The Brand Called You & Social Media
The people who don’t understand social media, specifically Facebook, talk about the narcissistic people who publish status updates, tweets, photos and information about themselves and expect other people to somehow care. In many cases they have a very valid point. But, social media done right us a natural extension of a ground breaking, forward thinking and eye opening article titled, The Brand Called You (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/10/brandyou.html)
The people who don’t understand social media, specifically Facebook, talk about the narcissistic people who publish status updates, tweets, photos and information about themselves and expect other people to somehow care. In many cases they have a very valid point. But, social media done right us a natural extension of a ground breaking, forward thinking and eye opening article titled, The Brand Called You (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/10/brandyou.html)
It's time for me -- and you -- to take a lesson from the big brands, a lesson that's true for anyone who's interested in what it takes to stand out and prosper in the new world of work.
Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.
Fast Company Magazine published this article in 1997 and today it holds more truth than ever before. It was true and forward looking then and in the following decade technology has jumped in immeasurable ways to only make its thesis that much stronger. Our social media activity, our Facebook, our LinkedIn, our Twitter, is our career marketing.
The good news -- and it is largely good news -- is that everyone has a chance to stand out. Everyone has a chance to learn, improve, and build up their skills. Everyone has a chance to be a brand worthy of remark.
The linear job ladder is dead. Today's career growth is moving from project to project, sometimes taking vastly different roles in each as we determine and forge our own path. Building your brand means thinking like a businesses with your own mission, strategies, SWOT analysis, and execution. As You, Inc. moves forward it may also be in your best interest to take what the old career ladder strategy would consider a step back. It makes sense when it is a part of your path and helps you solidify your foundation from which you are building. Take every opportunity to add skills, build new relationships, further continue to strengthen your relationships and share your knowledge with others. Everything that you do is marketing yourself.
The key to any personal branding campaign is "word-of-mouth marketing." Your network of friends, colleagues, clients, and customers is the most important marketing vehicle you've got; what they say about you and your contributions is what the market will ultimately gauge as the value of your brand. So the big trick to building your brand is to find ways to nurture your network of colleagues -- consciously.
What's the real power of You?.......It's influence power.
It's being known for making the most significant contribution in your particular area. It's reputational power.........Getting and using power -- intelligently, responsibly, and yes, powerfully -- are essential skills for growing your brand. One of the things that attracts us to certain brands is the power they project. As a consumer, you want to associate with brands whose powerful presence creates a halo effect that rubs off on you.
Create your social media marketing plan. How do you want others to think of you? Recently, I have put a great deal of thought into how I represent myself online and why I do what I do. Synopsys:
Facebook – friends and family, some industry people and co workers. This is not a part of my career social media branding. Its fun, my audience is not career specific and so I treat it that way. If I want you to know about how I am doing in my fantasy sports leagues, see pictures of me snowboarding or want to know what food I made for the big game, you will see it here.
LinkedIn – My Rolodex. If I meet you then I want to be LinkedIn with you. I want to share my connections with you and I want you to share your connections with me. I want to see an outline of your experience and I want you to know mine. Since I am in sales this is how I can reach almost anyone at almost any company. It is a strong prospecting tool. You, Inc. regardless of the business needs a strong sales prospecting list. I hope that my connections get just as much value of being connected to me as I do being connected to them.
Twitter – My news feed. Gone are the days of subscribing to far too many email newsletters which clutter my in box. I read the same articles from the same web sites and got boxed into the same news. I tweet the articles and information that I think that is most relevant to my business audience. I read the business articles that my audience feel is most relevant to them. It is sharing what I am reading and allows me to read a wide variety of items that my connections are reading. This exercise helps me identify thought leaders in my space since I constantly seek out those whose tweets I want to follow. Hopefully, my tweets are as valuable to them as theirs are to me.
My Blog – Read, learn, share. This blog serves as my personal notebook of things that I read and how they are relevant to me, but also allows me to share my thoughts and insights with others. This is promoted primarily through Twitter. People who want to research me can quickly learn how I think and how I work along with my perspectives. I hope that you are enjoying it. If you are not enjoying it then I hope that you have reached an understanding of who I am so that we can part as friends and not enter into an unproductive business relationship.
Other social media sites (Ning) – You have to judge these as they come. Fast Pitch and other industry specific social media sites are what I can think of right now. Connect with people through them and for the purposes of the site. Connect there and extend that connection to your LinkedIn, your blog, your Twitter. Promote what you have for the mass audience there and promote yourself in the same ways on those sites, but again, be specific to that audience and their purpose.
Starting today you are a brand.
The reason for all of this work is to build Brand You. Whose emails get read? Whose deals get closed? Who phone calls get returned? Not your company’s unless the company is You, Inc. The true undying entity in today’s economy. The entity that is not defined by a job but rather by a succession of successful projects and the way you promote them and yourself. Each interaction builds and strengthens relationships that grow and bear fruit over time. You become more valuable to your network and your network becomes more valuable to you.
Why I am blogging and what I am blogging about? To build relationships. Sales and my business is based on the positive business relationships that I create. No technology entrepreneur is not going to hand over the reigns of the sales and marketing or their product, idea, their baby to someone that they don’t like trust or a person who they do not believe is working in their best interest.
This new blog is to flesh out my thoughts and take the things that I have learned and have read about. I can easily take tidbits and apply it to my daily practice. By doing this, and dong it regularly, anyone who looks me up and wants to learn more about me should get a good understanding of how I work and how I think.
What's loyalty to You?…Today loyalty is the only thing that matters. But it isn't blind loyalty to the company. It's loyalty to your colleagues, loyalty to your team, loyalty to your project, loyalty to your customers, and loyalty to yourself. I see it as a much deeper sense of loyalty than mindless loyalty to the Company Z logo.
I know this may sound like selfishness. But being CEO of Me Inc. requires you to act selfishly -- to grow yourself, to promote yourself, to get the market to reward yourself....As long as you're learning, growing, building relationships, and delivering great results, it's good for you and it's great for the company.
If you are like me then you have been a part of a company that has had a great idea/team/product that just did not work out. No fault of your own and probably through no fault of those you worked closely with whose relationship you still value. You have probably been at the wrong job for you at the wrong time and had to move on. You have probably outgrown a job and needed to move on. In all of these scenarios relationships were started. The loyalty between yourself and others was just beginning.
Loyalty between companies and employees are dead. This is just as true with companies where you share in an equity stake and there is a true team spirit. Mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, a rapidly changing business and technology environment have just about killed a two way loyalty between company and employee.
Loyalty between companies and employees are dead. This is just as true with companies where you share in an equity stake and there is a true team spirit. Mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, a rapidly changing business and technology environment have just about killed a two way loyalty between company and employee.
Where loyalty is alive today, and stronger than ever, is between the individuals that are a part of that company. We, and our loyalty toward each other will survive much longer than the corporate entity the way it stands.
It's this simple: You are a brand. You are in charge of your brand. There is no single path to success. And there is no one right way to create the brand called You. Except this: Start today. Or else.
My daily practice is taking unknown or new technology and bringing it to market – specifically selling it to someone who uses it. v3xMarketing – The Business of Creative Destruction – is taking new ideas, products and practices to market and replacing the old. This enables customers, be they individuals or companies, to make more money, be more efficient, or both. I promote my skills, my projects and my successes constantly. And you should to. Commit to building Brand You and do it strategically.
