entered a new phase with the launch of Yahoo, which received close to one million hits within a year (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). In 1996, more search engines launched namely Hotfoot and Alexa (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). The following year, the social media site Sixdegrees.com launched, followed by Google, Microsoft’s MSN and Yahoo’s web search in 1998. By 2000 the smaller search engines were phased out, creating more space for the large businesses (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). The next significant milestone was the launching of cookies that recorded to user habits in 2015 (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). Through coding, the cookies evolved over the years to offer the marketers a different way of collecting user data. This ability to review user behaviour on a website has allowed marketers to tweak their communications better and engage consumers. Changes can be implemented quickly and results measured just as fast using analytical tools such as Google Analytics.
Digital platforms are continuously evolving into marketing platforms, and people are increasingly visiting physical shops after viewing digital campaigns (Stone & Woodcock, 2014). In modern-day marketing, there is the employment of search engine optimisation, search engine marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, data-driven marketing, e-books, optical disks, direct email marketing, e-commerce marketing, content automation, influencer marketing and content marketing. These are marketing extensions to internet channels that may provide digital services such as mobiles phones, callbacks, televisions, radios, on-hold mobile ringtones (Stone & Woodcock, 2014). There is the development of sites such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter that make consumers highly dependent on the digital electronics and how to use them to their marketing benefits (Stone & Woodcock, 2014). Digital marketing is also referred to as online marketing, internet marketing and web marketing.
It is without a doubt that digital marketing is brimming with the growing opportunities across the spheres. Not a single person would wish to miss the opportunity that would boost their business to recognisable heights (Royle & Laing, 2014). Hootsuite (2019) reports that there are over 300billion active social media accounts worldwide – almost half the world’s population (Appendix 4) which goes to show the sheer reach that can be achieved compared to traditional forms of marketing. Digital marketing professionals, therefore, focus on the core principles that will achieve the goal of getting the attention of consumers in the promotion of products and brands through the online channels without any hassle (Royle & Laing, 2014). The popularity of digital marketing is expected to engulf the traditional market. Such unfathomable features and opportunities are what makes the digital market to conquer conventional and offline marketing schemes.
4.2 Impact of digital marketing to the target audience
The modern society today is now being driven by digital technology. The impact can now be seen in the entire world. There are about 5 billion people globally, according to Phelan et al. (2011), who access social networking sites daily. A study conducted by the researcher indicated that people are most likely to follow celebrity brands such as Beyoncé on their social media platforms. Therefore, it is highly likely that digital media has been used to boost the brand image alongside other activities thereafter beneficial to the business. Digital media (specifically social media) impacts business and the target audience as follows:
It increases brand awareness
As argued by Phelan et al. (2011), more than half of the world population currently uses social media. Social media has transformed the world into a virtual global village that allows people to meet, connect and relate to the highly targeted potential buyers., such a move increases brand awareness in a way that the brand deserves. Over 80percent of LinkedIn users have suggested that they came across a new product in social media networking sites; this clearly explains the connections of brands and the know-how it has to the discovery of new products.
It boosts sales
Kannan (2017)argues that; in this way, a company can sell anything they want through social media. Many people who use social media are on the rise, and social sales are evolving continually. Such a move is making social media an increasingly beneficial platform for product search and e-commerce.
It can allow a brand’s product or service to go viral
As Kannan (2017) alleges, there is a way content gets exposed to new audiences when disseminated to social media platforms in the form of a marketing gimmick. In this way, people will start liking, sharing and comment and therefore talking about it before going viral. When a company’s content is shared in a network, and the network follows suit, millions of people get accessed to it. This exposure is beneficial through comments, shares and likes that relate to the existing connection of a business. A person seeing an article that has been liked and talked about is likely to check out as well.
It presents an opportunity for brands as they can interact directly to consumers
According to Kannan (2017), traditional media was a one-way dialogue when it comes to communicating; social media allows consumers to respond and engage with a brand. It is essential, therefore, to stay active and respond to comments and questions on the brand’s social media posts in a way that is appropriate and professional.
