The document discusses personal branding for business professionals. It emphasizes being authentic and consistent in building a personal brand online and offline. The key aspects covered include developing a strong online presence through blogging, social media engagement, and high-quality content creation. Regularly listening, conversing, and contributing to your industry community are also important for brand building.
Innovative Technology to use with Small Business Marketingheidianne32
Ā
Janell Anderson-Erhke, CEO of GROW Nebraska, presented this on Sept. 14, 2011 at the Omaha Chamber of Commerce.
Learn more about social media and technology, how you can incorporate these in your small business marketing plan, and how to evaluate your efforts. Also, includes information on the ROI of social media.
Collaboration, Publications, Community: Building your personal tech brandDr Janet Bastiman
Ā
Expanded slides from the talk given at the Tech Women London Meetup group https://www.meetup.com/Tech-Women-London/ on 29th August 2017
"Wordy" slides are additions. The blue quote slides were most of the original presentation.
Innovative Technology to use with Small Business Marketingheidianne32
Ā
Janell Anderson-Erhke, CEO of GROW Nebraska, presented this on Sept. 14, 2011 at the Omaha Chamber of Commerce.
Learn more about social media and technology, how you can incorporate these in your small business marketing plan, and how to evaluate your efforts. Also, includes information on the ROI of social media.
Collaboration, Publications, Community: Building your personal tech brandDr Janet Bastiman
Ā
Expanded slides from the talk given at the Tech Women London Meetup group https://www.meetup.com/Tech-Women-London/ on 29th August 2017
"Wordy" slides are additions. The blue quote slides were most of the original presentation.
10 Ways To Make $10,000 Online
Are You Ready To Discover Simple Strategies That Can Make You $10,000 or More Each & Every Month Online?
Inside this special report you will learn ten proven methods that you can use to break the $10,000 dollar mark over and over again!
Advanced personal branding 101 ā Are You in Control?Tom McCollum
Ā
If you're like many people, you have a little bit of yourself spread around in several different places on the web creating a very fragmented digital footprint. Odds are, each of your personal profiles are not as complete as they should be, your information is inconsistent and this lack of coordinated effort is suppressing your personal brand effectiveness and likely making for something less-than-optimal in terms of results when someone types your name into one of the many search engines.
Branding is Dead: Long Live Brand ExperienceGraham Brown
Ā
What is brand in 2015? Brand is no longer what the ad agency says about your product or service but what customers say, share and experience about your company.
That means how your retail staff interact with customers or how your marketing team creates conversations at your events is more important than what's said in an advertising campaign.
This is the reality of the sharing economy in 2015. Experience is only real when shared and if customers aren't sharing your brand, you might as well be invisible.
Click here to find out more about Brand Experience and why the era of Branding is dead...
Uncover the DO'S and DON'TS of using LinkedIn to promote yourself, market your business, or even find a job!
Find out the most common bonehead blunders people make on LinkedIn, and how they can totally sabotage your efforts there!
Discover the top little-known tricks for making your LinkedIn profile really stand out!
Learn what LinkedIn users are really looking for, and how you can multiply your efforts by focusing on these things!
And much, much more!
Gerald
gerald-pilcher.com
Like trying to force a square peg into a round hole, many brands are still trying to use the same strategies and tactics that work in traditional marketing channels on social media. Theyāre learning the hard way that instead of being followed and liked for their conversation and candor, theyāre being overlooked and ignored because of their corporate speak and sales jargon. People want to do business with people, after all. In this presentation, youāll learn not just how important it is to show the human side of your brand on social media, but a number of proven best practices for building a loyal, engaged audience there.
This presentation was given by Bob Cargill, Director of Social Media at Overdrive Interactive, and Amanda Fakhreddine, Senior Social Media Strategist at Akamai Technologies, at NEDMA's 2015 Annual Conference.
Integrating Social Media Into Your Marketing MixMichael Brenner
Ā
What is social media? What is its impact to business and how can we integrate social media into the marketing mix?
These are the questions discussed in this provocative review by Michael Brenner, Sr. Director of Global Integrated Marketing at SAP. Michael shows us that it is all about putting customers at the center of everything we do.
30 Marketing growth hack cards taken from the recent blog posts of the smartest cookies in the industry. Crazy, sneaky, happy and weird marketing hacks.
"You: The Online Brand" ā The Own-Your-Name-On-Google Checklist, by Michelle ...Michelle Villalobos
Ā
Basic steps so you can earn that first page of Google search results for your name in NO time!! Created by Personal Branding Strategist & Thought Leader, Michelle Villalobos.
A long list of pointers informs you how to enlarge your digital footprint with easy and effective tactics to expose your content t more readers and make your online marketing more effective.
10 Ways To Make $10,000 Online
Are You Ready To Discover Simple Strategies That Can Make You $10,000 or More Each & Every Month Online?
Inside this special report you will learn ten proven methods that you can use to break the $10,000 dollar mark over and over again!
Advanced personal branding 101 ā Are You in Control?Tom McCollum
Ā
If you're like many people, you have a little bit of yourself spread around in several different places on the web creating a very fragmented digital footprint. Odds are, each of your personal profiles are not as complete as they should be, your information is inconsistent and this lack of coordinated effort is suppressing your personal brand effectiveness and likely making for something less-than-optimal in terms of results when someone types your name into one of the many search engines.
Branding is Dead: Long Live Brand ExperienceGraham Brown
Ā
What is brand in 2015? Brand is no longer what the ad agency says about your product or service but what customers say, share and experience about your company.
That means how your retail staff interact with customers or how your marketing team creates conversations at your events is more important than what's said in an advertising campaign.
