We got talking about “Personal Brands” and how to generate a little more business and get one’s brand in the market! The conversation turned to ‘being a generalist v being a specialist’…in other words -does your brand offer something specific (deep diving), or does it cover a ‘broad range’ of expertise and services (cast the net).
The strongest and most effective Personal Brands are those that make a promise in providing something specific! As an example;
Gordon Ramsay - Brutal Chef who swears a lot
Michael Phelps - Swimming Champion
Usain Bolt - World’s fastest man!
Being specific in what you do, and what value you bring..and what people get when they get you makes the ‘buying’ decision just so much easier!
Your brand may not appeal to everyone, but if you are clear on who your target audience is and your personal brand clearly communicates what you can do for them…then your chances of getting more business are going to improve. To help you with some deep diving…try these
Write down the 3 words that you believe are your ‘brand attributes’
Ask your friends and colleagues for the 3 words that they believe are your ‘brand attributes’
Ask yourself - what do you want your Personal Brand to accomplish?
Select your target market - who will benefit the most from your ‘brand attributes’
Determine your ’specialisation’ - what do your target market need that your attributes deliver!
Write your Personal Value Proposition (PVP) - try…I work with…who have difficulty with…and would like to…what separates me is…
Good luck, have fun..and don’t even get me started on developing your Personal Branding Action Plan!
Social networking is a fantastic way to meet new people or reconnect…but
If you love people and hate the Internet, then how about some old fashioned face to face networking!
So, after hitting out with 40 ways to generate more business using LinkedIn - I was conscious of the ‘information overload’…as one reader wrote to me…
I looked at those 40 items, was so exhausted by about number 8 that I had to go and lie down in a darkened room for several hours afterwards
As not to disappoint my readers, through this post I thought I would offer 100 power (good old fashioned) networking tips!
Before the Event
1. When registering for an event, make sure your name is clear (handwritten or typed) and the host then has every chance to spell your name right!
2. Ring in advance and ask the host to give you a few names of those attending
3. Set a goal for the event - collect 5 business cards, or meet 6 new people - have an OUTCOME in mind!
The Card Swap
4. Take enough cards with you!
5. Have a system for collecting cards, and making sure you don’t hand a new acquintance someone elses’ card and not yours!
The Big Meet
6. Remember, everyone is there to meet people…so do not be nervous about approaching people; no-one will tell you to go away!
7. If you are nervous, look for someone who also looks nervous - they will be happy you approached them!
8. Practice a good line for approaching people - try something like “Hi, I’m Bill…why did you decide to come along tonight?” (well placed humour also works well)
9. Remember the ’spotlight’ make sure the spotlight shines on the person you are talking with - ask them questions, make them feel special! It is NOT all about you!
The Morning After
10. Follow up with these people you met and found most interesting. Send them a short article you may have written, direct them to a particular article on your website or blog. Send them an invitation to join you on LinkedIn? Have a REASON for making contact again!
OK, so I didnt’ quite make 100…but I was careful to get out what I believe are very important tips for promoting and reinforcing your Personal Brand at the next networking event!
I think what I love most about social media is the ‘fight’. The fight for positioning and success amongst social media companies, such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn means that they just keep raising the bar! And the biggest winners here are US (you and me).
Well, LinkedIn has recently landed back on the agenda (especially amongst my network), and so I thought it would be a good time to revisit LinkedIn and how to get the best out of it!
Let’s start off slowly with the ‘40 things you must do on LinkedIn to build your Personal Brand’ (This is a collection of tips and techniques I use with clients to develop their Personal Brand).
LinkedIn - what?
1. LinkedIn is a social network that includes over 25 million professionals from around the world, representing over 150 industries - with a focus on ‘doing business’
2. LinkedIn started ‘linking the world’ in Dec 2002. It was founded by former PayPal Executive Vice Presdient, Reid Hoffman. The current CEO is Dan Nye, and Hoffman remains the Executive Chairman. LinkedIn is based in Mountain View, California
3. LinkedIn achieved profitability in March 2006. On June 17, 2008 - venture capitalists invested US$53m in the business for 5%, giving it a post money valuation of US$1billion.
But Why?
4. in 2008, your name is no longer private, it is a conversation! Clients and prospects WILL Google you. LinkedIn improves your Google ranking significantly!
5. Raise your profile - when you create a profile on LinkedIn, and connect with others, your name will come up in search, and this will further enhance your ‘brand’ The more connections you have, the more you show up in search!
6. Great for research - LinkedIn is a fantastic tool to guage the health of an industry or organisation. ‘Search’ by company or industry to get a feel for new staff members, turnover, recruitment activity or redundancies! It is also a bit of fun to track startups (search for ’startup) and see how they progress!
8. If you are already on LinkedIn, then let’s move on!
Here’s 10 ways to improve your LI profile right away!
9. Describe your experience and abilities as you would to someone you just met. And write for the screen, in short blocks of copy with visual or textual signposts. Don’t just post up your resume!
