How Your Personal Brand Can Influence Your Business Brand

There’s a lot not to like about Facebook as a brand.

I sign on for “free” so they can track every move I make and use my information to sell back to advertisers. It’s reputed that the average Facebook user makes the company $12.76 per year, $48.76 in the US. Despite all those billions of dollars in revenue, there is no commission to me for my contribution to the bottom line.

If I don’t regularly check my privacy settings, some update I missed has defaulted my choices back to what Facebook prefers they be.

Add that to the fact that because they’re so intent on making more money, they’ve got those algorithms configured so it’s more and more difficult to get any significant organic reach without paying. Which leaves entrepreneurs like me left with no choice but to have a separate business page just so one can boost posts and run ads.

Yet as much as I can rant about all the seeming unfairness, Facebook works.

Even a tiny budget can result in a significant increase in reach, engagement and conversion for its clients . And because its audience is so diverse, there are not many brands that would not benefit from a presence on the network.

But that’s not what has shed a new light on the brand for me this week.

It was the actions of its Founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan.

Upon the birth of their baby, they announced the creation of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the intention to ultimately donate 99% of their Facebook shares, now valued at $45 billion to charity around the world.

99% of $45 billion is a lot of money!

I’m always preaching to clients that there’s little distinction anymore between your business and your personal brand. One can influence the other, for better or for worse.

What the Zuckerbergs did is a great example of how it can influence for the better.

Their decision – an act of their personal brand – made me look at all that money I was helping Facebook – their business brand – to earn a bit differently. With that one announcement the big giant in the corner – invading my privacy and making money off of my actions – looked a bit kinder and gentler.

I may still have to pay to boost this post to get significant traction – but at least now I know that the money I’m spending might ultimately help to better the world.