It is easy to analyse and adapt activities
The availability of high-speed internet has brought into place massive crowds on social media. These developments have impacted the lives of people and how they respond to the consumption patterns and the behavioural changes that they have to go through as a way of helping to gain success in industries (Kannan, 2017). These digital media platforms offer a simpler way of ensuring that the consumer behavioural patterns are influenced by the products and services that are on offer. It has been so important, especially for e-commerce companies who advertise and sell at the same time, a move that defines the progress that comes with digital marketing. All social media platforms have an analytical tool that one can interrogate to find the efficacy of any communication or other action performed on them. This allows the marketer ease to fine-tune their activities efficiently. These platforms, therefore, enable the digital marketer to complete the iterate and integrate stages of the 3i principles effectively.
5. Digital technologies and their impact on the industry, locally and globally
According to Kaufman & Horton (2014), digital technology is infused in all facets of the global economy, and the world is erupting to the interactive and communicative mobile technologies. Towards the first decade of the 21st century, the global market was waking up into newer means of advertising and selling of products and services.
In many ways, technology has revolutionised how companies conduct business by ensuring that business can play on a level playground with larger organisations. Digital technology has, without doubt, pervaded the economy and the society and the world of how things work (Kaufman & Horton, 2014). Digital technology has advanced rapidly than any other innovations in the history of marketing. It has reached about 50 per cent of the developing world population in 20 years and has transformed societies. Through the enhancement of connectivity and financial inclusions, there is access to trade and public services. Technology has proven to be a perfect equaliser. For instance, public service is becoming more accessible and accountable through the less bureaucratic blockchain powered systems. The business has been a big beneficiate of digital technology. The presence of advertising mechanism, trade mechanisms and marketing mechanisms has made the digital technology a go-to factor in entrepreneurship. It is without a doubt that the impact of digital technology locally and globally Is significant, to say the least.
Within a few years, a service industry such as accounting has seen much change from physical bookkeeping through to using computers, and now there is cloud accounting. With such a transition of technology, the role of the service provider naturally has to adapt. Arvind Hickman (2016) Noted, “The international accountancy organisation of tomorrow will be more integrated in the sense of cooperation and communication amongst their members rather than structurally”. Even competition from the numerous online accounting packages that one can access and utilise without the need of an expert accountant, the continued relevancy of the profession is under pressure. Arvind Hickman’s observations, therefore, come into their own with both accounting firms and associations needing to foster those personal relationships to the advantage of the company. Bringing to the fore the people driving an organisation gives a personal face to the company. That person’s network may not all be engaged in their company per se but naturally by extension through the LinkedIn connections structure; the company is in reach and vice versa.
Digital technology has had a very positive impact on the business platform on all spectrums, both locally and globally. In many aspects, it has enabled instant communication. Pagani & Prado (2017) note that consumers can interact freely with the company of interests. Similar to a spinning roulette wheel where the roulette ball represents the Company Y marketing message which in this case will spin and bounce as the when turns before landing on a space, metaphorically meaning the customer. The digital market acts as a wheel itself and allows companies to interact with people in the public venue; it provides the channel that promotes products and services through transparent messages (Pagani & Prado, 2017). Through the use of digital apps and instant messaging companies, companies are finding it easy to reach out to millions of people at one go. Social media, in this case, has also been likened to the positivity that it has brought to businesses locally and globally, through the use of Facebook, an advert can potentially reach its 900 million users. As a result, with the burgeoning market, business is not becoming savvier as they introduce newer methods into which they can connect and market with their potential clients.
Digital technology, as observed by Nikunen et al. (2017), has provided industries with the ability to gain tremendous amounts of knowledge about their consumers. Companies have been able to use these data to their benefit when it came to digital marketing and branding. This allows fostering intimacy and learning enormously about the potential consumers based on the data they gather. Smart companies may use the data to create personalised marketing messages that directly connect to the younger generation (Nikunen et al. 2017). Companies worldwide maximise personalisation as a power that has is used to attract 85percent of the recipients to buy a product or a service.
Nonetheless, the use of digital marketing has provided platforms for a new breed of influencers who have used these outlets as a mechanism of reaching others to as many consumers as they can (Nikunen et al., 2017). Companies worldwide, including global brands like Coca-Cola are losing the mojo of advertising themselves freshly and engagingly; as a result, they are using social media influencers to endorse their products and services. These influencers have a social media following that gives them a platform to market and recommends the products effectively (Nikunen et al., 2017).