10. Use specific and colourful words and descriptors (consultant is not as colorful as ‘life changing business friend’)
11. Write your Personal Value Proposition (PVP) under your name. It follows your name in search hit lists. This is a big part of your ‘brand’.
12. You’ve got 5 seconds to capture a readers attention. Write a powerful story that captures the essence of who you are and what you do, and use it in the summary section to engage readers. .
13. Use some humour - and definitely use passion to highlight your skills, abilities and interests. This makes your profile more personal and interesting!
14. Use brief stories to say what you have done for your employer or clients…don’t just write out the titles of your past jobs!
15. Add websites that showcase your abilities or passions. Then edit the default “My Website” label to encourage click-throughs (you get Google page rankings for those, raising your visibility).
16. Use the ‘answers’ feature in LinkedIn and answer questions to establish your expertise, raise your visibility, and most important, to build social capital with people in your network.
17. Share some love! Give sincere recommendations to valued connections and seek recommendations in return. (Think quality, not quantity.)
18. Continue to build your connections. Connections are one of the most important aspects of your brand: your network reflects the quality of your brand.
How can I use LinkedIn to get business - 20 sure fire ways LI will help you sell more!
19. Spring time clean out - go through your contacts and remove connections you do not recall, or, send a mail and re-engage those contacts.
20. Review your profile. Update your picture from 1980! Create a content-rich profile that highlights your PVP. (There is no Spell Check or grammar capabilities in LinkedIn, so you may want to create your profile in Word and then upload).
21. Leverage LI with Google News Alerts. Set up a Google Alert on a LI contact in a target company, and gather intelligence to strengthen your approach.
22. Add your email address to your last name. This will make it easy for someone to connect to you without directly knowing you.
23. Promote your profile. LinkedIn provides buttons, HTML codes and e-mail signatures to help promote your presence and drive traffic to your profile.
24. Update your recommendations and arm your trusted partners and past employers with the appropriate ammunition to illustrate the real strengths you are after.
25. Update your groups and associations and ensure that you don’t have multiple profiles, as it is sure to create confusion.
26. Answer relevant questions to establish thought leadership, recommending other experts, and engaging others in productive dialogue.
27. Scan the ‘Job Ads’ on your home page. If a company is hiring the types of positions that your solution requires, wouldn’t that be a fair indication that they need your products and services
28. Play-up your international appeal. If you are headed to London then use LinkedIn search to gain invaluable local, regional and even domestic information.
29. Identify regional and industry trends. This should highlight for you where you invest in your portfolio of relationships.
30. Consider Co-Opetition. By identifying, building and nurturing key relationships with other SMEs in this industry, I can easily turn perceived competitors into huge cooperative assets towards delighting a client.
31. Introduce yourself to people working at companies related to your target prospects.
32. Link Up with a targeted and tailored introduction, not just a generic “I found you on LinkedIn”
33. Consider the value of your contacts for others, and refer and introduce them
34. Pay attention to updates from your network. Network updates are perfect conversation starters. Don’t ignore any of the above, but leverage them to stay in touch or engage new contacts.
35. Observe who is viewing your profile. You will gain insights as to where you are getting attention.
36. Use LinkedIn to notify your contacts by way of a profile update.
37. Use LinkedIn to understand relationships between people you know and people you want to know.
38. Connect with your former colleagues. Tell them what you’re up to and who you’re most interested in meeting, and offer to help them out as well.
What next...
39. Be persistently consistent. Keep on top of your network and opportunities, diarise 15 mins each week to update and review.
40. Do other things! LI and all social networking tools are great supplements to ALL your networking and Personal Branding activity, not a replacement.
PHEW, so, there you go, a large post but I hope there is some value in there for you who use LinkedIn, or who would like to use it more effectively!
I have to thank Dan Thornton for the inspiration for this simple little post..
I met Dan over at Twitter and in between discussing the ethics of Tweeting, I was looking for some blogspiration (inspiration on what to blog about next)…a good video or photo was suggested.
This video captures a whole heap of the concepts I have been speaking about all week with clients and at presentations - Web 2.0 connects us. Web 2.0 makes developing and projecting your Personal Brand so much more important; enjoy!
Being unashamedly Australian, I cannot help but pen (type) a few words about Stephanie Rice, and what is so compelling about her Personal Brand. Plenty of people are winning Gold Medals, and even a few Australians have won Gold medals (Libby Tricket, Liesel Jones)…but all we are hearing about is Stephanie Rice! They have even written a song about her..
“whether you like your rice fried, or Stephanie…”
So, why is Miss Rice’s Personal Brand shining more brightly than anyone elses…here are the four reasons I believe this to be true!
She is not un-attractive - she looks good, she presents well, she is tall and athletic, and she dresses well; this is a definite bonus!
There is an element of scarcity about her - she does not do too many interview or provide much insight into her private life.
She is mysterious - is her relationship with Eamon Sullivan off or on?
