The Rise of the Brandividual: Rendering Organizational Authenticity Through Social Media

I wrote and presented this paper back in 2009 but never posted it here. Since someone just asked me for it, I thought I’d put it up here for anyone else.

CVH RiseofBrandividual 1

The Rise of the Brandividual:
Rendering Organizational Authenticity Through Social Media

Abstract

Organizations are searching for ways to use social media to create interactive relationships with stakeholders that will extend the organization’s positive reputation. One rising tactic for establishing these relationships in a way that feels authentic to stakeholders is to have the organization be represented online by a “brandividual”. A brandividual is an employee who draws on her personal identity as well as the organization’s identity to represent the organization in online relationships.

In this paper, I introduce the concept of the brandividual, describe the demands of social media that have lead to the creation of brandividuals, contrast the brandividual to the better-know branded employee, and draw on a case study of how a prominent brandividual transformed a public relations crisis to an exemplar of social media best practice, all in service of calling management scholars’ attention to this powerful new tactic for enhancing an organization’s reputation.

Brandividuals are a phenomenon begging to be studied more closely, not only for what we might learn about managing organization’s reputations online, but also for what we might learn about how individuals manage the identity demands of representing the organization while remaining authentic.