Last night, I was asked to speak to genKC on Personal Branding (the young professionals group for the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce). I discussed how the social media tools (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc) are what enable you. These free tools allow anyone to publish. More importantly, because of Google, and it’s frequency of usage, you have the opportunity to stand-out and be found online. You have a digital footprint online, and you can influence your footprint through smart, authentic and consistent use of social media tools.
For this presentation I made some changes and updates to my slides and format. In the spirit of open research and sharing, I embedded it below (click here if you can’t see it). I made a focus to really focus at the end on very tactical, “go do this” tips.
Sarah Benson, a writer from Ink magazine interviewed me and a bunch of other great people in Kansas City on the topic of Personal Branding. It’s a good piece. She did her homework. Although, I have a bit of beef with the headline she used, which reads “Sell Yourself” (doesn’t fit right with the spirit of personal branding being authentic and not contrived …but it’s catchy, so i get it). She does however frame things well by stating, “Personal branding is becoming easier and more important as we share more online.”
Grab an issue of Ink magazine and check out the article if you’re interested.
If you’re interested, I was asked to give a presentation on Personal Branding coming up on February 9th for GenKC at the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. If you can make it, I’d like to see you there. Come say hi! They even made this fancy flier for my presentation
Recently, I spoke at the #PRevolution workshop about Personal Branding (sponsored by the Public Relations Society of America, Wichita chapter). I discussed how the social media tools (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc) are what enable you. These free tools allow anyone to publish. More importantly, because of Google, and it’s frequency of usage, you have the opportunity to stand-out and be found online. You have a digital footprint online, and you can influence your footprint through smart, authentic and consistent use of social media tools.
I also shared tactical tips, like my “4:1 rule”. In the spirit of open research and sharing, I’ve posted my PPT presentation to slideshare.
I gave a presentation on Personal Branding at the IABC Business Communicators Summit last week. Instead of just regurgitating all of the long-winded points I rambled about in my presentation, I’ll just give you the short and sweet version in 10 easy digestible points.
If you still have questions or want to complain about something after reading these (below) or viewing the PowerPoint …tell me in the comments. I’ll reply with answers to anything you ask. I promise.
1.) Personal branding, if understood and practiced well- can establish trust, credibility and more importantly define and distinguish you among your friends, family and work colleagues.
2.) Everything you do communicates a message- the first step is to recognize and be cognitive of that- the second is to provide definitive, consistent positioning with that message so people understand what you’re noteworthy and remarkable at.
3.)Consistency facilitates recognition. Don’t forget that. Be consistent.
4.)Step #1, Understand how your friends, family and work colleges perceive you.
5.)Step #2, Do a search, find out how Google perceives you.
6.)Step #3, Define your objectives and mission statement for your personal brand (what do you want to be famous for?).
7.)Step #4, Get to work and make a plan with how you can achieve those objectives.
8.) Some of the objectives you set for yourself might be really hard- and require you give up your free time to do your homework to achieve them. Stop watching Lost. You must be willing to make sacrifices.
9.)Step #5, Share right (don’t brag) and share often. Tell the story, so someone else isn’t telling it for you.
There were some great abstracts from the presentation I gave regarding “personal branding” to the Social Media Club of Kansas City. First — let me start by explaining MY definition of the phrase: Personal Branding is about building and managing the associations/images the public has in regards to yourself about a specific field(s) or topic(s).
The focus of of my presentation was centered around 4 fundamentals to maximize your success in your personal branding efforts:
Authenticity
Consistency
Sharing
Adding Value
I felt the discussion was fairly interactive in the sense that the group asked lots of questions. Each principle listed was questioned, rationalized and ultimately one, if not the biggest takeaway was naturally extracted by the group discussion: “following ALL and not just 1 or 2 of these principles is essential“. In order for these principles to work, they must be exercised in tandem.
If you’re looking for more, I have a lot more to say about the concept of personal branding in a previous blog post. Or you can check out the 5 slide PowerPoint from my presentation at the meetup. Enjoy! As always, I love to hear your thoughts, so drop a comment below or send me an email.
Here is my definition of the phrase: Personal Branding is about building and managing the associations/images the public has in regards to yourself about a specific field(s) or topic(s).
If you Google the phrase “personal branding” and read the Wiki entry — personally I find the explanation falls short. There’s an entirely more expansive side to the topic.
Right around the launch of the Facebook Newsfeed feature, I believe a big social shift occurred. It’s been easily forgotten by most, but it truly made all the difference in regards to the masses and how we “think”.
Furthermore, the advent of social media technologies have made it easier to share our lives, our experiences, our thoughts, our beliefs, and our personalities in the digital realm (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube)
The act of sharing and sharing often is an fundamental building block of Personal Branding.
It’s essential. I’ll use myself as an example; I frequently publish several types of content with substance about my personal life, opinions and convictions regarding the technology industry. Because of this, people I’ve interacted with online and offline form mental associations about me, therein by building a personal brand.
When anyone asks me about Personal Branding and gets tripped up and confused — it’s almost better to take a step back and and think about it outside from the “digital world”. You’re already accustomed to it, you may just not know it. Take for instance my friend Chris. He is a singer in his own band. Chris is always providing music recommendations when we’re out for happy hour (and he’s a light weight too). You’ll always find Chris reading up on music magazines and books. Since Chris has shared and communicated consistently his passion and has an educated opinion regarding music — any time I’ve got a music question, I go to him. Furthermore, when Chris makes a critique regarding anything about music, I find it more credible than my idiot of a friend Jeremy.
One important golden branding rule to follow; Brand consistency facilitates recognition. So in addition to sharing and sharing often — if it’s consistent in the delivery of the quality, tone and presentation, this helps greatly.
Having a Personal Branding strategy paired with an understanding of how to use the medium (the internet), can provide you with an unstoppable advantage in your swiss-army-knife of communication channels that exist.
In the professional world, you can begin to establish yourself as a “thought leader” or “expert” through a blog, Twitter, YouTube, etc. How? If you’re posting content that is timely, relevant, and has value to the topic of interest or field you’re employed — chances are other people will see you know what your talking about. Furthermore, if you use common phrases and keywords within your blog posts, your digital footprint indexed on Google maybe easily found. Think about it — you’re probably guilty of typing complete sentences to search; “how do I tie a tie?”, “how to start a blog”, “how do you crank dat?”.
Additionally, if the tangible benefits Personal Branding aren’t appealing, consider this; The act of cognitively having to consistently develop, manage, and produce WILL help you become a better person. You’ll know more about yourself and your industry.
Bottom line; Personal Branding is important. In this day and age when “googling” people’s names to do research is a common practice (and it’s freakin’ verb), it’s reason enough to take note that lightly managing your Personal Brand online at the very least is important.
You get to tell the story, before someone else tells the story for you.
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**UPDATE 2**
Check out a great personal branding video (embedded below) by a Gary Vaynerchuk — it’s a presentation from Web 2.0 Expo in NYC. Awesome 15-minutes that you’ll thank yourself for watching.
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