We always encourage people to do it themselves.  Your employee base can create a lot of buzz for you.

Today I talked to someone that was creating a lot of buzz for a company she used to work for.  She left the company and it ended up going out of business.

The problem that resulted from her was this.  She’d set up pages on myspace, facebook, etc. and built communities around herself and the company.  When the company went under, all those people got upset and she was the only person left as a visible target.

Then, because a company email was used to set up those accounts, she could not cancel them because it no longer existed.

So here is someone that did everything right, and ended up hurting her personal brand.

So how do you protect yourself?

1. Use a free email account that you can access even if the company shuts down your email – Whether you are fired, quit or the company closes.
2. If you are building buzz on your own time, work more on your personal brand as an expert but mention the company frequently so you both get buzz but you are building an asset for yourself.
3. Don’t say something you may regret later.  If you say your current company is better than a competitor, you may find it hard to get a job with the competitor later on.
4. Don’t build a community around a product that is likely to fail.  It is a lot of work to create a good community and you must have the focus be broader than a product that you are not sure will make it.
5. Keep a list of things you need to update in the case of a major change.  If you leave the company, you will need to update a lot of things.  LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Blogs, Twitter, MyBlogLog, etc.
6. Don’t promote something you do not believe in.  In fact, don’t work for a company you do not believe in.  But if you are stuck for the time being, don’t create fake buzz.
7. Take your time in creating buzz.  Make good choices and be careful not to say things that can be misinterpreted or used by a competitor.

The general best way employee evangelists can protect themselves is to respect and manage their own personal brand as well as those elements of company buzz they create – with an eye on growing both independently in the future.