Charlesworth (2014) asserts that digital technology has provided a transparent platform for all the companies in the world to encourage innovation. Such a motive uses new ways to reach out and engage consumers. In the face of disrupters, there are very many sectors that can be used into creativity and be made to take initiatives that may cause a company to be competitive. For instance, in the financial industry, there was a very stiff competition between PayPal and Google Wallet. Financial markets needed a really new way into which they could deal with consumers and influence them. Through digital technologies, the public has been made aware of the latest innovation that companies are engaged. Many innovation centres are propping up with the surety that they will be able to reach out to the consumers when need be. Moreover, digital marketing has enabled the use of strategic marketing that may ensure that there is a brand awareness which may rule the supremacy among the users. This is achieved when there is the launching of new products; companies shave invested so much in how they will reach out to consumers.
6. Future trends that will impact the target audience and industry
Digital platforms are evolving, and there are continuous changes in the algorithms and analytics (Grewal et al., 2019). The technology is switching from data today and fitting into the new roles and scopes for marketing as an industry. There will be an increased complexity in consumer purchasing decisions as they now use all types of media as a way of making their shopping decisions (Grewal et al., 2019). They may revolve from Facebook to YouTube, and this has made it increasingly difficult to put the people that purchase a specific product into one box.
As Grewal et al. (2019) argue, social media will enable flexible manufacturing, and more companies will learn to offer more personalized products that have been customized. There will be the personalization of product design, and communication is going on to be more prevalent. Nonetheless, there will be the use of mobile phones as the centre of marketing. Digital marketing innovations will also improve brand-customer relationships. The businesses realise that they cannot escape transparency that is on offer by social media. More companies will learn a truthful lesson, and that will pay the price (Grewal et al., 2019).
Accurate measurement of metrics has come a long way with each platform having its analytics tools. Considering only in 2017, Maya & Ramsey observed that way of measuring online activities, such as the clicks on Facebook did not deliver meaningful data. In 2 short years, the data garnered from the analytical tools is breath-taking. For example LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator can even be integrated into a firm’s existing CRM to enable effective sales leads generation through LinkedIn, thus allowing one to find the proverbial needle in the haystack.
Looking at the accounting industry, traditional pen and paper ways of doing a thing are gone. There is now software that can replace the majority of the functions an accountant can do at a fraction of the price. This means there is a need to adapt and find new ways to engage and stay relevant. The human need to converse and connect hasn’t gone away but has been enhanced by social media. If done right, this presents an opportunity for even service centred industries like accounting to thrive.
7. Conclusions
This study sought to look at the impact of digital technologies, specifically social media, on the personal branding strategy of our target audience of C-level executives in leadership positions of accounting membership organisations. The study focused on the persona of Stephen Hamlet and examined his successful utilization of social media to enhance his brand and that of the company he works.
Now for a niche industry like accounting associations, the need to remain relevant is crucial. These organisations exist in the main to provide a platform through which like-minded accounting firms can do business. They are in effect networking platforms at their core and firms join them for the networking and business opportunities they bring. From this perspective, social media platforms like LinkedIn are a good fit, given they are, in effect, a virtual business networking platform. As the platform and its efficacy evolves, there is a case to be made for associations to utilise the strengths of LinkedIn to network, attract, connect and communicate with both its members and the wider world. Labovich (2014) insisted that being active and engaged on LinkedIn is not just recommended; it should be considered a priority. For most C-level executives, time constraints and lack of understanding mean they still view LinkedIn as a virtual CV site and do not utilise its full potential. Granted there is an investment to be made in time and even money if the accounts are to be handled by contractors, but the benefits are evident in the increased levels of engagement and activity of the brand (Reed, 2017). Part of corporate communications strategies and budgets must, therefore, also review spending on LinkedIn for both the C-level and the company as a whole.
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Appendix 1
International Accounting Bulleting is the premier investigative publication observing the accounting industry globally with particular attention to the activities of accounting networks and associations.
Below, are screenshots investigating search results of Stephen Hamlet and Russell Bedford. Interesting to note that 2015 and 2016 were unusually quiet for Russell Bedford and their mentions increased in 2017 when Stephen Hamlet took over.
Appendix 2
Screenshot from Hamlet’s LinkedIn posts showing he removed all LinkedIn posts pre-Russell Bedford. His brand is intrinsically linked with the company. There is not even a post remaining from the time at IAPA where he went after BKR. Still, the achievements on his profile about IAPA again point to personal branding because he actually left under a cloud, but the spin is impressive.
Appendix 3
Appendix 4
Hootsuite statistics