FOR BUSINESS OWNERS
Should you hire a social media manager? What they do and what it costs in the UK
What a social media manager actually does, what the different routes cost in the UK, and the signs that you are ready to hand it over.
How a personal brand and a business brand differ, when each makes sense, and how to build one without undermining the other.
Build your personal brand first if people buy you, your expertise or your judgement. If you plan to grow a team, sell products at scale or eventually sell the company, give the business brand more weight. Most owner-led businesses end up needing both: you out front, with the business standing behind you.
Business owners ask this all the time, and most of what you’ll find online is forum opinion. Personal brand or business brand? The honest answer depends on what you sell and where you want the company to end up, and for most people it isn’t an either/or choice at all.
Below you’ll find how the two differ, what you give up with each, and a quick way to make the call.
Your personal brand is what people think and feel about you as a person. That covers your expertise and values. It also covers your story and how you come across. It follows you from one business to the next.
A business brand is what people think and feel about the company itself. It covers the name and the promise. It also covers the look, the products it makes and the reputation it has earned. It can outlast any single person, and someone can buy it from you.
| Personal brand | Business brand | |
|---|---|---|
| Built around | You | The company and its offer |
| Strongest at | Trust, connection, expertise | Scale, consistency, longevity |
| Main risk | Everything depends on you | Can feel faceless and generic |
| If you step back | Value is hard to hand over | The brand carries on |
| Typical fit | Consultants, authors, speakers, creatives, founders in the early stages | Product businesses, larger teams, businesses being built to sell |
Put yourself first when the buyer is really picking a person.
That’s the case when you are the service. Consultants and coaches get hired for who does the work, as do advisers and plenty of tradespeople. It’s also true when your name is on the product. An author, artist, speaker or public figure is the brand, whatever the company happens to be called.
Being new and small is another reason, because a young business has no reputation of its own yet and yours can lend it some trust while it earns one. And if your background, values or experience are why people choose you, keeping them hidden wastes the best thing you’ve got.
Jack Cartwright, the bestselling author who founded The Limelight Company, puts it like this: “I spent years developing a brand. It was only when I stepped out from behind it that the results truly came.”
Lead with the company when it has to stand up without you.
Yes. For most owner-led businesses, that’s the sensible answer. The usual set-up is a founder-fronted business brand, where the company has its own name and look, plus its own offer, and you’re its most visible, trusted voice.
What makes it work is that each brand props up the other instead of competing with it. Start with a shared foundation where your values and the company’s promise are one story told from two angles. Getting that right is the job of brand design.
Then give each brand its own job. The business website sells the services. Your personal presence wins attention and trust, and sends people on to the business. Show the team too. Put colleagues and clients in front of people, along with the work itself, so it doesn’t all revolve around you.
Finally, keep one look. Use one photography style throughout and stick to the same colours and tone. That way people see both brands as part of the same thing.
Answer these five questions honestly:
Mostly pointing at you? Start with the personal brand and let the business brand catch up. If the answers point at the company instead, build the business brand first and use your own profile and reputation to back it up from the side. Split down the middle, go for the founder-fronted model described above.
Some of this is branding. Some is admin. According to GOV.UK, sole traders can trade under their own name or pick a trading name, while limited companies have their own rules for choosing a company name. Read those pages, and get professional advice on the legal and tax side.
As a branding decision, your own name is simple and personal but harder to sell on later. A company name leaves room to grow, though it takes longer to earn trust. Lots of people do both. They use a company name with their own name clearly attached.
Whichever one you lead with, you need a home you own. Social platforms can change their rules and their reach overnight without asking anyone, so a website you control is the most reliable base for either kind of brand.
The same question turns up on social media in miniature. Do you post as yourself or as the company? We go into that in our piece on posting as yourself or as your business.
None of this is a reason to avoid either brand. It’s a reason to choose on purpose instead of drifting into one by default.
We help business owners work out how their own story and their business brand fit together, and then we build both. That means the positioning and identity, a website people can find, and social media that keeps you in view. Not sure which to lead with? Start a conversation and we’ll talk it through. Our guide to what a personal branding agency does might help too.
Neither wins across the board. A personal brand counts most when people are buying you, your expertise or your work. A business brand counts most when you sell products, run a growing team or plan to sell up. Most small businesses do best with some of each.
Yes, if the business gets so tied to you that it can’t run, grow or sell without you, or if something you say damages both reputations at once. Cut the risk by showing your team, building the company’s own name alongside yours, and thinking twice before you post.
Use your own name if clients choose you personally. If they choose the company or its products, go with the company name and introduce yourself prominently. Either way, make sure the domain is registered to you or your business.
Yes. Lots of businesses start out built around the founder and shift the spotlight to the company as the team grows. It’s much easier if your look and message have been consistent from day one and you start introducing colleagues early.
No, though it helps. You can build a personal brand through a website, speaking, writing and word of mouth. Social media just puts you in front of more people more often, so things move faster.
What a social media manager actually does, what the different routes cost in the UK, and the signs that you are ready to hand it over.
A workable content mix for small business social media, how often to post on Instagram and Facebook, and how to keep going when you are busy.
A logo is one piece of a brand identity. Here is what an owner-led business actually needs, what each option costs in the UK, and what…
Four quick questions, and we’ll show you where we’d start. Your answers come straight to us with your message, so you won’t have to explain it twice.
A 30-minute introduction call on Microsoft Teams, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Your answers come with the booking, so we’ll be ready for you.
Prefer to talk it through? Make an appointment for a 30-minute call on Microsoft Teams, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
A closer look at the work behind each part of your plan.
We use analytics cookies to understand how visitors use our site. They are only set if you accept. Read our privacy policy.
