Brands use employees’ social networks as influencers. But what do employees get out of it?
I've noticed a trend where CEOs of well-known companies are investing more in their personal brands on LinkedIn and X.
However, the level is increasing, and they want something similar from employees.
I think building your own profile is great, but not completely at the expense of the brand. It seems a bit like an invasion of privacy to me, maybe the employee has slightly different values, interests and things that they would rather share. I also don't think they will be rewarded extra for promoting the brand.
And take people who, for example, started building their brand a long time ago at their own expense, and now the company only benefits from it for free, or only as part of the employee's salary.
What is your opinion on this whole thing?
Should they be compensated? If yes, how?
Replies
It depends on the contract and the culture of the company. I believe that when you join a company, especially during the probationary period, you start to discover certain hidden rules within the culture. These can help you determine whether you can adapt or whether the company is not a good fit for you.
Part of this “contract hidden in the culture” might be that the company prefers, for example, marketers who act as ambassadors for the organization.
So for me, it depends on the culture, the contract, and the level of freedom employees have to post. However, I believe that employees who post can add huge value to companies by acting as ambassadors. As a result, companies will probably start seeking out this type of profile more often.
It is the company’s responsibility to make these expectations clear and to reward employees who bring added value. I can imagine for sales or marketing teams compensation and rewards for every client
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@bengeeklyWell, I can’t read their minds or interpret the nuances hidden behind vague, abstract wording. A contract should clearly and directly define the scope of work and the compensation. Otherwise, it’s not ethical.
By that logic, I could share confidential company information and then claim, “I was just teasing it to hook people and increase reach." The matter of demagoguery approach :D
BrandingStudio.ai
Coming at this from the other side: I'm a founder who has built a personal brand over years in my industry, and now it genuinely serves the company. But the keyword is "built." It was mine first, built on my own time and interests, and the company benefits from that because people trust the person behind it, not because I'm posting ads.
That's a very different thing from a company asking employees to convert their personal profiles into distribution channels. One is organic, the other is extraction.
Where I think it gets genuinely complicated is the middle ground: employees who are good at content and want to build their own profile anyway. Some companies create real value for those people by giving them interesting things to talk about, access, and visibility. That can be a fair exchange if it's explicit and voluntary.
The moment it becomes an expectation baked into the job description without corresponding compensation, it crosses a line. You're essentially asking someone to donate their audience, which they built on their own time, to someone else's marketing budget. @byalexai equity point is the right frame. If the company benefits from your reach at scale, you should share in what that reach generates.
@joao_seabra Where it usually breaks is when companies try to standardize something that only works when it’s individual. Same posting style, same messaging, same expectations across everyone. That’s when it starts feeling forced and loses the trust it was supposed to build. The people it works for are usually the ones who already have their own voice and are given room to keep it.
BrandingStudio.ai
@arun_tamang Exactly right. The standardisation kills the thing that made it valuable in the first place. Audiences follow people, not brand guidelines. The moment an employee's content starts sounding like a press release, the trust evaporates and you've lost both the authenticity and the reach you were trying to capture.
@joao_seabra Yeah, and the irony is most of the reach comes from things that aren’t predictable or repeatable in the first place. Once it turns into something structured, it starts optimizing for consistency instead of signal. That’s usually when it stops working.
@joao_seabra I agree. But you have 100% control over your own business. If I make a post that gets 1 million impressions and brings you 3 investors and 10 paying clients, I won’t get anything from you unless I have an agreement for salary or equity.
And while you’re building your own business, it’s completely normal to do activities that drive traffic to it. It’s utter madness to do the same if you’re working for someone else and have no material stake.
BrandingStudio.ai
@byalexai Completely fair point and you're right, the founder case is structurally different because the upside is yours. The employee version of that same effort with no material stake is a fundamentally different deal. The 1 million impressions bringing 3 investors example makes it concrete in a way that's hard to argue with.
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@byalexai @joao_seabra There's another anomaly – when someone is popular on socials and has stated somewhere that he works for the company. I remember in a few cases when the person was popular, and people were recognising the brand just because they "saw it in the bio / profile of that popular person" – this is also a kind of promotion, but for such exposure, the person needs to be really active and somehow famous. It is very difficult to quote compensation – but maybe some affiliate link or so.
BrandingStudio.ai
@busmark_w_nika The bio effect is real and it's actually the cleanest version of this arrangement because it's passive and voluntary. Nobody asked them to put the company there, they chose to, and the brand benefits indirectly. The affiliate link idea makes sense for that case, performance-based and tied to actual results rather than a flat fee for posting. The problem is most companies want the active version, the posts and the content, not just the bio mention, and that's where the compensation conversation gets complicated fast.
I am totally against it.
Why would I want to be an employee and constantly post ads for the company I work for? Okay, yes, it’s disguised as content. Whether educational or entertaining but it’s still basically generating traffic for someone else.