This is the reality of the sharing economy in 2015. Experience is only real when shared and if customers aren't sharing your brand, you might as well be invisible.
Click here to find out more about Brand Experience and why the era of Branding is dead...
Uncover the DO'S and DON'TS of using LinkedIn to promote yourself, market your business, or even find a job!
Find out the most common bonehead blunders people make on LinkedIn, and how they can totally sabotage your efforts there!
Discover the top little-known tricks for making your LinkedIn profile really stand out!
Learn what LinkedIn users are really looking for, and how you can multiply your efforts by focusing on these things!
And much, much more!
Gerald
gerald-pilcher.com
Like trying to force a square peg into a round hole, many brands are still trying to use the same strategies and tactics that work in traditional marketing channels on social media. Theyāre learning the hard way that instead of being followed and liked for their conversation and candor, theyāre being overlooked and ignored because of their corporate speak and sales jargon. People want to do business with people, after all. In this presentation, youāll learn not just how important it is to show the human side of your brand on social media, but a number of proven best practices for building a loyal, engaged audience there.
This presentation was given by Bob Cargill, Director of Social Media at Overdrive Interactive, and Amanda Fakhreddine, Senior Social Media Strategist at Akamai Technologies, at NEDMA's 2015 Annual Conference.
Integrating Social Media Into Your Marketing MixMichael Brenner
Ā
What is social media? What is its impact to business and how can we integrate social media into the marketing mix?
These are the questions discussed in this provocative review by Michael Brenner, Sr. Director of Global Integrated Marketing at SAP. Michael shows us that it is all about putting customers at the center of everything we do.
30 Marketing growth hack cards taken from the recent blog posts of the smartest cookies in the industry. Crazy, sneaky, happy and weird marketing hacks.
"You: The Online Brand" ā The Own-Your-Name-On-Google Checklist, by Michelle ...Michelle Villalobos
Ā
Basic steps so you can earn that first page of Google search results for your name in NO time!! Created by Personal Branding Strategist & Thought Leader, Michelle Villalobos.
A long list of pointers informs you how to enlarge your digital footprint with easy and effective tactics to expose your content t more readers and make your online marketing more effective.
These paintings are what I do mostly - brightly colored contemporary landscapes. I use red in many of them to express what I see as the vibrancy of life.
October 2011 - GROW Nebraska Presentation on Innovative Technologyheidianne32
Ā
GROW Nebraska Offered Networking and Training Events For Nebraska Businesses
On October 25, GROW Nebraska and NBDC partnered to host a networking and training event in Omaha for Nebraska business owners who wanted to maximize the potency of their marketing budget.
At 2:00 p.m. in the UNO Alumni Center (6705 Dodge Street), GROW and Nebraska Business Development Center (NBDC) hosted a presentation on āInnovative Technology for Marketing to Greater Nebraska and the Worldā with networking afterward.
The Nebraska Business Development Center is a department of the UNO College of Business Administration that strives to educate and build Nebraska business.
All registration and information is available on the GROW Nebraska web site at www.grownebraska.org. To find out more about these opportunities, call GROW Nebraska at 888.GROW.NEB (476.9632), or e-mail info@grownebraska.org.
GROW Nebraskaās mission is to maximize the stateās entrepreneurial and small business spirit, create an economically viable and sustainable environment for entrepreneurs, and generate social awareness through promotion, marketing and education.
How to brand yourself and get your freelancing business out of the garageApprove Me
Ā
People looking to hire a freelancer are put into the same position; they donāt have time to individually examine each qualified person for an extended period of time. Theyāre going to pick the one who stands out the most.
To assist students in the Comm Arts Department at Marywood University, I created a resume and portfolio workshop presentation that could offer practical tips on resume building, interviewing, and more.
This presentation was given to a group of young professionals during a Dublin, Worthington and Union County Chamber sponsored YP event. It covers the world of personal branding and how to make world in a hyper-connected social media world.
An on-line personal branding strategy through social mediaCatur PW
Ā
Learn about: How to create a STRONG personal brand,
On line Digital Assets to branding your self, Grab jobs info from social media conversation, Monitoring Your Personal Branding Performa, Personal branding lesson from Madonna
Startup Now: A Guide from the Seedcamp 2011 participantscubesocial
Ā
What did you do in 2011?
Hereās what we did, and what we learned building, pitching and growing our own tech start-ups.
We hope it inspires you and others like you to follow your dreams and fulfil your goals in 2012, whatever they are.
Built for the complex sales cycle, blogs are becoming essential tools for business-to-business marketing that can help you interact, engage, and actually build an emotional connection with you prospects.
Note: This eBook is a collaboration (2 of 2 in series) between MLT Creative and Mark Schaefer of Schaefer Marketing Solutions.
18 ways to kill a startup or your startup FU40 Group sharesEmmanuel Omikunle
Ā
for founders and entrepreneurs who really want to try to prevent business / startup failure. most parts were written by Paul of YC we are just sharing. Enjoy
This was a presentation done for Netstarter PTY Ltd Sri Lankan staff during an internal training session the content has been modified to relate the content to a wider audience. This basically takes myself as the example model and how I did things in order to get my self started.
LA HUG - Video Testimonials with Chynna Morgan - June 2024Lital Barkan
Ā
Have you ever heard that user-generated content or video testimonials can take your brand to the next level? We will explore how you can effectively use video testimonials to leverage and boost your sales, content strategy, and increase your CRM data.š¤Æ
We will dig deeper into:
1. How to capture video testimonials that convert from your audience š„
2. How to leverage your testimonials to boost your sales š²
3. How you can capture more CRM data to understand your audience better through video testimonials. š
3.0 Project 2_ Developing My Brand Identity Kit.pptxtanyjahb
Ā
A personal brand exploration presentation summarizes an individual's unique qualities and goals, covering strengths, values, passions, and target audience. It helps individuals understand what makes them stand out, their desired image, and how they aim to achieve it.
