10
Bringing It All Together: Launching Your Brand
This book is about planning to launch your personal brand into the market and make the most out of your skills and attributes. President Obama’s first presidential campaign is the most famous case study of how to plan and launch a personal brand, and many other business people, artists, musicians, and the like, have followed his lead. Ever since we published the first edition of this book in 2010, countless people have used it to launch their own personal brands, ultimately landing new jobs, getting new speaking engagements, gaining more readers, finding more customers, selling more products, and even signing publishing deals.
Everything launched into the world, whether a product or business, has one common characteristic: The creator has a plan, and with the plan comes a campaign. President Obama certainly did not launch his bid for presidency (his personal branding campaign, if you will) without a plan.
It’s not a good idea to launch anything new without a plan—“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” goes the old saying. To successfully launch your personal brand, you must build a campaign.
So far, we have given you the ideas and tools to create, test, and promote your personal brand. In this chapter, we'll give you a roadmap for introducing your personal brand to the market.
Launching a successful personal brand requires more than creating online profiles, posting regular updates to your blog, and keeping track of your site’s analytics. You also need a solid campaign to launch your personal brand.
What Is a Personal Brand Campaign?
What does it mean to create a personal brand campaign? Now you know how to define your brand story, and you understand you need to have some sort of campaign to launch that brand. That’s essentially what President Obama did, right? To fully build your campaign, you should understand what it means.
A personal branding campaign builds your network, including the customers, readers, organizers, and hiring managers who’re aware of your personal brand. You’ve gained their trust enough to interact with you through your positive message (your story).
Your personal brand campaign is the succinct planning and implementation of your promotional vehicle that leads to awareness. In this way, your personal brand is positioned for the right transaction. Because your network trusts you, they come to you when they’re ready to make a transaction.
What do we mean by “positioning” and “transaction?”
Positioning is where you fit in your overall marketplace, depending on what you sell. It’s determined by what you offer to the people interacting with you. (See Chapter 2, “How Do You Fit in the Mix?”) You’re also positioning yourself against the competition. How are you different? How are you similar? What can you do better than anyone else?
A transaction is the acceptance of your personal brand by other people, which can lead to any number of things depending on your story. You sell your product. You are hired. You get booked to speak. You land the publishing deal. People click the link to read your blog.
The final outcome of defining your position and transaction is what we call “the positioning and transaction statement.” It’s basically your tagline. Remember the short personal biography you wrote in Chapter 2? You can use that as your positioning and transaction (P&T) statement. It’s a catchy, memorable phrase or sentence that expands on the uniqueness of your personal brand.
We want you to get a piece of paper and outline the following questions. Yes, right now. Write down Table 10.1.
@edeckers: Wait, write down "Table 10.1" or the stuff actually
inside Table 10.1?
@kyleplacy: What? Just write… You know what? I can't even with
you right now.
@edeckers: BOOM! #DADJOKE! NO ONE IS SAFE!
Table 10.1 Setting Up Your Positioning and Transaction Statements
Positioning
Who is your competition? List three individuals or companies.
How are you different from your competition? List three differentiators for each competitor.
How are you similar to your competition? List three parallels for each competitor.
Transaction
What does your transaction look like? How do people “buy” from you?
What is your end goal?
Positioning and Transaction Statement
Write down one sentence about what makes you different from everyone else that supports your end goal.
It is important to fill out this information to get a better idea of how to launch your campaign to make the greatest impact. How do you apply these ideas to it?
Kyle uses his positioning and transaction statement as a way to keep focused while building his brand.
In answering the positioning question, Kyle listed other social media writers, speakers, and thought leaders. After researching the competition, he understood what makes him similar and different. He described how his location and experience, being a published author, and working for a company like Lessonly set him apart.
Keep in mind, though, that the things that make you different from one group could also make you similar—and appealing—to another group. In answering the transaction question, Kyle defined his goals, focusing on how to meet his personal goals as well as those of his employer. The transaction is the fulfilling of the goals.
After much hard work, sweat, and tears (Kidding. Sort of. Kyle’s a bit of a crier—
@kyleplacy: C'mon man! It was dusty.
@edeckers: Curious how it's always dusty when ESPN's 30 for 30
stories are on.
