At Soworker, an employee advocacy platform, we often get the question whether it is better to like a message on the company page than to post a message yourself. From employee advocacy and a B2B market approach, our reasoning is that the personal page is more powerful and therefore more important, but if someone is a "fan" of a brand, in the case of a B2C approach, then the company page is in combination with a with the brand very powerful. We compare the pros and cons of both types of pages.

Company Pages
The big advantage of the company page is of course that it represents the brand and thus stands for the company. It is also logical that content that is company-related deserves a place on the company page. Finally, updates about the company must be placed on a company page, otherwise a company page has hardly any added value. Of course you can also view the vacancies on LinkedIn or Facebook and see who works at a company. Nowadays you also have the option to create additional pages on LinkedIn, so-called Showcase pages to draw attention to specific services, products, locations or areas of expertise. On the Facebook company page you also have options to add other pages and buttons. Think of a webshop (especially interesting for consumer brands). You can also think about which message you are communicating. For example, content with an ‘advertisement character’ will be shared less quickly by employees and more easily liked via company pages where Statements and content that employees can be proud of will be properly shared by employees.

Yet you often see that engagement and followers on company pages lag behind, especially with B2B brands and especially on LinkedIn. Employees will like the posts on LinkedIn, but that is generally less powerful than sharing content themselves. However, B2C brands often have many followers for their company page, especially on networks such as Facebook. we believe it is good to publish content on both pages. It is more than a hygiene factor to also publish your content on the company page, because without content you will not quickly gain more followers. In addition, you can in any case let ambassadors share content for an even greater reach.

Personal pages
Then why do personal pages work so well? The Edelman Trust Barometer shows that people are most credible above the CEO or brand of a company. That is not surprising, because you know the person  and he or she has your sympathy. Because of that you are more likely to accept something from a person and therefore it is much more powerful to share content via people than via "anonymous" company pages. A thumbs up or a Like says much less than a personal statement from a person who shares a company message that he or she fully supports. In addition, the person is in a relevant network. That's why we think that a person who shares a message is powerful and therefore effective. For the sake of clarity, we are not saying that the content should not also be published on the company page. Rather, it is a matter of the one and the other.

By the way, offering content offers more advantages than a wider reach. You give your employees credibility and help them grow their own brand. Read more about this in the Employee Advocacy article.