Personal achievements, selfitis and staff posts

I read something poignant the other day, that the self-congratulatory posts on LinkedIn are attempts by people to gain recognition for what they see as achievements, for which they would not receive recognition otherwise. It gave me pause for thought as I have generally found them irritating up until now. I need to reassess and reconsider my emotional responses to those posts from now on. I’m an old dog, but you can teach me new tricks.

The phenomenon of self-congratulatory posts points to a failure on the part of organizational culture. Although I understand that organizational culture, particularly internal / employer branding and HR is crowded with tasks, current theory and practice points to development of morale and recognition of staff as key to brand health. Happy, satisfied and motivated staff is at the root of brand ambassadorship, with an impact on a successful customer journey. That recognition has to begin in HR and lead into the internal branding function.

It does however also have roots in selfitis, compulsive posting of personal portraiture. The first cause of selfitis is the need for recognition and validation. That may also lead into the phenomena of narcissism, projecting idealism of life as well as social media addiction. Taking it one step further you will find a lack of self-esteem and an underdeveloped sense of personal relevance. It may also be due to a fear of expressing opinions and likes.

Selfitis, as a point of interest started out as a satirical post but is gaining traction in general thinking. On this point, the best practice for personal, professional brands will be to share a mix of knowledge and results. The mix should avoid mixing personal shots with professional items to avoid confusion as the purpose of the post. If a photo is needed, try a free photo library. Note that LinkedIn provides a space for a personal photograph.

In terms of the broader brand, I see far too many staffing announcements in Namibia. What I see in my media feeds is that appointment posts in the rest of the world are usually known industry figures, invariably linked to articles that highlight the reason for the appointment, what the subject of the post is expected to bring to the operation and brand. In Namibia, the general practice appears to be filling space on social media, a quota driven phenomenon.

Most appointment posts in Namibia are not much more than a face, a name, the position and a welcome line. The alternative would be to augment it with a few short lines, stating the impact of the role on operations and the brand. The caveat to this is if the post is a public-facing role.

However, a preponderance of staff posts is not healthy for the brand. The brand is a multifaceted thing. Too many posts on staff indicate one of three things: a lack of understanding of the brand, lazy brand leadership and / or hesitancy of the part of the person responsible for communication of the brand. Staff posts should also be seen in the context of asymmetric posting. Too much of the same thing disincentivizes post viewership: you are unlikely to click on an impression if you know what it is going to be.

The combination of brand and social media offers plenty of scope for a variety of posts, and those posts can be spread across a variety of social media platforms, not repeated on different social media platforms. Consider the customer journey of story branding techniques.