—Kyle’s positioning and transaction statement is this:
I’m a mid-level digital marketer positioning my personal and company brand as the premiere thought leader in online training and learning software.
@edeckers: Who cries at the drop of a hat.
@kyleplacy: Knock it off!
It covers his aspirations to write, teach, and consult on ideas that change business, especially social media and technology. His main differentiation is being an experienced and successful author in the digital space.
How Do Our Heroes Build Their P&T Statements?
• Allen (influencer) was an account manager for a marketing and advertising agency for 14 years but is looking for a new job. Remember Allen’s short brand bio? He wrote, “I’m a creative professional in high-level marketing and advertising, and I used to work for one of the top agencies in the country.”
Allen will position himself as a creative, high-level account manager with plenty of work experience, which he wants to show off. He wants also to exude the creative passion that makes advertising firms great.
Allen must write a positioning statement that demonstrates how he is different from his competitors. A transaction in Allen’s world would be a new job. He should build his personal brand story to get in front of hiring managers—usually the principals—at advertising firms. His skills in networking and spreading his message will be fundamental to landing a job in the near future.
Unfortunately, Allen’s personal brand bio does not fully represent a P&T statement. Allen needs to do the research on his competition and then define himself differently. By filling out the information from Table 10.1, Allen can further solidify what makes him stand out from the competition.
He can use that information to build a P&T statement: “I’m a creative marketing professional who has built several successful national advertising campaigns for Fortune 500 clients.”
How did Allen change his personal brand bio? He showed a success statement. What makes Allen different from his competition is the level and size of clients he has successfully helped.
• Beth (climber) is a marketing manager for a large insurance company and wants to move up the ladder in the firm. Beth’s transaction is going to be meeting new people, networking, and advancing in her company.
What was Beth’s short personal brand bio? “I am a marketing manager for Inverness Insurance and have been ranked as one of the top marketing professionals in my industry for the past three years by Insurance Marketing Magazine.”
From a positioning standpoint, Beth does a good job of explaining why she is qualified for the position. But navigating the politics of the corporate world is difficult. Still, she can define how she is different from other candidates.
The majority of Beth’s competitors are insurance marketing managers, including her co-workers, so it’s important to find areas of distinction. Her transaction is aimed at getting promoted in her company. With that in mind, she can pinpoint the information she needs to build her positioning and transaction statement and eventually her brand launch campaign.
Beth’s personal brand bio fits quite well with her P&T statement. However, she needs to tighten the statement to make more impact. “I am ranked one of the top insurance marketing professionals by Insurance Marketing Magazine.”
This is a simple and succinct statement. What makes Beth different from her peers? She is ranked one of the top in her industry by an objective third party.
• Carla (neophyte) is a former pharmaceutical sales rep who was laid off after eight years with her company and is interested in working for a nonprofit. Remember Carla’s personal brand bio: “I’m a former pharmaceutical salesperson trying to make the leap to the nonprofit world.”
Carla is similar to Allen, except she has to completely reinvent herself. It is going to be harder for her to define her competitors because the world of nonprofits is completely new to her. She has to do some major research to define her competition.
Her transaction is twofold: She wants to get a job, but she also wants to completely change her brand story. Carla’s P&T statement should be designed around how to evolve to become competitive in a new environment.
Carla’s is going to be the more extreme change between her brand bio and P&T statement. It is going to take creative thinking to define what makes her stand out from the competition: “I’m a former business professional who wants to make a difference in the nonprofit world by using the sales and networking skills learned in the corporate world.”
How did Carla change her statement? She defined what makes her different from other nonprofit professionals. She worked in the corporate sales environment and understands how to build and sell a successful product. Notice that she also dropped “former pharmaceutical salesperson,” because she found that the term “salesperson” could have a negative effect when pitching herself to an organization. She also appealed to the emotional side of the reader by saying she “wants to make a difference,” which makes her P&T statement even more powerful.
• Darrin (free agent) is an IT professional who leaves his job every two or three years in pursuit of more money. Darrin’s short personal brand bio was great for his P&T statement: “I’m an IT professional who is trusted by 10 of the top corporations in the city.”