Enterprise Excellence is Inclusive Excellence.pdfKaiNexus
Ā
Enterprise excellence and inclusive excellence are closely linked, and real-world challenges have shown that both are essential to the success of any organization. To achieve enterprise excellence, organizations must focus on improving their operations and processes while creating an inclusive environment that engages everyone. In this interactive session, the facilitator will highlight commonly established business practices and how they limit our ability to engage everyone every day. More importantly, though, participants will likely gain increased awareness of what we can do differently to maximize enterprise excellence through deliberate inclusion.
What is Enterprise Excellence?
Enterprise Excellence is a holistic approach that's aimed at achieving world-class performance across all aspects of the organization.
What might I learn?
A way to engage all in creating Inclusive Excellence. Lessons from the US military and their parallels to the story of Harry Potter. How belt systems and CI teams can destroy inclusive practices. How leadership language invites people to the party. There are three things leaders can do to engage everyone every day: maximizing psychological safety to create environments where folks learn, contribute, and challenge the status quo.
Who might benefit? Anyone and everyone leading folks from the shop floor to top floor.
Dr. William Harvey is a seasoned Operations Leader with extensive experience in chemical processing, manufacturing, and operations management. At Michelman, he currently oversees multiple sites, leading teams in strategic planning and coaching/practicing continuous improvement. William is set to start his eighth year of teaching at the University of Cincinnati where he teaches marketing, finance, and management. William holds various certifications in change management, quality, leadership, operational excellence, team building, and DiSC, among others.
Personal Brand Statement:
As an Army veteran dedicated to lifelong learning, I bring a disciplined, strategic mindset to my pursuits. I am constantly expanding my knowledge to innovate and lead effectively. My journey is driven by a commitment to excellence, and to make a meaningful impact in the world.
Premium MEAN Stack Development Solutions for Modern BusinessesSynapseIndia
Ā
Stay ahead of the curve with our premium MEAN Stack Development Solutions. Our expert developers utilize MongoDB, Express.js, AngularJS, and Node.js to create modern and responsive web applications. Trust us for cutting-edge solutions that drive your business growth and success.
Know more: https://www.synapseindia.com/technology/mean-stack-development-company.html
Company Valuation webinar series - Tuesday, 4 June 2024FelixPerez547899
Ā
This session provided an update as to the latest valuation data in the UK and then delved into a discussion on the upcoming election and the impacts on valuation. We finished, as always with a Q&A
Cracking the Workplace Discipline Code Main.pptxWorkforce Group
Ā
Cultivating and maintaining discipline within teams is a critical differentiator for successful organisations.
Forward-thinking leaders and business managers understand the impact that discipline has on organisational success. A disciplined workforce operates with clarity, focus, and a shared understanding of expectations, ultimately driving better results, optimising productivity, and facilitating seamless collaboration.
Although discipline is not a one-size-fits-all approach, it can help create a work environment that encourages personal growth and accountability rather than solely relying on punitive measures.
In this deck, you will learn the significance of workplace discipline for organisational success. Youāll also learn
ā¢ Four (4) workplace discipline methods you should consider
ā¢ The best and most practical approach to implementing workplace discipline.
ā¢ Three (3) key tips to maintain a disciplined workplace.
Kseniya Leshchenko: Shared development support service model as the way to ma...Lviv Startup Club
Ā
Kseniya Leshchenko: Shared development support service model as the way to make small projects with small budgets profitable for the company (UA)
Kyiv PMDay 2024 Summer
Website ā www.pmday.org
Youtube ā https://www.youtube.com/startuplviv
FB ā https://www.facebook.com/pmdayconference
Buy Verified PayPal Account | Buy Google 5 Star Reviewsusawebmarket
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RMD24 | Debunking the non-endemic revenue myth Marvin Vacquier Droop | First ...BBPMedia1
Ā
Marvin neemt je in deze presentatie mee in de voordelen van non-endemic advertising op retail media netwerken. Hij brengt ook de uitdagingen in beeld die de markt op dit moment heeft op het gebied van retail media voor niet-leveranciers.
Retail media wordt gezien als het nieuwe advertising-medium en ook mediabureaus richten massaal retail media-afdelingen op. Merken die niet in de betreffende winkel liggen staan ook nog niet in de rij om op de retail media netwerken te adverteren. Marvin belicht de uitdagingen die er zijn om echt aansluiting te vinden op die markt van non-endemic advertising.
Falcon stands out as a top-tier P2P Invoice Discounting platform in India, bridging esteemed blue-chip companies and eager investors. Our goal is to transform the investment landscape in India by establishing a comprehensive destination for borrowers and investors with diverse profiles and needs, all while minimizing risk. What sets Falcon apart is the elimination of intermediaries such as commercial banks and depository institutions, allowing investors to enjoy higher yields.
1. Personal
Branding
for the
Business
Professional
http://www.chrisbrogan.com
chris@chrisbrogan.com
+1.978.885.1551
Personal Branding for the Business Professional, by Chris Brogan. - http://www.chrisbrogan.com
2. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowļ¬ake. You are the same
decaying organic matter as everything else. - Tyler Durden, Fight Club.
Gary Vaynerchuk could tell you that his personal brand is worth millions, but heŹ¼s
modest. My friend and PodCamp co-founder, Christopher S. Penn, often refers to
branding by ZeFrankŹ¼s deļ¬nition: āan emotional aftertaste.ā I have some thoughts on
how one might develop a strong personal brand online, and what you might do with one,
once you build it.
