What is Personal Branding anyway?

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It would appear that from a recent survey, that a large percentage of people still do not know what Personal Branding is.

Allison Tibbs mused over this in her recent post over at The Examiner and provided what I believe is a very good definition of Personal Branding;

Achieving personal and professional goals by differentiating yourself by articulating your unique value through a consistent message.

I like this definition a lot, as it is simple, concise and precise!

Personal Branding is very much about differentiation and consistency, but I want to take this a step further and ask ‘why do I need to differentiate myself?’

In the purest sense, branding is a marketing term, and brands were created to make parting with our money easier!  In other words; brands were what were created to evoke an emotional response from a target audience, so that the purchase decision became so much easier!

So what is it about your ‘Personal Brand’ that evokes an emotional response from your target audience (if you do not know, ask your friends to start with – why are they your friend?), and makes them want to do business with you, or buy what it is you are selling??

We like to look at engaging Personal Brands as having 3 key attributes, they must be;

1. Able
2. Available, and
3. Affable

In simple terms – for you to have an engaging personal brand, you need to be capable of performing what it is you say you do, and you have to KNOW what it is you do!  To be available, I need to be able to find you, and it needs to be clear how I access you or your services (think Google or referral from yor network), and finally, people need to like you!  Not everyone needs to like you, but you need to be aware that there are some basic qualities that endear you to others such as listening, taking an interest in others, sharing, inspiring and involving (think Barack Obama).

So, whatever personal branding means to you, ask yourself now what rating would your brand get.  Is it a Triple AAA rateing (i.e. able, available and affable) or do you only performing strongly in one area, and get an A report card?

As John Lai reminded me on Twitter last week “if you want to make the world a better place, take a look at how you can improve yourself, and start there!”

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Tags:Barack Obama, Google, Marketing and Advertising, Personal Brand, twitter
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What I learnt from Ben Self…

Who is Ben Self you ask?

Ben Self was the Digital Strategist for Barack Obama in the US Presidential Campaign; and unless you have been living under a rock – this guy was at the centre of raising over US$300m online (Barack Obama raised over $700K in total, and 47% was raised online).  Ben’s thinking, strategies and team were at the centre of the single most successful online campaign in our history!  He is also a Partner at Blue State Digital in the US.

We were lucky to have Ben out here in Australia for the last week, and hear him share some insight from the Obama 08 Campaign.

I made it to Canberra to hear Ben speak about his experiences…and I got the following ‘nuggets’ from the presentation;

• Money, Message, Mobilisation – these are the 3 ‘end games’ for using the internet in a political campaign!
• The starting point for all activity online is ‘to get an email address’ – then you can develop a relationship with a reader/supporter and mobilise them to make a real difference!
• Grass roots match – we have all seen the campaigns where if you give $1 to a charity or cause, a celebrity or organisation will suposedly match this donation; ultimately doubling your contribution and fundraising effort.   This is supposed to make us feel great about our donation, however Ben (rightly so) suggested that we don’t really trust this.  And so they adopted a ‘grass roots match’ where any supporter who wanted to donate money was matched with someone ‘down the road’ or in the same community who had not donated, and they would then match the original donation made – this made the fundrasing effort very real, and connected like minded people who could then talk online and share their reasons for donating…SUPER initiative!
• Clever Adwords campaign – especially for the Fight the Smears website.  The beauty of this initiative is that the Google ads appearsall over the web; including in your Gmail Account inbox!  These ads are of course content sensitive, and so the ads you see in your gmail inbox will be related to the contents of your inbox.  So if you received an email from a Republican supporter laying claim to the latest (supposed) Obama slip up…fair chance an adwords ad would be on your gmail account pointing you to the ‘Fight the Smears’ website…VERY CLEVER!
• Using Google Maps to recruit offline support –  The other tactic I simply loved was the use of Google Maps.  When you registered your support, the Democrats would request your address, and match your whereabouts with other registered supporters online.  You would then be sent a Google map with the details of other Obama supporters in your local area, and you would be encouraged to go and knock on their door to meet face to face – a simply CLEVER use of an under utilised technology to help people connect.