Darrin’s transaction is getting a better-paying job over the course of his campaign. What does he have to do to build out his ability to sell? He has to define his P&T to fully understand how to launch his brand story.
Darrin’s competitors are extremely active in the space because of the fast-changing world of technology. He must be extremely comprehensive in defining what makes him different from his competitors. His personal brand bio actually works quite well for his P&T statement, but he needs to add one thing to the mix: “I’m an IT professional who implements technology solutions that drive success for the top 10 corporations in the city.”
What did Darrin do differently? He added why the top 10 corporations in the city trust him. When you create something that makes another individual (or organization) successful, it needs to be built into your P&T statement.
You now have a better idea of how to build the beginning of your campaign by writing your P&T statement. Remember, you can use your brand bio as a positioning and transaction statement, but fill out the information in Table 10.1 to fully understand what makes you different. You can’t launch your personal brand campaign if you don’t know how you’re unique.
Why Is a Personal Brand Campaign Important?
Did you read the first part of this chapter and nod in agreement? (Or at least want to?) It’s easy to understand that you have to plan to be successful. You’ve heard it from every success guru on the planet. However, there’s more to planning than just building a system. It’s about designing a system to launch your story—the key word being “launch.”
The significance of launching your personal brand story into the world should not be taken for granted. You don’t want to simply create another promotional campaign that oozes into existence. You want to build something that will spring into the world and create change. The term “launch” is significant in itself. Let’s look at the definition:
To send forth, catapult, or release, as a self-propelled vehicle or weapon: Rockets were launched midway in the battle. The submarine launched its torpedoes and dived rapidly.
You are the submarine. Chills, we know.
@edeckers: I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob.
@kyleplacy: What the hell are you talking about?
@edeckers: It's a Beatles song.
@kyleplacy: Oh yeah, my dad listened to them.
@edeckers: Shut up.
The concept of launching something into the world is a powerful proposition, especially for your personal brand. The launching of you is more significant than the launching of any Snuggie or Reverse Flush Toilet campaign could ever be. This is the personal brand story that will build your life from here on out. It’s the line you’ve drawn in the sand.
Before you get into the planning details, understand a few issues that should guide your branding campaign:
• You want to be compelling: People are overloaded. You know exactly what we’re talking about. People are constantly bombarded with an onslaught of branding messages. Make sure yours is new, personal, and compelling, or your story won’t get much attention. Your P&T statement help define what will make your campaign compelling.
• You want to be different: Developing your personal brand story helps you understand exactly what makes you different in the marketplace. Your campaign should share this with the world creatively and interestingly.
• You want to create a professional demeanor: When you create a plan to deliver your personal brand story, you set yourself up for not only sounding and looking professional but also being professional. When you plan for something, you are becoming the professional you need to be to achieve your goals in life.
• You want to be constant and consistent: You can’t just launch once and wait for something to happen. People are busy, so they’re not going to see your messages the first time. You need to publish your message regularly. (This is where luck comes in.) You also don’t want to be a pest, so professionalism is important. Don’t send the same messages over and over every 10 minutes.
We know you’ve invested a ton of time already in developing your personal brand and learning about the tools to share your brand story. We want to further solidify your desire to champion your personal brand by creating the launch campaign, so spend some time developing a plan to help you completely understand your personal brand story. When you build a campaign to champion the work you’ve completed, you create more meaning in your work than ever before.
PERSONAL BRANDING CASE STUDY: SHERYL BROWN
Sheryl Brown was a huge fan of the Bionic Woman Jaime Sommers growing up. She even had her own motivational quote: “Be bigger, better, and more bionic today!” So when it came time to create her social media persona as an adult, she picked “@BionicSocialite” as her Twitter handle. It’s the running theme behind every other network that followed.
Sheryl has spent several years working for a financial services brokerage as their lead digital marketer, showing brokers and agents how to use social media to promote their own personal brands while remaining compliant with the various laws and regulations governing financial communication. She opened her own digital marketing agency, BIONICSocial, where she continued serving the financial services industry, providing guidance and education about online marketing. Then, a week after we wrote this case study, she landed a new job at another financial services brokerage.
She became a renowned digital thought leader several years ago when she spoke at the LIMRA financial services conference, where she met Gary Vaynerchuk, one of the giants of social media marketing. They talked for a while that morning.
