Every conversation with a potential client begins long before the first meeting. In today’s business environment, no one will return your call, schedule a discovery session, or sign a contract until they’ve already looked you up online. And increasingly, they aren’t just researching your company—they’re researching the people behind it.

That’s why your team’s online presence has become a business asset rather than a personal afterthought. Every LinkedIn profile, social media account, industry article, conference appearance, and online interaction contributes to the level of confidence a prospective client has in your organization. When your people project credibility, expertise, and professionalism, they strengthen your brand before a sales conversation even begins.

The Reality of Consumers in the Information Age

Whether you like it or not, your online presence—and those of your employees—is an important factor in people’s decisions to work with you. Studies have found that over 50% of decision makers have eliminated potential vendors from consideration based on information they found online about one of the vendor’s employees.

And yet, all too often, this is an afterthought or overlooked completely in the valuable work of branding and marketing your business. In reality, the savviest business leaders make the online presence of individuals within their company a top priority, and incorporate it into their marketing plan.

The Invaluable “Know, Like, and Trust” Factor

By deliberately and thoughtfully focusing on the reputations of the people who make up your company—otherwise known as their personal brands—you are establishing more “know, like, and trust” factor that will influence a potential customer’s sale.

After all, many of us are skeptical about the marketing messages we get from companies as a whole, but almost all of us believe what individuals we know and trust tell us. That explains why 92% of people trust recommendations from individuals more than companies.

So if you can encourage your employees to use their social media presence to help meet the organization’s goals, their actions serve a dual purpose: they can increase sales and at the same time, improve their personal brand by raising their visibility within your niche industry.

Research also indicates that supporting employees in their personal branding increases job satisfaction and strengthens the sense of teamwork. It’s no surprise when you consider that everyone wants to work for a company where employees are seen as high-profile achievers.

9 Ways to Improve Your Team’s Online Presence

Here are nine ways you can encourage your employees to improve their online presence, and in doing so, boost sales:

1. Feature employee’s photos, names, and titles in your newsletters, on your website, and across social media.
2. Offer ways or incentivize team members to earn achievement awards, join associations, or gain certifications that they can add to their title or online presence.
3. Encourage them to connect to the overall brand on LinkedIn and other social media apps the company has a presence on.
4. If you have contractor employees, as many small business owners do, share your logo and testimonials with them so that they can link to your website on theirs.
5. Give employees printed “swag” bags and other branded materials to represent the company when they are at meetings and conferences.
6. Encourage them to blog under their name on the company’s blog, growing their authority and establishing the company as one that employs experts.
7. Train them on how to professionally use social media. Don’t expect they will know how to do so on their own. Bring in a social media professional if you aren’t sure how to train them yourself.
8. Hire a photographer to take professional headshots of employees that can be used on your website and their social channels.
9. Support them in speaking at meetings and conferences.

Strong Personal Brands are Worth Your Investment

Encouraging your team members to raise their profiles and strengthen their images is a win-win for all involved. You decrease the risk of your company’s reputation due to what others find online about your employees, sales are likely to increase, marketing efforts will have a better return on investment, and the people who work for you boost their visibility and enjoy greater job satisfaction.

This is a sales and marketing strategy that does not pay off overnight—it takes time to develop and nurture strong personal brands—but it’s an often overlooked one that will benefit your organization in spades.

At Celeste Giordano Coaching, I support my clients in growing businesses that will thrive for decades to come, or what I call legacy businesses. If you ever feel like your current marketing efforts just aren’t cutting it, I’ll show you how to “double plus” your growth while establishing a legacy of success. Contact me today.

Celeste Giordano’s mission is to help business professionals develop the skills, knowledge and attitude necessary to “DoublePlus™” their income and become effective and inspirational leaders in their fields. Whether it’s taking your successful business to the next level or starting a new venture, she will teach you the exact skills and strategies you need to enroll more quality prospects, build a rock-solid team, and break through obstacles to achieve real profit and lasting success. Celeste is a professional business growth specialist, a master sales strategist, and dynamic speaker with more than 40 years experience in direct sales and managing high-performing teams. To learn more about Celeste, click here. Want to use this article? Please feel free to use this content as long as you keep it in its original format and include a link to the original post and Celeste Giordano’s brief bio.