The final few thoughts from Ben were the most profound and were what mean the most to me;

“The concept of engaging with people does not just apply to politics” and Ben reminded us all that technology is all about focusing passion!

Ben’s team defintiely used technology to focus a passion – a passion for change, and they managed to engage with the voters like never before!

(I was just chatting with Ben on Facebook, and he has been run off his feet with a mad schedule – we hope to chat on the phone further when he gets back home next week!)

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Tags:Barack Obama, Barack Obama presidential campaign 2008, ben self, Blue State Digital, Gmail, Google, GoogleMaps, luke harvey-palmer, personal branding
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Your Personal brand will protect you…just ask Barack Obama

I had to laugh…

And at the same time, I was not surprised.  Barack Obama had taken the Oath as the president of the United States, and during the Oath, he stumbled on words, and had to be reminded of them on several occasions.

Not too long ago, whenever George W Bush stumbled on his words, even at the most insignificant of addresses (like the APEC Summit in Sydney, Austria) there was laughter throughout the world, and the questions were asked “how did this guy ever get to be President?

In Obama’s case, I had a chuckle when a reporter explaining the stumble on words as being a ‘beautiful moment that showed us his human side, and reminded us all that the President of the United States was prone to error, just like us!”

Poles apart…why?

People really like Barack Obama, he stands for the things that people value – openness, inspiring, visionary, collaborative, engaging.

As a result, people defend him and his brand.

Remember, your Personal Brand is not what you say about yourself, but what others say about you.

When people are defending your mistakes, and lambasting your oppostion for the very same mistake, you know you have a strong Personal Brand!

Now let’s get to work!

Tags:Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Inauguration
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You 2.0

Dan Schawbel has recently finished his book “Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success”

Given the title of the book, I wanted to explain what this means for YOU 2.0.

We have all heard of Web 2.0, and we all know the 2.0 stands for the 2nd version of the web right?  WRONG.  This is part of the story, but the interesting thing to know is that the 2.0 also means there are now 2 people in the conversation.  Web 1.0 was all about direct advertising, and pushing messages at you with little engagement or consultation.  As consumers, we now demand more than this, we want to be engaged, involved, listened to, and asked of our opinion.  Web 2.0 is all about the online tools that allow for this interaction – like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter and blogging!  Media now needs to engage others, and involve them in the conversation…if you doubt this, just spend a moment to reflect on Barack Obama’s recent successful Presidential Campaign!

So what does this mean for YOU 2.0?

Not only does the media need to reflect the values of Web 2.0, but so too does your personal brand!  Like any successful web 2.0 and Social Media campaign, you should be considering how your personal brand delivers on the four essential stages of the 2.0 world!

1.  LISTENING – what are your target audience talking about, and what are they demanding from your personal brand.  Do they need you to be available or knowledgeable or to simply respond when they ask a question…either way, you need to be listening to you target audience (this is difficult if you do not know who you target audience is!)

2.  TALKING – do you encourage conversation about your skills, talents, products or services..what are you selling?  How do you encourage this conversation.  Do you take 2 or 3 customers to lunch on a monthly basis, do you introduce your network to one another?  You know your personal brand is powerful when others do the selling for you!

3.  INVOLVING - when was the last time you asked a customer or prospect for feedback on your services and your brand attributes?  When was the last time you asked friends or colleagues to explain you in 3 words or less.  If you ask for this feedback, be sure to thank them for it, and then demonstrate how you have taken this feedback on board.

4.  SUPPORTING – you know your personal brand is super effective when your prospects and customers are now solving one another’s problems, and speaking to one another about your services in a positive light!

5.  ENGAGING – the final stage in the YOU 2.0 process is the engagement of your target audience in the process of product and strategy development.  Who developed your last product or service..your customers or you?

So, how are you going to start listening to your target audience?  Think about these 5 steps and how you can integrate them into you business or life.  You can be assured that by following these 5 steps, you will find your personal brand will engage others, and draw them to you.

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Tags:Barack Obama, Dan Schawbel, Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media, Web 2.0
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