Back in the day, investment bankers were neither seen nor heard. They orchestrated deals from the shadows. The idea was to not upstage clients.

Increasingly, they are hosting podcasts, moderating panels and posting on social media.

Kim Posnett from Goldman Sachs is a good case study. Shortly before being named in April to head technology, media and telecom investment banking, she posted an interview with Strava CEO Michael Horvath on Instagram.

The post was a snippet from Talks at GS, in which Goldman executives interview CEOs, celebrities and clients. The program started a decade ago and the interviews are now posted on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

Talks at GS are done by a number of leaders at the firm, including CEO David Solomon, but Posnett features prominently.

The thumbnail image for the Talks at GS website is Posnett interviewing model Karlie Kloss. When the New York Times wrote about the program in 2018, they used an image of Posnett interviewing Uber’s chief brand officer Bozoma Saint John.

Posnett and her colleagues are part of a trend in which social media is a bigger part of marketing and also a skill that contributes to career advancement.

Posnett started at Goldman in 2005 and has been a rising star for some time. In articles about her promotion, the media flagged her experience working on 400 deals over 20 years, including Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.

In the 1990s, bankers were much less visible. In the early 2000s many started to be interviewed as guests on CNBC or Bloomberg. Now, some host podcasts, the most prominent being David Rubenstein from Carlyle.

Goldman started the Talks at GS program for employees. Google does something similar. Posting videos externally was initially viewed as a way to burnish the firm’s image.

What’s now clear is it also a) cements a tighter relationship with the guest b) provides a platform elevating the client b) raises the visibility of the Goldman host.

Posnett and CEO Solomon came in for some criticism as “rock star bankers” in a Page Six article in the New York Post, which cited anonymous colleagues complaining that they were too focused on their “personal brands.”

Those critics don’t understand the modern media landscape. Developing a personal brand is exactly the point. We live in a celebrity culture. The better known Posnett is the more deals she will likely win.

A number of Wall Street executives post on social media, but few do it as well as Goldman, which doesn’t skimp on the high-resolution photos, camera angles and lighting. They also put in the effort editing clips for social media.

Creating content is easy to do. But it’s hard to do well.