Why Build a Personal Brand?
You might already know the answer to this question. There are lots of answers, actually,
depending on you, your needs, the way the world has shaped you. LetŹ¼s look at just one
answer.
The easiest answer is that you might want to be memorable, and you might want to
transfer your real world reputation into the online world. A strong personal brand is a mix
of reputation, trust, attention, and execution. You might want to build a brand around
being helpful (what I hope my brand means to you), or being a creative thinker (Kathy
Sierra, for instance) or being a dealmaker (Donald Trump), or being a showman (David
Lee Roth), or whatever matters most to you, and also what you are capable of
sustaining.
A personal brand gives you the ability to stand out in a sea of similar products. In
essence, youŹ¼re marketing yourself as something different than the rest of the pack. Do
you need this? I donŹ¼t know. Do you like to be mixed in with the pack?
Hints About Brand In General
WhatŹ¼s the difference between Coke and Pepsi? ThereŹ¼s a taste difference, for sure, but
what does the brand signify? Tricky, eh? So whatŹ¼s the difference between TechCrunch
and Mashable to you? I would argue that Michael Arrington is more heavily tied into the
Silicon Valley insiders scene than Pete Cashmore, but that Pete is much more positive
overall. I think the other authors on the site are very different from each other (I really
love MashableŹ¼s Mark āRizznā Hopkins, for instance).
Personal Branding for the Business Professional, by Chris Brogan. - http://www.chrisbrogan.com
3. Remember that trying to develop a personal brand involves differentiating in a Coke vs.
Pepsi, TechCrunch vs. Mashable world. Identifying yourself as the social media expert
or the tech geek blogger is about as differentiated as brands of rice.
In some ways, the differentiator on brands is in what you deliver. What differentiates me
from others might be in the volume of useful content I deliver. IŹ¼m not sure. You tell me
what makes me different. My answer would deļ¬nitely vary from yours.
The Human Side of Brand
First off, remember that branding isnŹ¼t playing a role. Be yourself. It will become
apparent rather quickly if youŹ¼re being someone that youŹ¼re not. Gary Vaynerchuk is the
same guy, camera on or off. He may or may not tone himself down a bit when meeting
new business partners, but I promise you that he reverts to being himself the moment
someoneŹ¼s come to know what heŹ¼s about.
Second, you may choose to use some kind of alias, because youŹ¼re afraid of the
Internet and stalkers. ThatŹ¼s great, except that your brand equity doesnŹ¼t stretch to
potential jobs, unless you go around explaining that you have a secret identity. As a guy
who grew up reading comics, IŹ¼m okay with people having identities, but remember: that
means the equity doesnŹ¼t transfer as simply.
Finally, brands are complex and not especially one dimensional. DonŹ¼t try to be a one-
note experience. Madonna has much more than one brand element. So does Guy
Kawasaki. DonŹ¼t whittle yourself down to a simple footnote. Be complex and colorful and
interesting. Only, be sure you can say what youŹ¼re about in one easy sentence, and that
others have a sense of what you represent without your help. Madonna is a creative
force of emotion. Guy Kawasaki is an innovator and experimenter.
The Technology of Brands
My friend and interactive media strategist Adam Broitman calls Google a āreputation
management system.ā I love it. Essentially, what Google knows is whatŹ¼s true, as far as
the uneducated are concerned. So, how does Google come to accept you as the
authority on something? There are a few measurements to that at present.
ā¢ Inbound links from other sources - if someone is linking to your website, you must
have information of value, especially if that someone whoŹ¼s doing the linking is
important.
ā¢ Outbound links to quality material - this is actually more for human love, but certainly
helps prove that youŹ¼re a lively presence.
Personal Branding for the Business Professional, by Chris Brogan. - http://www.chrisbrogan.com
4. ā¢ Readable, searchable pages - if Google can tell what youŹ¼re talking about at your
website, you probably are trying to offer something to the world.
ā¢ Constantly updating content - Google values freshness over staleness (donŹ¼t we all?)
ā¢ Listed in directories - Google wants to know that youŹ¼ve submitted your site for
inclusion in the more prominent search engines and website directories.
ā¢ Mechanical quality - Google has a lot of other things it values, like well-written
websites that follow standards, and itŹ¼s a little bit of learning to understand them all.
Hubspot makes a free Website Grader tool that would help you understand a bit.
ThatŹ¼s what Google cares about, and thatŹ¼s how a lot of people are searching for you.
But we do this for humans, because humans are who make the decisions. So letŹ¼s look
into what counts for your strong personal brand technologically, with humans in mind.
But How?
Branding oneŹ¼s self in an online environment built on entropy and go-baby-go is difļ¬cult
at best, and impossible if you forget to take your happy pills. To that end, IŹ¼ve come up
with a quick list of 100 things you might do to help with these efforts.
Listening
ā¢ Build ego searches using Technorati and Google Blogsearch
ā¢ Comment frequently (and meaningfully) on blogs that write about you and your posts
ā¢ DonŹ¼t forget the conversations hiding in Twitter (use Summize.com) and Friendfeed.
Be sure to stay aware of those.
ā¢ If you can afford it, buy professional listening tools, like Radian6 or others in that
category.
ā¢ Use Google Reader to store your ego searches.
ā¢ Use Yahoo! Site Explorer to see whoŹ¼s linking to your site.
ā¢ Use heat map tools like CrazyEgg to see how people relate to your site.
ā¢ Listen to others in your area of expertise. Learn from them.
ā¢ Listen to thought leaders in other areas, and see how their ideas apply to you.
ā¢ DonŹ¼t forget podcasts. Check out iTunes and see whoŹ¼s talking about your area of
interest.