“He told me I had hustle and good energy,” said Sheryl. “Then he got on stage and told everyone they should follow what I’m doing. Oh boy! It was busy from that point forward.”
Sheryl’s bionic persona became her recognized brand when she was asked to write for several publications, which put her name, face, and knowledge in front of thousands of people. It took a while for that brand to catch on at work, but that changed when her CEO saw her in action.
“When I came to Ash Brokerage, I wasn’t doing social media for business. I was using social media more for networking personally,” said Sheryl. “Then one day, our CEO noticed I knew ‘everybody.’ He said I needed to work on their social media presence. Ash Brokerage is the largest insurance brokerage office in the United States, so I knew that was going to be a big job.”
She tackled their internal social media and created a roadmap for her colleagues to use social media properly, developing what the brand would look like coming from each of her colleagues. This movement then piqued the interest of their carriers and vendor partners, which led to interest from financial service professionals around the country. Soon, Sheryl became a regular speaker and trainer for brokerages and agencies around the country.
Of course, the various rules and regulations were a veritable minefield. These regulations remain a problem because there are no official social media rules in financial services. So, Sheryl and her brokers created a few ground rules, like never disparaging a person, place, or thing, and they would never talk about products or quote premiums online.
(Erik helped the CEO of American Family Insurance, Jack Salzwedel, write a book in 2013. At that time, Jack explained that American Family had the same online philosophy of never talking about products online. It has kept them out of trouble and with a strong online presence for years.)
Sheryl told all 400 employees to use their best judgment, and they were given social media access at once. They’ve never had one issue in the last six years.
Sheryl said her favorite thing about social networking is being able to reach out to someone who would have never known her. Erik and Sheryl met at a marketing conference in Boston in 2013, even though they lived two hours from each other in Indiana at the time, and they have stayed in touch via social media ever since.
“You can leverage data, understand someone’s humor (or lack thereof), learn about their family, and see what they’re eating for dinner all due to social networking. It’s sheer brilliance—those not leveraging this are missing out.” said Sheryl.
Some of the coolest things Sheryl has gotten to do because of social media include meeting Gary Vaynerchuk and Seth Godin, having friendships with Ann Handley (Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs) and Gini Dietrich (CEO of Arment Dietrich). She’s also gotten a “hey” from 90s rapper and dancer MC Hammer, which is pretty awesome.
“I can’t imagine my life without social media,” said Sheryl.
Nevertheless, she still believes in the power of snail mail for connecting with people. She sends out cards and hand-written letters to friends, because she loves the experience of pulling a letter or card out of the mail herself.
When it comes to one piece of advice Sheryl has for you, Dear Reader, she said:
“Follow people you admire and emulate some of what they are doing. Don’t copy everything, but jump and build your parachute on the way down. You are going to have failures, like I did and still do now and again. Also, be open to learning because it all changes every single day. Regardless of titles like “guru,” “ninja,” and “experts,” we are all just users of a product trying to keep up.”
Building Your Personal Brand Campaign
Now that you understand the why of a personal branding campaign, it is time for the implementation. You can launch a campaign in hundreds of different ways, but they all have three phases: developing, implementing, and automating.
Developing Your Personal Brand Campaign
Your personal brand campaign is based on how you use the tools we’ve described. You’ve set up your different social networks. You’ve differentiated yourself (P&T statement and personal brand bio) and started using tools to promote yourself. Now is the time to show the world what you've built! We’re going to start with your calendar as the center of your campaign.
Let’s assume you use some type of calendar. Whether it’s Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, or a paper day planner, you need to have one. (We like Google Calendar because we’re both Gmail users, but any calendar will do.) It’s going to be extremely important to managing your campaign.
An important area of campaign management is blocking out certain parts of every day to accomplish tasks associated with your campaign. You can apply the following time blocks to any area of your business or personal life, and they’ll help you manage your time effectively. The most important thing to remember is to stick to what you planned.
Think of your typical work day. What’s going on throughout the day? You have a presentation to write, meetings to attend, phone calls to return, and your boss is still waiting on that TPS report. Or maybe you have a business to run, which means a lot of sales calls and meeting with clients. After work, you need to go grocery shopping and run a few errands.
