Personal branding for internal communicators
For many organisations, there is sometimes a blurring of the lines between internal and external communications. You’ll often find that internal communications teams are sometimes embedded within marketing teams or there is a very strong overlap between the two. And I think that’s a good thing in that there is a consistency between what we’re communicating externally and internally. What we’re communicating to our customers and our clients is also what we’re communicating to our employees. That brings us onto the idea of brand, which we’ve looked at a number of times in previous podcast episodes, the idea of connecting the internal brand of the organisation and the external brand of the organisation.
We have looked at what happens if these two things are congruent or not with each other and the issues that that can cause in previous podcast episodes, but what I wanted to explore is our own personal brand as internal communicators and employee engagement. Is it legitimate for us to have our own brand and if so, how do we represent that both internally and externally as well? And should we be able to demonstrate that brand and the personality of our organisation and our professional personality in a way that is in the public realm and also internally as well? So I wanted to look at the whole idea that as internal communicators, we have a brand, whether we like it or not, we have a brand.
Whatever that brand is, it differs from different people within the profession. How do we build a brand as an internal communicator and as a professional internal communicator and employee engager, and how do we represent that brand? To find out how to do that, I’m going to be talking to someone who, although they are working within an organisation, has a really strong professional brand that I think is very worthy of recognition and also someone we can learn from. So this interview is all about how we develop personal branding as internal communicators and develop trusted advisor status.
Guest profile
Sam Bleazard is Employee Communication and Engagement lead at leading retailer Fortnum and Mason. With a wealth of experience gained from IC roles in organisations such as John Lewis, Dow Jones, Unilever and Royal Mail to name but a few, Sam describes himself as:
- Communications leader and content creator – focused on authentic human storytelling and the employee experience.
- Podcast creator and host of the Comms from the Shed interview series…episodes available at all major platforms (link below).
- Freelance music writer on arts and culture. Contributor to book on Prince, and host of the “How Can U Just Leave Me Standing?” podcast, also widely available.
Useful links:
Guest LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sambleazard/
Link to relevant episode: https://thebigpicturepeople.co.uk/blog/podcast/becoming-a-trusted-advisor-s2-e2/
Comms from The Shed podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/comms-from-the-shed-interviewing-diverse-voices-on/id1557103472
How can U just leave me standing podcast? https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/how-can-u-just-leave-me-standing-in-search-of-prince/id1562509939