ā¢ Track things like audience/community sentiment (positive/negative) if you want to map
effort to results.
Personal Branding for the Business Professional, by Chris Brogan. - http://www.chrisbrogan.com
5. Home Base
ā¢ Home base is your blog/website. Not everyone needs a blog. But most people who
want to develop a personal brand do.
ā¢ Buy an easy-to-remember, easy-to-spell, content-appropriate domain name if you can.
DonŹ¼t be TOO clever.
ā¢ A really nice layout doesnŹ¼t have to cost a lot, but shows youŹ¼re more than a social
media dabbler.
ā¢ Your āAboutā page should be about you AND your business, should the blog be
professional in nature. At least, it should be about you.
ā¢ Make sure itŹ¼s easy to comment on your site.
ā¢ Make sure itŹ¼s easy for people to subscribe to your siteŹ¼s content.
ā¢ Use easy to read fonts and colors.
ā¢ A site laden with ads is a site that doesnŹ¼t cherish its audience. Be thoughtful.
ā¢ Pay attention to which widgets you use in your sidebar. DonŹ¼t be frivolous.
ā¢ Load time is key. Test your blog when you make changes, and ensure your load times
are reasonable.
ā¢ Register your site with all the top search engines.
ā¢ Claim your site on Technorati.com
ā¢ Use WebsiteGrader.com to make sure your site is well built in GoogleŹ¼s eyes.
Passports
Passports are accounts on other social networks and social media platforms. ItŹ¼s a good
idea to build an account on some of these sites to further extend your personal
branding.
ā¢ Twitter.com is a must if you have a social media audience. It also connects you to
other practitioners.
ā¢ Facebook and/or MySpace are useful social networks where you can build outposts
(see next list).
ā¢ Get a Flickr.com account for photo sharing.
ā¢ Get a YouTube.com account for video uploading.
ā¢ Get a StumbleUpon.com account for voting.
ā¢ Get a Digg.com account for voting, as well.
ā¢ Get an Upcoming.org account to promote events.
ā¢ Get a del.icio.us account for social bookmarking.
ā¢ Get a Wordpress.com account for its OpenID beneļ¬ts.
ā¢ Get a LinkedIn account for your professional network.
ā¢ Take a second look at Plaxo. ItŹ¼s changed for the better.
ā¢ Get a Gmail.com account for use with reader, calendar, docs, and more.
ā¢ Get a Discus.com account for comment threading.
ā¢ Get a FriendFeed.com account.
Personal Branding for the Business Professional, by Chris Brogan. - http://www.chrisbrogan.com
6. Outposts
Build RSS outposts on Facebook. Add Flog Blog, and several other RSS tools.
ā¢
Build a similar outpost on MySpace, if your audience might be there.
ā¢
Make sure your social media is listed in your LinkedIn proļ¬le.
ā¢
Add a link to your blog to your email signature ļ¬le (this is still an outpost).
ā¢
Be sure your social network proļ¬les on all sites has your blog listed, no matter where
ā¢
you have to put it to list it.
Make sure your passport accounts (above) point to your blog and sites.
ā¢
Use social networks respectfully to share the best of your content, in a community-
ā¢
appropriate setting.
DonŹ¼t forget places like YahooGroups, Craigslist, and online forums.
ā¢
Email newsletters with some links to your blog makes for an effective outpost,
ā¢
especially if your audience isnŹ¼t especially blog savvy.
Podcast content can have links to your URL and might draw awareness back to your
ā¢
content, too.
Content
Create new content regularly. If not daily, then at least three times a week.
ā¢
The more others can use your content, the better they will adopt it.
ā¢
Write brief pieces with lots of visual breaks for people to absorb.
ā¢
Images draw peopleŹ¼s attention. Try to add a graphic per post. (Not sure why this
ā¢
works, but it seems to add some level of attention.)
Mix up the kinds of pieces you put on your site. Interviews, how-to, newsish
ā¢
information, and more can help mix and draw more attention.
Limit the number of āme tooā posts you do in any given month to no more than three.
ā¢
Be original, in other words.
The occasional Ź»listŹ¼ post is usually very good for drawing attention.
ā¢
Write passionately, but be brief (unless youŹ¼re writing a list of 100 tips).
ā¢
Consider adding audio and video to the mix. The occasional YouTube video with you
ā¢
as the star adds to your personal branding immensely, especially if you can manage to
look comfortable.
Brevity rules.
ā¢
Conversation
ā¢ Commenting on other peopleŹ¼s blogs builds awareness fast.
ā¢ The more valuable your comments, the more it reļ¬ects on your ability and your
character.
ā¢ Use your listening tools to stay active in pertinent discussions.
Personal Branding for the Business Professional, by Chris Brogan. - http://www.chrisbrogan.com
7. ā¢ Try not to brag, ever. Be humble. Not falsely so, but truly, because a lot of what we do
isnŹ¼t as important as saving lives.
ā¢ Ask questions with your blog posts. Defer to experts. Learn from the conversation.
ā¢ Be conļ¬dent. Asking for external validation often is a sign of weakness.
ā¢ Good conversations can be across many blogs with links to show the way.
ā¢ Try never to be too defensive. DonŹ¼t be a pushover, but be aware of how you present
yourself when defending.
ā¢ Disclose anything that might be questionable. Anything, and quickly!
ā¢ DonŹ¼t delete critical blog comments. Delete only spam, abrasive language posts, and
offensive material. (Have a blog comments policy handy, if you get into the deleting
mode.
Community
Remember that community and marketplace are two different things.
ā¢
Make your site and your efforts heavily about other people. It comes back.