She delivers - regardless of the hype everyone else has built around her, she has not been distracted - gold medal AND a world record; what else is there?
So, we may not all be Stephanie Rice - but we can probably learn a little from this. How can you improve your appearance and manner, can you make yourself and your ‘product’ more scare and harder to get, can you introduce an element of mystery into your story and PVP, do you deliver?
Good food for thought…now I must get back in front of the TV!
What do you talk about over a red wine at midnight with good friends?
Well today I had this question asked of me when I met with Richard Sauerman
Richard is a brand storyteller and public speaker, with an advertising background and a decent education in literature, philosophy and psychology. He grew up in Cape Town, and has been living and working in Sydney for over twenty years. After completing full-time service in the ad industry, Richard left to chase his dream to make a difference. He believes that all people have the desire and the capacity to be EXTRA-ordinary human beings, given the right encouragement, support and ‘the space to be’. Wake Up Tiger is his “dream come true”.
Richard must have appreciated me buying him a coffee..because he gave me a copy of his book - Wake Up Tiger.
Wake Up Tiger is a thought provoking book, and Part 3 is dedicated to “Brand Me” (which I went to in the first instance to read Richard’s views on Personal Branding and ’self discovery’)
How cool is LinkedIn; it was through LinkedIn that Richard contacted me, and we arranged our first meeting (who says social networking doesn’t work!)
I have started reading Richard’s book - which is a complete eye opener, and really makes us all think about our Personal Brand and about ‘turning on our light and shining’
I am looking forward to finishing Wake Up Tiger, and writing a complete book review here in the near future…
Honestly, if you were watching yourself on TV..would you think you are f^&%able?
I learnt today, that for media personalities - and Hollywood talent scouts, the f&%@ability index is key to determining the success of a potential star!
Whilst this subject may seem shallow and not so serious..it is actually very serious; especially when it comes to your Personal Brand! I often write or talk about how being GREAT is no longer enough, and that being POPULAR is vital to career and business success. The physical element of your Personal Brand is often how you are judged in that ‘first 15 seconds’ when you meet someone (the truth is - you are judged 11 times in the first 5 seconds!), so your f*&^ability is very important!
However, if biologically speaking, you are not blessed with a high f^%&able index, do not despair..there is more to rating high on this index than simply ‘looking good when you attend your next networking event!’
A little while ago, the blogging maestro, Chris Brogan wrote a great post on this very subject - Be Sexier in Person, which shared some great tips on ’sexing up’ your Personal Brand;
Confidence (vital - be confident in your ability and what you have to offer)
Be Brief (don’t ramble - have an effective and memorable PVP)
Finish strong (scram at the right time, and leave an impression that will make them want to learn more!)
Like Chris, I want to add some bonus tips for increasing your f*^$abilty index!
Remember the ’spotlight’ - keep the spotlight shining on the person you are talking to; it is not all about you!
“What do you do, or do you live around here?” are such BORING questions - try “what do you do for fun?”
Be interesting! - have a story. Spend some time to think about your life as a story, and tell it with PASSION.
Keep your drink in your left hand - keep your right hand free for shaking hands; it portrays you as more welcoming and open!
Be SCARCE - spend time with people, be brief, and move on…leave them wanting more!
So there you go, who said Personal Branding can’t be fun! If Hollywood talent scouts and TV Executives guage potential on the f*&^abilty index - then so may your boss, prospects and clients!
If you have seen or heard the story about Burger King (Hungry Jacks in Australia) and the Whopper, then you should be able to answer the question;
“What aspect of your brand would drive your clients CRAZY if you stopped selling it?”
Burger King faked the end of the Whopper at one of their stores…and their customers went CRAZY There were threats on life, requests to speak with the manager, and classic lines such as “but this is the home of the whopper!”
So think about this..what aspect of your personality, experience, skills, passions is regarded as ‘essential’ by your clients or target audience?
If you cannot answer this question…if there is no element of your personality, skills or talents that your clients absolutely demand…then your Personal brand needs some work!
Enjoy the video below, and watch the customers freak out…now that is a powerful brand!
8. I come up #1 in Google when you search my name!
9. I am passionate about road cycling, health, motorbikes and technology - so I ride my motorbike or pushbike to meetings, and always ask for water; not coffee!
10. I regularly give to charities, and commit my time to helping organisations such as Lucca Leadership and my local daycare!
11. I always try to underpromise and over deliver!
So there you go, now tell me the reasons why your Personal Brand is better than mine?
Image via Wikipedia ![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=793db8e9-33e1-4222-8724-f3aa2f645626)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=23192997-1c1a-448d-a62a-22da3ccec879)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=cacb48df-e439-4190-b993-e5be8af88afb)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a8b62072-6cc5-44c9-a0fa-03fbfe6d40e3)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=35da7901-657c-4ecc-9bae-8f0d9e4e6d8f)
1. I have a blog - that is read by others, and I update regularly!
