THE employee branding playbook

Here’s the thing:

No one wants to hear brands talk about how “innovative” their solution is anymore.

People don’t even follow brands like they used to. What do they care about? Authenticity. Relatability. And who’s better at showing that than your actual team members?

Let’s talk about the most underrated tool in your marketing arsenal: employee branding. It’s not just about making your company look cool; it’s about building trust, loyalty, and real connections through the people who know your project best—your team.

In today’s Newsletter; 

1. What Is Employee Branding?

2. Why Should You Care?

3. How’s Your Team Doing? Cookie3 Has the Data

4. Beta Access: Get in Early
   The secret phrase that unlocks exclusive access to Cookie3 KOL Intelligence for free.

5. Here’s how we did it: The Cookie3 Playbook

What is employee branding, anyway?

It’s simple:

employee branding is when your team represents your company’s values, mission, and vibe in the way they show up—on socials, at events, wherever.

They’re basically walking, tweeting, meme-posting extensions of your brand. Think LinkedIn posts that actually feel human, Twitter threads that get people talking, or event appearances that build meaningful connections.

And the kicker? It works both ways. Employees who are empowered to build their personal brand grow their own reputation while boosting the company’s. It’s a win-win.

Why should you care?

1. Builds Trust (AKA your most valuable asset)
   Web3 can feel like the wild west. When your team shows up authentically, it humanizes your project. Real people > faceless brands.

2. People follow people, not logos
   Let’s face it—nobody’s scrolling Twitter hoping to follow another project account. But a smart, engaged team member who’s sharing real value? That’s someone worth following.

3. Attracts top talent
   When your team flexes their expertise and makes waves in the space, it’s a signal to the best talent out there: “Hey, this is the kind of company you want to be part of.”

4. Drives real conversations
   Employee content doesn’t feel like a sales pitch. It feels like a recommendation from a friend, which is exactly why people engage with it.

5. Positions your team as thought leaders 

When your team regularly shares insights and expertise, they naturally build credibility. Over time, they become go-to voices in the space, which reflects back on your project as an authority in the industry.

How’s Your Team Doing? Cookie3 Has the Data

It’s one thing to tell your team to “build their personal brand,” but how do you know if it’s working? That’s where Cookie3 KOL Intelligence comes in. It’s not just for KOLs—you can use it to track your team’s performance, too. Here’s how it helps:

• Track Their CT Game: Wondering how your team’s tweets are landing? Cookie3 shows you engagement, reach, and who’s driving real conversations.

• Benchmark Like a Pro: Compare your team’s activity to other people in the space. See who’s crushing it on similar topics and use that to level up your strategy.

• Build for the Long Game : Consistency matters. Cookie3 lets you see how regularly your team is posting, what’s resonating with their audience, and where they can improve. 

Want In? Beta Access Is Open Now

Cookie3 KOL Intelligence is in beta, and you can be one of the first to try it. Want to unlock exclusive access? DM @mtazk on tg with the secret phrase “mostkolsuck” and get started for free. Yes, for free—because we’re feeling generous, but only for a limited time.

Here’s how we did it: The Cookie3 Playbook

When we decided to dive into employee branding, we knew it wasn’t just about asking the team to tweet more. 

Here’s how it all went down:

1. Everyone got a Twitter
   It all started with encouraging the team to join the conversation on CT. 

2. Incentives, Baby
   We offered rewards for engagement and creativity, turning Twitter into a competitive (but friendly!) sport.

3. The ultimate Notion page
   We created a one-stop-shop Notion page with:

   • Best practices for CT

   • Lists of people to follow

   • Post ideas, from educational threads to memes

   • Benchmarks for engagement

4. Tools at their fingertips

   Here’s where we leaned into what we do best: analytics. Every team member got access to our Cookie3 KOL Intelligence to supercharge their content.

Want to try it out? DM @mtazk on telegram with the secret phrase: “mostkolsuck” for exclusive beta access. It’s free for a limited time 

5. We tracked it all! 

   We used Cookie3 KOL Intelligence to track our own team like we would any other KOLs. That meant:

• We created a C3 team list to be able to monitor different metrics from their ct presence.

• After a little while we started tracking how conversations started by team members boosted overall impressions for the Cookie3 brand.

As you can see in the chart above, the overlap between our team’s content and our brand’s organic growth is hard to ignore.

Even though we kicked this off just two months ago, the results are already speaking for themselves.

Our team’s efforts contributed a solid 1.79% engagement rate to our brand’s organic growth—and we’re just getting started. It’s proof that when your team shows up authentically and consistently, it doesn’t just make noise; it drives meaningful impact.

Got questions? Feedback? You know where to find us 📞—we’re here to help you get organized, even if we’re still figuring out our own lives.

Don’t forget to DM our BD @mtazk on TG and give him this secret phrase ‘mostkolssuck’ for free access to KOL Intelligence.