And instead of using that profile to post whatever I want, I’d have to follow a specific company policy.
It’s like driving traffic to someone else’s website instead of your own.
The only situation where this would be okay is if I were paid a serious salary to do it not just a bonus, but something equivalent to a full salary. Or having an equity in the company.
@byalexai makes sense! A personal profile should stay personal unless there is real compensation behind it.
@amraniyasser I might want to post only jokes, memes, or sports stats. But the company won’t be happy if that’s my focus and I only mention the company once every 20 posts.
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@byalexai Not gonna lie, it would be a "must" for me, and I didn't even enjoy that. It would be too fake for me. But some employees will say yes just from fear of losing their jobs.
@busmark_w_nika Not only that. They restrict my right to express an opinion. Instead of posting political memes or sharing my favorite songs, I have to post things about the company. Okay, I work there, but maybe I’m not interested in writing about that. That’s a restriction of free speech.
I don't believe in forcing employees to post about the company. I've seen this approach play out in multiple organizations and over time, it stops working. In one company, it actually created a toxic divide between the founders and marketing team on one side, and the rest of the team on the other.
Real advocacy has to come from a place of genuine belief. When someone shares something about the company whether it's a value, a product moment, or a personal experience that it should feel personal and worth saying. Not performative. Not a checkbox. That's the only kind of content that actually builds trust.
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@ayman_elafifi1 I would wish to know companies :D
This question reminds me I had a job back in 2017 which read "Product Evangelist". My job was a contract part-time role to consistently communicate product updates and promote it wherever I found an opportunity.
Then in 2020, I was in an another contract role for 100 days, where a brand hired me full time to help them run creator campaigns and represent the brand in any event I speak. According to them I was the highest paid team member out of the 200+ they had hired because I had some social influence. Back in 2020 my book had just launched and I had many speaking engagements and media opportunities where I plugged them.
I have hunted some big tech products on Product Hunt on the request of their employees. Some have revealed that maintaining a public presence responsibly is encouraged and incentivised. The incentives can be gifts, money or other employee benefits like travel, holidays, etc.
Example, Google runs an employee advocacy program. Hence you would see every Google employee on Google promoting Google products across teams.
However, there is no equity given for this unless the employee is a celebrity or a huge social creator.
To answer your question, yes, this needs to be stated as a part of their job responsibilities explicitly. They need to be compensated for it and supported with resources such as editing / writing tools, camera crew, editors, etc.
Often star employees (big influencers or celebrities of a niche) can negotiate high salaries if they use their social influence. Similar to Hollywood or Bollywood or reality TV shows where a celebrities with larger social presence get bigger pay checks.
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@rohanrecommends Were you doing those things simultaneously? 100 days of full-time and part time of product evangelist? How is it perceived by companies when you stand for more products (and how is it perceived by followers)? [or maybe I just misunderstood timelines]
@busmark_w_nika Separately. I had mentioned the timeline in the comment (2017 and 2020) :D
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@rohanrecommends Sorry, missed the word :D
For me, the tricky part is authenticity. If I'm posting because I genuinely believe in what we're doing that's fine. But if it starts feeling like I'm just another distribution channel, my content become less honest and people can tell. That hurts both me and the brand in the long run.
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@felix_nolan yep, if you are forced to something, you will hate it (averse) :D
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@tereza_hurtova Unfortunately, in many cases, it is exploitation. I remember how we had to act in agency videos, just to be more visible and bring more eyes, more clients, etc. on profile. It was during the work hours but we were expected to complete our additional daily scope of work so yeah, we just have more work... :D
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@tereza_hurtova yes, I was a person, fresh from school so I was thankful for every experience. At that time, I didn't take it like this tho was an adult who had to pay bills. It is so disappointing that they treated me like someone worthless
Been on both sides of this. When I worked in content, I was expected to share company stuff on my personal LinkedIn. Never got compensated, felt weird mixing personal brand with corporate messaging.
Now as an indie maker - I only share what I genuinely built. Feels completely different.
If companies want employees as influencers, they should either pay extra or accept that personal profiles stay personal.
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@virtualviki yes, but you are in a different position, you are building a personal brand for your product, but if you had employees who just do things because they are paid (and not so much passionate), they would probably be uncomfortable.
TinyCommand
We’ve actually experimented with this in the past. Some of our sales team already had strong personal presence on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Instead of asking them to post “for the company,” we made it optional and turned it into a performance-driven model.
Each of them got a unique referral code.
They could create content in their own style, on their own terms.
For every customer that came in through their code, they earned a commission.
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@priyanka_gosai1 This sounds fairer, to be honest. Unfortunately, 90% of companies expect to do it for free.
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@sana_wajid yea, but companies require every role in some cases :D