It’s important to block out time in your day to spend time on your campaign. You’ve already spent so much time building and tweaking the system you might as well stick to it, right? Set aside 30 to 60 minutes every day to use the social networking tools of your choice.
Tip
Block out at least 30 minutes, but not more than 60 minutes, at once. You want to develop a habit, not overwhelm yourself with things to do.
The whole point of the calendar is to keep you productive so you can accomplish your goals. How does that look?
• Set your time: Find two 15- to 30-minute time blocks. You can place the blocks at the beginning and end of your day or during lunch, whatever is convenient for you.
• Respect your time: Would you call a prospective client to reschedule a meeting because you needed to run to the store or pick up office supplies? No. The same rule applies for your time block. Do not schedule other things during your personal branding promotion time.
• Adjust your time: If certain times of the day don’t feel productive enough, move the time block. Adjust and change it depending on how and when you do your best work.
So, what do you actually put in the time block? We’re glad you asked!
Implementing Your Personal Brand Campaign
In short, you’re going to use different components of what we’ve already discussed—blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, photo sharing sites, video sharing sites, and so on.
Build a daily task sheet (or use a to-do app like Todoist or Wunderlist to assign your daily tasks) to fully understand what you need to accomplish during your time blocks. Table 10.2 gives you an example of a campaign launch task sheet. Finish this task sheet every day, and you’ll be well on your way to success.
Table 10.2 A Campaign Launch Task Sheets
Daily Activity Sheet
The following activities will be completed on a daily basis:
• Post one status update.
• Answer messages and postings on your wall.
• Friend at least five people from your local area.
• Send one message to a friend with personal content.
• Follow 10 people.
• Pre-post five tweets using Hootsuite or Tweetdeck.
• Respond to @ replies with conversational content.
• Respond to direct messages.
• Send one tweet telling your followers to follow a friend.
• Connect with two people or ask for a connection.
• Answer one question posted to a LinkedIn group.
Blogging
• Comment on two blogs.
• Work on your weekly blog post.
Weekly Activity Sheet
The following activities will be completed on a weekly basis:
• Tell a success story.
• Share a funny story.
• Announce good news—tell about awards your company has won, welcome a new client, share presentations, or post on a blog.
Weekly Activity Sheet
• Upload a picture.
• Run a promotion campaign.
• Post one question to a LinkedIn group.
• Connect with one person for a face-to-face networking meeting.
Weekly Twitter
Send out three #followfriday tweets.
Aim to complete these tasks daily and weekly, and your social media use will become a habit. We’re online promoting our personal brands at least an hour every day—a few minutes here and there, of course—because we know how effective it can be in promoting our work. If you’ve heard of us before you read this book, it already worked!
Automating Your Personal Brand Campaign
As you built your campaign launch task sheet, you may have realized it’s easy to automate some of the tasks in the list. Good for you! That’s going to save you a lot of time.
Tools like HootSuite that will let you preschedule content on a number of different networks. It can also help you share content from your blog and others. This is how you automate part of your workload.
You want to automate the posting of some of your content so you can focus fully on measuring and tweaking your efforts. Also, creating high-quality content is key to the distribution of your campaign, so you want time to do that. Plus it lets you either cut back on the actual minutes you spend, or it gives you more time to continue to develop your campaign.
Understand, too, what can be automated and what can’t or shouldn’t be. For example, you can automate the posting of blogs and other articles, and you should schedule your blog posts to publish at a specific time of the day.
When Erik schedules a blog post, it’s either for 8:00 a.m. or 1:00 p.m. on a weekday. That gives him a deadline to push for, and if he misses it, he needs to try again for the next day. He can queue up the blog post a few days or hours in advance, so he doesn’t always have to be in front of his computer at that time.
But when Kyle schedules a tweet, he can use a random time—say, 8:49 a.m.—so it looks more spontaneous. It’s not necessary, but it gives the impression that you’re not writing tweets and scheduling them in advance. However, conversational content should never be scheduled. It’s more reactionary and lives in the moment. How you post your tweets really depends on the content. Figure 10.1 shows an informational tweet, while the tweet in Figure 10.2 is conversational.
