The AI Enhanced Executive Brand

Before joining the global communications firm Edelman, I had little formal experience in corporate communications, as my main areas of focus were digital marketing and CX. However, one of the things that I learned during my nearly eleven years there is that corporate executives have robust teams of people and resources dedicated to handling the communications efforts of executives—both internally and externally. A common term we’d use on the external front was “executive visibility,” enhancing an executive’s industry profile by pairing them with the right media, thought leadership platforms, events, etc. While all of these tactics are a viable way for executives to raise their visibility—there is one digital platform that stands apart when it comes to building an executive’s brand online, and that is LinkedIn:

Organizations who rely on content to get their corporate messaging out are increasingly turning to Linked In. According to 77% of content marketers, LinkedIn delivers the highest organic results. On average, users spend 7 minutes and 38 seconds on LinkedIn per visit. About 45% of LinkedIn article readers are in upper-level positions (managers, VPs, Directors, C-level). Lastly, 30% of a company’s LinkedIn post engagement comes via their employees. It’s becoming clear that Linked In is emerging as probably the primary digital publishing platform for raising the profile of the executive (and by default, the company the executive works for).?

Linked Intelligence

That said, some challenges come with cultivating and growing an executive brand on digital sites like LinkedIn. For one, algorithms change regularly and are often driven by trending topics. Secondly, engagement is core to reaching audiences—the more an audience engages with an executive’s content, the more likely it is to reach new audiences. Thirdly, LinkedIn rewards distinctive perspectives and points of view, which can sometimes be challenging for executives who must straddle that line between raising their profile for the company's benefit and avoiding controversial takes that could tarnish the corporate brand's reputation. When done right—the executive and corporate brand are in sync. However, the executive brand can act as an individual and a representative of the company—and audiences want to know what the executives of a company think—both professionally and sometimes personally.?

All of the above makes a case for the executive brand to be built intelligently—that means on a foundation of data, intelligence, and insights that go deep into the digital system, whether LinkedIn or others. When it comes to LinkedIn specifically—I like to think of it as “Linked Intelligence,” which means knowing the answers to questions such as:

-What topics in my area of executive expertise are trending or relevant?

-Where is white space around the things I am credible and knowledgeable on?

-What are my industry peers talking about? How is it being received and engaged by the broader community?

-What are our employees engaging in?

-What’s being said about our company and competitors??

It’s worth noting that LinkedIn data is complex, and the platform shows an executive what it wants based on a user’s profile, which is skewed. When it comes to getting the best intelligence on the platform, it takes skill to distinguish what is real from superficial. Our teams use parameters like those listed above as starting points to glean insights from data on the platform. Answers to questions like these help inform decisions like what executives should be talking about, when, and how—week over week. This approach refines the executive voice (and brand) and helps establish a chorus with the right peers and audiences. These are but a few and as a matter of practice are the kinds of things our team looks at, when informing content and engagement strategies on platforms like LinkedIn.

AI Enhanced Executive Content & Engagement Generation

Insights and Intelligence is half of the picture for building a compelling digital executive brand—the rubber hits the road where the executive publishes thoughts and engages with others. Again, referencing my crash course in corporate communications—historically, executives have had significant resources to help draft thought leadership posts and articles, respond to comments, generate profiles, etc. But, it has been hard to get timely insights to react to and turn them into timely content that leverages those insights fully. This all helps to introduce efficiencies as well as more compelling content. With AI and more streamlined teams and resources—the combination of data-informed executive brand strategies and AI-enhanced generative content means executives can publish more effectively, efficiently, and intelligently.

Quality In = Quality Out

There’s an issue regarding data: “garbage in = garbage out,” meaning any tech output is only as good as the data that goes into it. Moving forward, executive brands will be built with the help of AI and Large Language Models (LLMs), or highly trained and customized ELMs (Executive Language Models). However, the adage applies as an “ELM” trained on an executive’s content, voice, tone, etc., would still need critical intelligence only provided by human insight, informed by data. Envision timely and relevant insights from conversations, topics and communities being constantly fed into an Executive Language Model. In this scenario, the small and nimble team working with it has an AI collaborator that is intricately dialed into the context of the subjects it is trained on.?

The key is that the Executive Language Model doesn’t replace the original thought or personality of the executive. However, it does create new efficiencies regarding initial drafts, significant thought pieces, and writing efforts that would take more time to develop. The model, broken down and simplified, looks like this:

Co-creating content with AI is still in the early days, but it’s already happening organically at the individual level, and there are opportunities to scale it. Of course, developing thought leadership pillars and distinctive POVs and providing valuable insight still require human ingenuity. Still, our perspective is that human creativity and artificial intelligence create value. The AI-enhanced executive brand is coming—it’s just a question of how. If your communications function is evolving along the lines of this type of data-informed, generative content—we should talk.?