ā¢
Make it easy for your community to reach you.
ā¢
Contribute to your communityŹ¼s blogs and projects.
ā¢
Thank people often for their time and attention.
ā¢
Celebrate important information in your community (like birthdays).
ā¢
Be human. Always.
ā¢
Your community knows more than you. Ask them questions often.
ā¢
Apologize when you mess up. Be very sincere.
ā¢
Treat your community like gold. Never subject them to a third party of any kind without
ā¢
their consent.
ā¢ Knowing more about your competitorsŹ¼ communities is a useful thing, too. Learn who
visits, why they visit, and how they interact.
ā¢ Measuring your efforts in building community grows out your brand as a natural
extension.
Face to Face
Have simple, useful, crisp business cards to share. Always.
ā¢
Be conļ¬dent in person.
ā¢
Clothes and appearance DO matter. WIsh they didnŹ¼t, but they do.
ā¢
Have a very brief introduction / elevator pitch and practice it often.
ā¢
Ask questions of people you meet. Get to know them.
ā¢
DonŹ¼t seek business relationships right off. Instead, seek areas of shared interest.
ā¢
Know when to walk away politely.
ā¢
DonŹ¼t try to meet everyone in a room. Meet a half dozen or more great new people.
ā¢
Never doubt that you are worth it.
ā¢
If youŹ¼re terribly shy, consider ļ¬nding a āwing manā for events.
ā¢
Personal Branding for the Business Professional, by Chris Brogan. - http://www.chrisbrogan.com
8. ā¢ Doing homework ahead of time (ļ¬nding peopleŹ¼s most recent blog posts, googling
them, etc) helps one feel āin the know.ā
ā¢ Make eye contact. ItŹ¼s MUCH more powerful than you know.
Promotion
Use Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us and Google Reader to drive awareness.
ā¢
Promote others even more than you promote yourself
ā¢
Bragging isnŹ¼t useful to anyone besides your own ego
ā¢
Linking and promoting others is a nice way to show you care about people
ā¢
DonŹ¼t digg/stumble/link every single post. Save it for your very best
ā¢
Another promotional tool: guest blog on other sites
ā¢
Another promotion tool: make videos on YouTube with URL links
ā¢
Another promotion tool: use the status section of LinkedIn and Facebook
ā¢
Try hard not to send too many self-promotional emails. Wrap your self-promotion in
ā¢
something of value to others, instead.
ā¢ Sometimes, just doing really good work is worthy of others promoting you. Try it.
Elements of a Personal Brand
Personal empowerment is something near and dear to my heart. When I ļ¬nally woke up
from the realization that I didnŹ¼t want to be a corporate worker drone (robots are evil), I
realized that I didnŹ¼t know the ļ¬rst thing about what to do to change my fate. It took a
series of efforts, none of which were easy, but that have led me down a path towards
doing what matters to me, being valued for what I do best, and ļ¬nding friends and
supporters along the way who understand me, and who have mutual interests.
Because YOU might be in a place where youŹ¼re wondering what to do next, or because
you might want to know more about what itŹ¼s taken to go from being a guy in a cube
named Chris Brogan to a guy people know and want to talk to, here are some elements
of personal branding to consider. Your mileage may vary, but maybe these will spark
your own ideas, and maybe youŹ¼ll share them in the comments.
Here are some elements of a Personal Brand
Self Esteem First
Absolutely nothing I do would work if I hadnŹ¼t worked long and hard on my self-esteem.
In my case, I read a bunch of motivational books that got me started down the right
path, but my self-esteem didnŹ¼t get better until I read (and did all the work inside) a book
by Dr. Matthew McKay simply called Self-Esteem. It taught me a lot about how to
Personal Branding for the Business Professional, by Chris Brogan. - http://www.chrisbrogan.com
9. observe and identify the things I was doing in my head to scuttle everything I wanted to
accomplish. The more I learned, the more I have been successful over the last year.
Be Yourself
My friend, Jon Swanson, has a great series of ā8 thingsā going on. In the post I linked
above, JonŹ¼s 8th tip for increasing stress was āTry to be Chris Brogan if you are built to
be Jon Swanson.ā ItŹ¼s really important to be yourself in building a brand. Coke never set
out to be just like somebody else. Madonna didnŹ¼t try to be someone different. The
brands we know and love work because they are their own identity.
In the world of the Internet, with āme tooā applications abound, branding is often
superļ¬uous, if everyone just ļ¬gures youŹ¼re just like someone else.
Offer Value
Brands stand for something. I donŹ¼t buy Apple because the cool kids buy it. IŹ¼ve had
Apple products since 1983. I buy them because theyŹ¼re easy to use, they work, theyŹ¼re
designed for my style.
Your brand needs to offer a value. Top of his game in the brand of strategy for the web
right now? Jeremiah Owyang. Even before he took his new gig at Forrester, Jeremiah
has written amazing papers (blog posts), and given them to his readers for free. Why?
Because he already knows about the new ROI (Return On Inļ¬uence). An up and comer
to get into is Louis Gray. HeŹ¼s adding value daily.
For you, consider WHAT you offer, and consider it hard. If youŹ¼re not providing a great
āproduct,ā and that can be a service that you do for the world, why should I care about
your brand in the ļ¬rst place?
Build a Destination
This comes ļ¬rst in giving people a way to reach you, to see you, to know what youŹ¼re
about. In this case, I mean giving people a website (preferably a blog), a phone number,
an email account, a twitter account, a LinkedIN proļ¬le, and a Facebook proļ¬le. At
minimum. Maybe you need other portals, but hereŹ¼s a good starting point. Tie these
things together. Show people how to connect to you at each of these. Why? Because
youŹ¼re building out a way for people to get to know more about you, to reach you, to let
you be there.
