Social Media and Personal Branding
April 2nd, 2009This post is inspired by a comment made by Daniel on my coverage of Why Social Media Fails And How To Fix It. He asked the question “how do these principles apply to personal branding?” The practice of social media in personal branding is much simpler in comparison to the economies of scale when implementing concrete and tactical social media tools for a Fortune 500 organization. The tenets of social media holds true for a personal brand and a corporate brand.
How do I get my culture to adopt? Engage. Engagement means not just talking about you, rather it is about discovering more of your audience and customizing your message based on your audience category ratio. Know who your audience is and discover the best approach to get them involved. For example, my audience is comprised of fellow entrepreneurs both women and men, techies, media and snowboarders. I continue to experiment a variety of messaging to engage with each audience category. It is a continued discovery process and I’m learning everyday.
How can I make my campaigns work? Don’t campaign. When your audience is engaged “campaigns” become irrelevant. A consistent flow of information exchange with your audience will provide the insight that you need to connect and create deep and long term relationships. They’ll see you as a credible and trustworthy source of information.
How am I suppose to measure? As an entrepreneur I measure the success of my personal message by the number of conversions from conversation into a project without ever hard selling. By being active in the community of startups and entrepreneurs I am surrounded by people with ideas yet have challenges with execution and creation, an area which comes natural for me. The ability to think at the macro level while being able to execute on the micro level and the creation of tactical steps offers me the unique opportunity to help entrepreneurs visualize the various possibilities for their idea. In doing so, I am able to establish credibility and earn their trust. I am a listener first before a consultant. I am a consultant first before a marketer.
Does social media matter? It is the latest and the greatest tool for a brand (personal/consumer/corporate) to establish a connection and have an open engagement with one another. In that regard, it matters. Does it mean we disregard marketing as a practice? I think social media is the evolution of marketing not a replacement.
In addition, consistency in your message, relevance and timing are key elements to establishing and building an audience around your personal brand. For more insight, read Chris Brogan’s post on the same topic.
What is the value of your personal brand equity?
Tags: Community, Entrepreneur, personal branding, Social Media
