How does employee personal branding drive Sales, Marketing and HR results? Your employees’ social media connections include former colleagues, classmates, and other friends who overlap in skill sets, industries, or professional interests. These are the people who are most likely to become your next clients, leads, and new hires. Check out our compilation of statistics and learn how building your team's online presence can help build your business!
43 Stats: How Personal Branding Helps Sales, Marketing, and HR
1. 4 3 S TAT S T H AT S H O W H O W
PERSONAL BRANDING
HELPS SALES, MARKETING, AND HR
2. 90% of people trust
product or service
recommendations from
people they know,
KREDIBLE SOURCE: NIELSEN
while only 33% trust
messages from a brand.
3. Your sales representative is 2-4x more likely to
make a sale when the prospect is a warm lead who
was referred to them by a mutual connection.
84% of business decision makers start
their buying process with a referral.
KREDIBLE SOURCES: EDELMAN TRUST BAROMETER, DEMAND GEN REPORT
P E R S O N A L B R A N D I N G D R I V E S S A L E S R E S U LT S
GET REFERRED TO MORE WARM LEADS
4. P E R S O N A L B R A N D I N G D R I V E S S A L E S R E S U LT S
KREDIBLE SOURCES: CEB GLOBAL, DEMAND GEN REPORT, KREDIBLE RESEARCH
77% of B2B buyers said they only speak to a salesperson
once they have performed independent research online.
GET ON YOUR PROSPECTS’ SHORT LIST
36% of buyers said they don’t contact a sales representative
until they have put together a short list of preferred vendors.
53% of decision makers have eliminated a vendor
from consideration based on information they
did or did not find about an employee online.
5. P E R S O N A L B R A N D I N G D R I V E S S A L E S R E S U LT S
KREDIBLE SOURCES: IBM, FORBES
Leads developed through employees’ social media
activities convert 7x more frequently than other leads.
CONVERT MORE LEADS INTO SALES
Sales reps that use social media as part of their
sales techniques outsell 78% of their peers.
6. P E R S O N A L B R A N D I N G D R I V E S S A L E S R E S U LT S
KREDIBLE SOURCES: SALES MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION, ACCENTURE
GET A LEG UP ON THE COMPETITION
80% of firms believe their sales department would be more
effective if they had a better social media presence, yet 67% of
companies don’t have a social media strategy for their sales team.
96% of sales executives use LinkedIn at least once a week and spend
an average of 6 hours per week on the professional social network.
Despite this enthusiasm for professional social media sites, 93% of
sales executives have not received any formal training on social selling.
7. P E R S O N A L B R A N D I N G D R I V E S M A R K E T I N G R E S U LT S
KREDIBLE SOURCES: PAM MOORE, MSLGROUP
BUILD BRAND AWARENESS
It takes 5-7 impressions for someone to remember a brand.
Brand messages see 561% more reach when shared by
employees on social media, compared to the same messages
when shared by the brand’s social media channels.
Brand messages are re-shared 24x more frequently when
posted by an employee vs the brand’s social media channels.
8. P E R S O N A L B R A N D I N G D R I V E S M A R K E T I N G R E S U LT S
KREDIBLE SOURCES: CISCO, SOCIAL MEDIA TODAY
GENERATE QUALITY LEADS FOR SALES
On average, employees have 10 times more followers
than their company’s social media accounts.
Content shared by employees receives 8X more
engagement than content shared by brand channels.
9. P E R S O N A L B R A N D I N G D R I V E S M A R K E T I N G R E S U LT S
KREDIBLE SOURCES: KREDIBLE, NIELSEN
I M P ROV E YO U R C O N T E N T M A R K E T I N G RO I
On average, an employee advocacy program involving 1,000
active participants can generate $1,900,000 in advertising value.
Business buyers spend 56% of the sales cycle
searching for and engaging with content.
77% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company
when they hear about it from someone they trust.
10. P E R S O N A L B R A N D I N G D R I V E S M A R K E T I N G R E S U LT S
KREDIBLE SOURCE: FORBES
PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH
98% of CMOs have admitted to searching for themselves on Google,
recognizing the importance of having a strong online presence.
On a scale from 1 to 10, less than 20% of CMOs rated their personal
brand at 7 or above and more than 60% rated themselves below a 5.
11. P E R S O N A L B R A N D I N G D R I V E S H R R E S U LT S
KREDIBLE SOURCES: LINKEDIN, CISCO, ALTIMETER GROUP
MOTIVATE YOUR EMPLOYEES
98% of employees use at least one social media site for personal
use, of which 50% are already posting about their company.
56% of college students said they would not
accept jobs from companies that ban social media.
Employees at companies that invest in personal branding
initiatives are 27% more likely to feel optimistic about their
company's future, 20% more likely to stay at their company, and
40% more likely to believe their company is more competitive.
12. P E R S O N A L B R A N D I N G D R I V E S H R R E S U LT S
IMPROVE THE COMPANY CULTURE
60% of employees do not feel engaged with or
supported by their workplace and 30% of companies
report an average employee tenure of only 1-3 years.
95% of recruiters believe that the job market will remain or
get more competitive, making it crucial to differentiate
themselves from competition in order to attract top talent.
50% of recruiters plan to increase their investment in social media,
41% in employee referrals, and 46% in employment branding.
KREDIBLE SOURCES: TOWERS WATSON, JOBVITE
13. P E R S O N A L B R A N D I N G D R I V E S H R R E S U LT S
ATTRACT TOP TALENT
78% of recruiters say they find their best quality
candidates through referrals, up from 60% in 2014.
Employee referrals have the highest applicant to
hire conversion rate: only 7% of applicants are
referrals but they account for 40% of all new hires.
67% of employers and recruiters said that the recruiting process was
shorter and 51% said it was less expensive to recruit via referrals.
KREDIBLE SOURCE: JOBVITE