Personal Branding for the Business Professional, by Chris Brogan. - http://www.chrisbrogan.com
10. Destinations are so Web 1.0, which is why we added in Twitter, Facebook, and
LinkedIN. Folks should be able to ļ¬nd your brand and interact with it wherever THEY
are. Optionally, you can add an IM client, but I ļ¬nd that when IŹ¼m on Instant Messenger,
I donŹ¼t get much work done.
Join the Conversation
Cliche as that sometimes feels, it matters. Start sharing your ideas. Write from the heart.
Speak from the heart. Show people where your passions lie. Help others solve their
problems. Listen to what others say and instead of saying, āYeah! Me too,ā try saying
back something of added value. Comment all over the place and give people a sense of
who YOU are.
Superstar in this department lately: Connie Bensen. SheŹ¼s really lit up the scene fast,
and is deļ¬nitely someone with good opinions and ideas. I feel the same about Ben
Yoskovitz of the Instigator Blog. HeŹ¼s someone with a great value-add sense to what
heŹ¼s doing out there.
Innovate
In a world full of people doing somewhat similar stuff, the person who innovates is
deļ¬nitely ahead of the game. Come up with new things all the time. The other day, I
posted on Twitter a quick blurb that Dave Winer was a scout while the rest of us were
trail guides. This meant that Dave is out there trying and doing new things all the time.
ItŹ¼s not good enough for a new, strong brand to be out there showing people the path
from where everyone is to where everyone might go next. What gets really important is
when you are DEFINING the path.
Doing something new is a great way to get people to be interested in what you do.
Be Responsible
A little while back, I went through a rough patch of not delivering on things I said I would
do. I still dig out from that from time to time. Being reliable is a cornerstone to your
brand. If you stop being reliable, it doesnŹ¼t matter that youŹ¼re a good person, or
interesting, etc. It matters that youŹ¼re helping people get something done. Execute.
Repeat. Execute.
The more you can be responsible, the more your brand will matter.
Personal Branding for the Business Professional, by Chris Brogan. - http://www.chrisbrogan.com
11. Your Own Company
Inside my head, IŹ¼m the CEO, project manager, and administrative assistant to my own
private company. Employees= 1. With this in mind, I look at every job I take as a project.
I look at every project as an opportunity. I talk to everyone professionally as if theyŹ¼re
someone looking to partner with me and my company. This helps me frame everything I
do.
I donŹ¼t think in terms of resume, at least not the way most folks think. Instead, I think
about projects that matter to me. This is why inside my last company, I moved laterally a
lot of the time. The titles didnŹ¼t matter (the more you learn this, the better your life
becomes), but instead, the experiences mattered.
Also, learn to look outside the walls of the organization youŹ¼re with. NOT so you can
leave, but so you can understand how your role works in more dimensions.
These things have worked wonders on my personal brand.
Build and Learn Constantly
IŹ¼m reading all the time. I learn about things from people all the time. The more you build
your personal ability, the more your brand can offer. Learn from all the sources that
matter. Read great books. Subscribe to excellent blogs using a good reader like Google
Reader, and learn how to absorb information that matters to what youŹ¼re passionate
about.
The more you learn, the more you can offer back. Keep it consistent with your idea of
who you are and what you want to offer the world, but be creative, and constantly strive
to make your brand more useful and valuable to others.
Communicate Well
Not just communicate, but do it well. Learn how to blog in a way that people will read
what you say. Learn which of your posts are going to do WHAT for your audience.
Communicate verbally. Sign up to speak at places and learn how from organizations
and individuals who take presenting seriously. Pay attention to how professionals
speak, and learn from what they show you.
Always strive to communicate in a way that delivers the payload of your information up
front, that makes it all direct and to the point, and that can be taken as a value.
Personal Branding for the Business Professional, by Chris Brogan. - http://www.chrisbrogan.com
12. Passion Drives Personal Brand
Thinking and Planning Passion is what fuels the best of what we do. ItŹ¼s that tireless
drive to do something that we feel matters that will bring us forward in so many ways.
Whitney is passionate about helping parents understand (and feel more comfortable
with) learning disabilities. Jon is passionate about connecting with communities to
provide spiritual guidance and observations from simple life. Gary Vaynerchuk is
passionate about wine in ways that startle ļ¬rst time observers of his show. A key to your
success in life is to ļ¬nd and enhance this same passion.
Passion is Rarely Aligned with What is Popular
A bunch of years back, I talked to Ingrid Lucia and the Flying Neutrinos. TheyŹ¼re calling
themselves a jazz band, but they do New Orleans style swing jazz. When Swing hit
really hard in the US, they rode the wave, but theyŹ¼d been doing swing for YEARS
before folks came out to see them. Now that the wave passed, theyŹ¼re still doing what
theyŹ¼re passionate about, and it still sounds great.
If youŹ¼re in the current wave, ride it, and thatŹ¼s cool. But donŹ¼t seek out something to do
based on the wave. My best advice in this regard is that sometimes that which youŹ¼re
passionate about can be made to align with whatŹ¼s currently interesting to the world. But
donŹ¼t fake it. It just wonŹ¼t last, and your own brand will suffer along the way.
Passion is Hard to Fake
Authenticity matters. Most people can sense authenticity without a lot of effort. They can
also sense when youŹ¼ve one astray from what truly matters to you. So be true to your
passion. And hereŹ¼s a thought on that: if you suddenly are very much NOT passionate
about something, think about moving on to that which does have your passion and
attention. IŹ¼ve certainly changed what matters to me over the years. I was VERY into
ļ¬tness and nutrition in 2004. You can go back on my blog archives and see me talking
about the right mix of carbs and protein, when to hydrate, etc. Back in 1997, I wrote
passionately about writing ļ¬ction. DonŹ¼t fake passion. Move on.
