👋 Hi Reader,

I am a big fan of the work Daniel Greenberg and Matt Huang put out for their Connection Acccepted Podcast.

But one thing has always irked me on Daniel’s LinkedIn content.

See the part highlighted in his signature below.

I believe Daniel is immensely responsible and influential in the way he structures his content and brand.

So why would his employer not endorse his content, and enable him to build his brand on full throttle?

The systemic mindset with EGC (Employee-Generated Content)

I have worked in tech for the last 2 decades, building product, design, and data orgs.

And I have seen this trend play out too many times.

I see companies trying to recruit top-tier talent and pay enormous acquisition costs to get them onboard.

Only to see HR school them (yes, even VP-level hires) that they cannot post anything or everything on LinkedIn or X, and anything that needs to go out online has to be vetted out by HR beforehand.

Naturally, all the clout that the VP might have had on LinkedIn is used primarily for hiring purposes, but not for him or her to build their personal brand on what landed them their VP role in the first place.

I feel bad for these folks. Many of them happen to be my colleagues. I see them wear these golden handcuffs with great pay and equity, until they hit a career plateau or get laid off.

At that point in time, they start reviving their LinkedIn profile from the dead. This time with an ‘Open to Work’ badge, which perceivably shifts the dynamic from an expert, to just another person looking for a role.

As you can see, it works well for the company, but not the subject matter expert. An expert, who was not supported in building their brand online, until they were put to pasture.

Relatable as hell. What does good employee-centric branding look like?

I feel there is an employee-centric alternative. I feel companies could support every employee to put out content in their niche on LinkedIn, while building the company's brand alongside.

I had talked about the employee-generated content phenomenon at length before at LetterStack, with product orgs (Buffer) and with agencies (Storyarb, ColdIQ) leading the way on building employee-driven social brands by example.

Interesting. So what does GREAT employee-centric branding look like?

There is a platinum-tier experience unfolding. One which could make both employee AND company brand building exponential, allowing them to own and combine both their audiences at will.

​Lydia Lee articulated this so well on LinkedIn recently:

Does the compensation Lydia talk about need be monetary?

It would definitely not hurt. But the long-term compounding effects kick in, when they let the employee-creator own their audience with their own newsletters, while still alluding to the org they work with.

One such example that stood out to me was Katie Malone.

Katie Malone is a Market Editor at Technical.ly, which already has an active cohort of 6 newsletters. She recently launched a beehiiv newsletter on ‘The State of State AI’ under the Technical.ly umbrella. She publishes them under her handle on LinkedIn and her byline.

Is this the only example of employee-driven newsletters under a company’s cohort of newsletters? I would hope not.

I am calling it early in 2026:

The companies I see winning in 2026 are the media brands and companies who enable their chronically-online employees to build their audience AND their personal brand WITH the company brand at scale.

If you are one of these companies reading this, and would like a sounding board on how to win 2026, I would love to talk to you.

Let me know by hitting ‘Reply’ on this email, or send a note to marketing@letterstack.co.

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Cheers,

Renga from LetterStack

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