Figure 10.1 This informational tweet was sent out to announce an event Kyle was hosting at his office. Tweets like these can be automated.
Figure 10.2 Don’t automate conversations like this. They need to be spontaneous and natural.
Unique Ways to Launch Your Branding Campaign
Now you understand the specific steps to take to successfully promote your personal brand. Complete your daily tasks and add some fun ways to make your day more enjoyable. The more fun you have launching and promoting your brand, the better the results. Here are a few ideas:
• Send a “Thank you for meeting with me” note: Yes, mail a hand-written or even hand-typed note. Yes, we understand we are asking you to use a pen and handwrite a note, but the power behind the note is extremely beneficial to your personal brand.
Individuals rarely write a note after meeting or talking to someone these days. It is extremely important to utilize the art of a non-electronic note.
Erik even owns two working typewriters. He had some half-sheet letterhead made with his name on it, and he types a short note and mails it to people after meeting them. Getting a real typed note makes a big impression on people.
• Use video: Video is an extremely powerful tool to promote yourself because it establishes trust and a deeper connection with your network. You could create one short video per week in your office, studio, or garden to talk about your latest success, go over a tutorial, and so forth. Just remember to be professional.
• Hire a dancer with a sign: You know who we mean, right? The person who dances around with the pizza sign on the side of the road. The ability to dance for hours and not get hit by a car is an extremely valuable asset to a personal branding campaign. Okay, don’t really do this. We just wanted to see if you were paying attention. But, stay creative and think outside the box a bit for this.
• Write for smaller publications: Smaller publications are easier to land a byline in because they have fewer writers. If you write well, you’ll have an easier time getting published and promoting your brand. (See “Chapter 14, Getting Published: I’m an Author!”)
• Use an email newsletter to connect on a different level: Email providers like MailChimp are great tools for email marketing, especially if there’s a free version. You don’t have to send a weekly email, just a monthly or even quarterly newsletter centered around a topic or theme that you share with important network connections (like potential employers).
• Give something away for free: People always love free stuff. Give away a special report or white paper to gain some traction for your personal brand. We’ve seen people give away books or other valuable gifts just for an email address, then, use those to start an email marketing campaign (with users’ permission, of course).
• Write guest blog posts: This is an extremely powerful step to getting your personal brand in front of other people.
We’ve both written for Jay Baer’s “Convince and Convert” and Douglas Karr’s “Marketing Tech” blogs. Erik also writes for Dave Delaney’s “Networking for Nice People” and the Florida Writers Association blogs.
When you share content, you receive backlinks (remember the importance of backlinks to build search authority) and gain new eyeballs for your own content. There are a few ways to guest post on other blogs: Email the writer of the blog, write a quick post for an online publication and send it to the editor, or ask the person to swap blog posts for publishing. We suggest writing two guest posts per month.
• Hire a graphic designer to design a business card: Most people go to a third-rate printer to get the same business card that 100,000 other people have already printed. Spend some money and hire a graphic designer to design a fashionable and memorable business card with a logo. Print 500 cards and pass them out to contacts at networking events. Hand out your business cards sparingly, don’t deal them out like a blackjack dealer on speed. (See “Chapter 12, How to Network: Hello, My Name Is…” for the best ways to network with other people.)
• Write an email signature: Your email signature is shared and sent more often than any other form of marketing. Include your name, title, and social media links (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and your blog). Put your signature at the bottom of every email you send. Go to the “Settings” option of your email platform to create your own signature.
• Get involved in your local community: Join organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce or an economic development alliance. We’ve talked extensively about networking in your community, so join the Rotary Club, volunteer your time and expertise to a charitable organization, or coach your kid’s sports team.
• Always have a smile on your face: Make sure you’re smiling when you’re networking. This makes you approachable and amps up your confidence. It keeps your energy high, and someone who is energetic, interested, and enthusiastic always stands out.
Maybe we went a little overboard with that last tip, but it’s important to keep a positive attitude while promoting yourself and meeting others.
How Should Our Heroes Launch Their Brands?