Something to think about here: itŹ¼s okay to move on from what you were passionate
about, even if thatŹ¼s what deļ¬ned your entire brand. You can seek a sideways move that
shows a tangent back to your passion, or you can start over again. It seems daunting,
but it will pay off in the end.
Personal Branding for the Business Professional, by Chris Brogan. - http://www.chrisbrogan.com
13. Passion Includes Mistakes and Failures
Never worry about doing something wrong, going afoul, pissing people off. DonŹ¼t SEEK
to do it, but donŹ¼t be afraid of it. How can you create passionately if youŹ¼re worried about
going outside the lines. Make mistakes all over the place. DonŹ¼t TRY to hurt peopleŹ¼s
feelings, and most especially, admit when youŹ¼re wrong, apologize, try to be friends
again, and keep going. I seem especially skilled in pissing friends off. My friend,
Christopher S. Penn has said many times over the last year, āWe have to take Brogan
everywhere twice. The second time is to apologize.ā HeŹ¼s right.
But with people, you try really hard to rebuild where you step on toes, piss people off,
etc. With business, if your passions hurt something, try to recover and see where it all
goes.
Life doesnŹ¼t have a do-over button, and you learn really quickly who gets mired in the
past and whoŹ¼s focused on making the experience of the present and future better.
Focus on those who understand the latter. History is there to learn from, but not to
obsess over. Make mistakes. Apologize. Repeat. And grow from your passion.
Passion Means Helping Others See It
I guess you can be wildly passionate without sharing, but whatŹ¼s the fun in that? I tell
people when I speak at events that I want their guidance and input because if I wanted
to just talk with myself, I can do that any day of the week. Passion is best expressed
when itŹ¼s shared with others.
Want to see someone really passionate? Talk to Michael Smolens about dotSUB, his
translation project/software. Michael brings you into his frame of reference, whether or
not you were even talking about language. Talk to Jeff Pulver for more than 10 minutes
and see if you donŹ¼t land on any one of JeffŹ¼s 3,891,774 passion land mines. The man is
FUELED by passion.
Share your passion liberally. Be the C.C. Chapman of your own passions! This man
makes shows and shows and shows and blogs and more shows about what drives him,
what turns him on, what matters. Emulate C.C. and you wonŹ¼t be too far off.
Personal Branding for the Business Professional, by Chris Brogan. - http://www.chrisbrogan.com
14. Passion Requires Work and Thought
ThereŹ¼s a really important point to consider: just talking about things all the time isnŹ¼t
exactly the same thing. YouŹ¼ve gotta get in there. YouŹ¼ve got to try things, experiment,
do new things, work with others, HELP others, and share your thoughts and ideas then.
Suggest new things, and then see if you can try them out. Work on something in the lab,
and then show it to the world outside. Know who has a cool lab? Bill Cammack. How
about Bre Pettis? Experiment, do new things. Try stuff.
Passion IsnŹ¼t a āMe Tooā Game
ThereŹ¼s only one Bill Belichick, coach of the New England Patriots. Believe me, IŹ¼ve
heard this man during three different SuperBowl victory conversations talk about what
his team couldŹ¼ve done differently to make the game even better. He says it with love of
his team, and with a drive to hold them responsible for what theyŹ¼re doing out there. Bill
believes that his duty to his team is to keep them focused on playing the best game they
can place. You RARELY see him smile. And yet, you know heŹ¼s passionate in ways
humans rarely exhibit.
Be yourself all the way to the core. And trust that whatŹ¼s unique and inherent in you is
what people will want and why theyŹ¼ve sought you out in the ļ¬rst place. Finding your
own unique notes is tricky, and takes a little bit of work, but once you get those notes,
play them loud and proud.
IŹ¼m a really big fan of cover songs. (And if you like them, too, subscribe to Coverville).
Why do I love cover songs? Because itŹ¼s amazing when artists play someone elseŹ¼s
song in THEIR style. I love it. DonŹ¼t be a cover band because youŹ¼re not original. Play
covers because they show off your uniqueness against someone elseŹ¼s original style.
Personal Branding for the Business Professional, by Chris Brogan. - http://www.chrisbrogan.com
15. WhatŹ¼s Next?
That has a lot to do with you. Are you looking to build your brand to better your
companyŹ¼s exposure in a space? Or are you seeking to establish yourself as a solo act?
The strategy has to come from your goals, and your actions will come from that strategy.
Personal branding is a topic that has been around for a while, but one that has become
much more prevalent in recent years. Why is that? Partly, it relates to how the Web has
become our workplace, our water cooler, and our social mixer. ItŹ¼s hard to convey as
much information online as we do in person, or so we believe. ItŹ¼s my hope that this
ebook was helpful in providing you some ideas for building your own personal brand.
Please share this wherever youŹ¼d like, provide you share it for free. If you choose to
blog about it, please use this link to point people to where they can get their own copy:
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/img/broganbranding.pdf
If you like what youŹ¼ve read here, and you want to keep current on all the new
information IŹ¼m putting out for free every day, please consider subscribing for free to my
blog. The goal of the site is to empower you with information on building digital
relationships for business (though several nonproļ¬ts use the information equally well).
Thank you again for your time and attention. IŹ¼m happy to answer any questions you
have, or provide more information.
--Chris Brogan...
chris@chrisbrogan.com
http://www.chrisbrogan.com
+1.978.885.1551
Personal Branding for the Business Professional, by Chris Brogan. - http://www.chrisbrogan.com