What is Personal Branding anyway?

Image via Wikipedia

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
Posted in Leadership | 1 Comment »

7 Must Do’s for Your Personal Brand Online

There is a lot of talk about personal branding…and there is a lot of activity happening for us at Buzzle too!  As Dan Schawbel said, “it is Personal Branding Season”

This being the case, I still see ssssoooo many people who are not ‘getting onboard’ and realising that the Personal Branding goldrush is happening NOW (thanks Gary Vaynerchuk for this..great vid on GV and the Goldrush right here).

So today I wanted to share the 7 things you absolutely should be doing NOW to create, protect or promote your Personal Brand!

1.  Register your name as a domain!

I am astounded at the number of entrepreneurs and sole traders who I speak to who still do not have their names registered as domains!  This week alone, I have presented to over 500 people at 2 events, and when I jump onwww.cheapdomains.com.au to see if people in the crowd names’ are available to register – they usually are!  If you can, register your country specific domain (.com.au, .co.uk etc), then grab .com (as it is still the primary domain) and grab .id or .id.au (your country) also.  The .id domain was established for this very reason..to protect your id!

2.  Develop your promise!

So what do you do?  Many people hate being asked this question, and when asked, most people I come across answer this question terribly!  The truth is, we have 5 seconds to answer the question (not 15 or 30 as some people will have you believe!).  Why do we only have 5 seconds…because we are animals and when we meet someone new, our survival instinct kicks in, and we must decide whether to fight or flight (i.e. stay or go!).  When asked this question, you absolutely must give and answer that is short, intriguing, accurate and encourages query and interest…otherwise you will never get the chance to tell your story!

3.  Register on the BIG 4

There are over 2,000 seperate social media sites – and 10-12 mainstream sites that get most of the attention.  For me, the 4 you absolutely must be on are

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

It is free to register, and if you don’t someone may just register your name for you!  (ask Shel Israel ro Stephen Conroy about this experience).  Register them now…don’t worry too much about adding great content just yet – that will come!

4.  Get a blog!

Despite all the hype around twitter and services like 12seconds etc, blogs are still the number 2 most influential channel in social media.  I list a blog seperarately to the other 4 sites – because a blog takes time, energy and you must have a purpose to write good content and get good traffic.  If writing is not your thing, then create video content or invite guest bloggers to add content (your friends for example).  If you need any other ideas on how to build a better blog, then download Probloggers (Darren Rowse) super 31 Days to a Better Blog workbook!

5.  Do sh*&, don’t bullsh*&

I always ask my clients to come up with 3 big projects in 90 days that will demonstrate their promise, and get people to sit up and take notice!  For example, if your promise is to ‘make business greener’ then;

• commit to writing a free e-book on the subject,
• interview some green business owners and blog about it, and
• arrange a competition in your local area for the ‘greenest business’

Anyone can be online, and anyone can look like they are doing GREAT things…but people have had enough of the bullsh*& – so do great things and people will talk about you and you will get noticed!

6.  Approach the thought leaders in your space

If your promise is around capital raising and buying and selling businesses, then you need to connect with the leaders in this field online!  You MUST connect with guys like Guy Kawasaki.  Or if you are into public speaking, then make a connection with guys like Garr Reynolds…seek them out, and develop a relationship.  These relationships will introduce you to new networks, new ideas, and will help with your credibility! Remember, it is not who you know, but who knows you, so reach out to people in your space; they are not competitors!

7.  Be Persistently Consistent

I cannot talk about this enough.  This is where most people I see fall over when it comes to building their personal brand online!  I see people blog or register online and go like crazy with updates and posts for about 4 weeks, then they disappear – poof, into thin air!  When people Google you and see you have not done anything for the last 6 months, it affects your credibility negatively!  The same goes for offline – if you plan to turn up to networking events, then pick a few you can attend regularly, and keep turning up!

All the best, get these 7 things done, and have fun doing it!

Tags:Dan Schawbel, Facebook, Gary Vaynerchuk, Google, Guy Kawasaki, luke harvey-palmer, Personal Brand
Posted in Social Media | 5 Comments »

Your Virtual Identity

In a job market as difficult as this one, personal branding can really make a difference. NY1’s Monica Brown filed the following report.

IT recruiter Eric Wallen says he’s never seen a job market like this one.

“If you had someone with very outstanding technical skills, in high demand, you wouldn’t let that person sit out there for other employers to gobble up,” says Wallen, president of Primary Search Management. “Now employers don’t have a problem doing that because they know that there are other people out there in the market, and they don’t feel compelled to have to grab that person up.”

Competition is fierce, and employers are being ultra-selective. So how do you make yourself stand out from the pack? William Arruda, who owns a personal branding company called Reach, says you have to market yourself as a hot commodity.

“One critical factor is how you show up in Google,” says Arruda. “In the new world of work, what hiring managers and recruiters are using is your Google identity to determine if they want to bring you in or not. So you want to make sure you Google yourself and see what’s there.”

According to Arruda, if you don’t show up in Google, you virtually don’t exist. The key, says Arruda, is to first understand your brand and what it is that makes you exceptional.

“Know what makes you different,” he says. “So there’s a great exercise you can do called same, different. Think about everyone else who’s applying for the same jobs you are. Take a sheet of paper, write same on the left, different on the right draw a line down the center and just start writing the same things about you and everyone else who’s applying for that job. And the things that make you stand out, maybe you speak three languages, or you’ve lived in five countries.”

“Then, ask yourself, now how do I make my career marketing materials, my resume, my bio, communicate that value,” continues Arruda.

Arruda says personal branding can be expensive. Prices at his company range from $12,000 to $40,000. But, he also says there are some relatively inexpensive ways to market yourself – and the Internet is the key.

“It doesn’t mean you have to have your own website,” Arruda says. “You don’t have to spend a lot of money to do it, just commenting on blogs and including your name is a way to build your online identity. A quick review of a book at Amazon.com is another great way to build your brand.”

Just make sure it’s a title you’d want to be associated with, Arruda says.

Finally, Arruda says, a powerfully-branded profile on networking sites like LinkedIn, can really go a long way toward establishing your identity. For a free assessment and for more resources, go to reachcc.com.

The Buzzle YOU.com programme can help you with this…

Tags:Brand, Google, LinkedIn, Personal Brand, Website, you.com
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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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