• Allen (influencer) needs a more creative promotional strategy than the others. His industry is harder to make a splash in because everyone makes a splash in advertising. He needs to spend more time developing a different communication strategy, reaching out to influential people, and creating some great ideas and messages. He may create and send different ad campaigns to principals at advertising firms, then follow up with a phone call or tweet after the package is sent. He should connect on multiple channels to be sure people remember him.
• Beth (climber) needs to stay within the corporate structure of her company. Her tactics will be networking and community involvement. She’ll spend time sharing and writing content on LinkedIn. She’ll also frequent community events for her company. Anything she can do to rub elbows with the executive team would help. She should also start a personal blog to talk about her industry without representing her company, as a way to establish herself as an industry thought leader—and thought leaders tend to get better jobs within the walls of corporate America.
• Carla (neophyte) is going to be like Beth regarding networking. Because she is switching industries, she needs to focus on networking and start a personal blog about nonprofits. She can learn and write about the things that will make her successful, like the networking events and seminars she attends to meet nonprofit professionals.
• Darrin (free agent) is established in his industry, which means he doesn’t need to build a campaign as much as develop his already-strong reputation. Darrin should record and distribute videos of his expertise and interviews of happy clients, as well as screencasts of tutorials or examples of his work. He can create video recordings of his computer screen with software like Camtasia. Video content should be a key marketing tool in the IT world. The more video content Darrin distributes, the more likely he'll be recognized by potential new employers.
Do’s and Don’ts of Launching Your Personal Brand
Certain rules and regulations should guide your use of social media, networking, and other tools when launching your brand:
• Do accomplish your campaign launch task sheet (daily and weekly): Your daily campaign task sheet (or even a short to-do list) drives your promotional activities for your personal brand launch campaign. If you stick to it, your promotional efforts will become easier.
• Do have conversations: We talked about tweeting conversational content earlier in Chapter 3. Content that is live, real, and involves other people will grow your personal brand more than anything. Respond to other people and help them achieve their goals.
• Do give more than you receive: Sharing, retweeting, and forwarding content from others is one of the more important techniques for making your promotional campaign succeed. Many people send more content about themselves than anything else. But it’s not all about you. It’s about developing relationships online. Share and retweet more content from others than you share about yourself.
• Do be aware of criticism; just ignore most of it: You can become the top dog in your sphere of influence if you use the strategies we’ve shared. But be aware that you will face some criticism no matter what you do. Don’t take it personally, and don’t respond in kind. Simply be aware of the criticism, but ignore it when it gets personal and petty.
• Do be consistent: Think of your personal brand campaign as a relationship. If you’re in a relationship and aren’t consistent about spending time with the other person, the relationship won’t last. Consistency of content and conversation help drive your overall online influence and the strength of your brand.
• Don’t be socially awkward: Imagine having a conversation with someone who changes the subject every 30 seconds. After the third switch, it becomes highly annoying because you can’t follow anything he’s saying. The same applies to social media. Create a list of things you like to share and focus on those areas the most, but don’t bounce around to every subject under the sun.
@kyleplacy: This is what it's like talking to you when
you've had too many lattes.
@edeckers: I don't bounce around. I just have a lot to talk
about.
• Don’t expect quick results: The campaign launch is a process. Building a brand takes time and energy that over time will build a strong and healthy personal brand. Unless you have million-dollar sponsors or are featured on morning talk shows, your personal brand will take some time to build. If you expect quick results, you’ll become frustrated and either quit or make bad decisions.
• Don’t use only one tool: If you’re building a workbench, do you use only a hammer? No. It takes a miter saw, a tape measure, and a drill. The same is true for your launch campaign. Don’t use only Twitter or Facebook to build your personal brand.
• Don’t share unworthy content: Sometimes you shouldn’t send a tweet or share a picture on Facebook. You generally shouldn’t send any type of message between 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m., especially if alcohol is involved, but we’ll leave that for you to decide.
We all know what content is worthy and what is not. If you’re job hunting, a spring break photo of you getting drunk is not the best photo to share. If you’re trying to portray a professional image, tweets about what you had for lunch for three weeks are a bad idea.
• Don’t hard-sell people: Don’t ever do this while promoting your brand online. Imagine walking into a networking event and the first thing you hear from a person is about his product or service. We want to build relationships before being sold to. Start with a conversation first, then build a relationship before you ever try to close any deal.