Art of Branding and Social Networking
What Bristol Palin can teach us about personal branding.
by Sima Dahl
I'm passionate about personal branding and social networking. As a blog topic, it gets a lot of digital ink. So why is it that so many of the business professionals still know so little about it?
Networking is an essential skill for everyone, but if you're in sales or own a business-to-business company, it is critical. Remember the golden rule of networking: People buy from and make referrals for people they know, like, and trust. So how can we use personal branding and social networking to encourage sales and referrals?
The first step is to determine your personal brand position.
Simply stated, this is who you are, what you do, and why you're special. Think of your brand as a promise to deliver a certain level of service. When ABC announced Bristol Palin would be part of new "Dancing with the Stars" lineup, more than a few eyebrows went up. If Bristol is a star, she needs to work on her brand. Here's how she's most often described:
- Single teen mom
- Unwed teen mom
- Sarah Palin's daughter
- Teen mom and daughter of Sarah Palin
One CNN opinion article says Bristol "remains the nation's most famous teen mother." Politics aside, I'm sure we can agree Bristol needs a new brand manager. Off the top of my head, how about advocate for the Candie's Foundation or even star of the ABC Family series "The Secret Life of the American Teenager."
The second step is to engage in social networks.
It wasn't that long ago that business networking meant chatting over the picket fence, at the Rotary Club, after church... it was almost exclusively done face-to-face. No more. Much of today's networking happens online because it is efficient, effective, and, my personal favorite, it can be done in your jammies.
Don't get me wrong; face-to-face networking is still important. But now you can use social networks such as LinkedIn to follow-up and stay connected. You can keep tabs on your connections, gently remind them of your brand value, and take measures to stay top-of-mind. For the attorneys and financial planners and real estate brokers and insurance sales reps and the millions of business owners who rely on referrals, engaging on LinkedIn is a must.
The third step is to mind your intent.
Intentional networking is about building personal brand champions... people who instinctively act on your behalf by making introductions, sending referrals, sharing information or leads - any action that helps you move forward. Intentional networking requires you to be crystal clear about your brand value and your goals. Optimize your profile with keywords and use status updates wisely.
And this is perhaps most important of all - embrace a pay-it-forward mindset. You have to give before you get. You earn sway within a network by exhibiting the very same behaviors you're trying to elicit.
Remember, it works if you work it. So what are you waiting for?
Sima Dahl is a consultant, speaker, author and past Tweep in Profile. Her company, Parlay Communications,helps businesses and business owners raise their visibility and generate leads through smarter marketing, branding, and social media. Reprinted with permission from SpinSucks and Parlay Communications.
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Client Campaigns
The Nature Conservancy of Canada continues on its quest to have Canadians become "A Force for Nature" through their Direct Response Television campaign starring home-grown celebrities Ryan Reynolds, Jason Priestley, Rachel Blanchard, William Shatner and Denise Donlon. For more details click on their Social Media Release above or visit www.natureconservancy.ca/tv |
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Greetings!
Here's wishing you and your little ghoul's a Happy Halloween. In this edition we take you through the art of branding and social networking, share details on some of our past projects this month and introduce you to this month's "Tweep in Profile" @DannyBrown. We hope you enjoy what you read and experience here and hope you'll share it with you friends, family and colleagues. |
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September's Social Media Releases
The month of September has brought a flurry of activity at DGI with much thanks to our clients TD Canada Trust and Paradigm Public Relations. We've been fortunate to help communicate interesting stats and information from TD Global Trading and the launch of TD Waterhouses' online global trading floor; get people to think about their bucket list if we could afford it according to TD Visa; to taking a look at home buying with the release of TD Canada Trust's Repeat Home Buyer's Guide and finally, with the 10th Annual TD Waterhouse Female Investor's Poll.
The aforementioned releases all garnered some impressive traditional and online coverage including that from a long-time supporter of DGI's client and corporate announcements - Click! Weekly. Click! Weekly which - as the name suggests - is a weekly online publication boasting a readership of more than 2,000 business leaders across Canada. We have been fortunate to have their support for not only client releases but also DGI related announcements. When it relates to (as our featured article by Sima Dahl suggests) creating "brand champions" the support of people like Amy Bostock and Sarah O'Connor at Click! Weekly is nothing short of amazing.
All in all a pretty successful month for our clients and along the way of course for DGI in terms of enhancing our client's online brand and image. To check out our past client Social Media Releases don't forget to visit us at smr.donovangroup.ca. |
October "Tweep in Profile"
In this month's edition of "Tweep in Profile", I am happy to be introducing you to someone I've been following for a while and who is a much quoted and re-Tweeted member of the Twitter community Danny Brown.
I chose Danny to be the featured TIP Audio Podcast for October since he epitomizes what I think is a true champion of "Social Media" by sharing tips as well as his incredible sense of humour - both of which you can readily see in his Timeline.
This month my host and producter Donna Papacosta had a chance to ask Danny how Social Media plays a role in his professional, personal and charitable lives - so with that - meet the man behind @DannyBrown:
I'm co-founder and partner at Bonsai Interactive Marketing, a full service marketing agency located in Burlington, Ontario. We're more than "just another social media agency" - we offer full integrated campaigns that combine "traditional marketing" with social media, digital and mobile marketing. This can include print marketing and graphics; SMS push marketing and QR codes as well as mobile applications; online marketing via social media channels, email marketing and banner ads; and much more. Our skill sets cover more than 60 years of combined experience with both small-to-medium businesses as well as Fortune 500, and if we don't have the experience in-house we have access to some of the best partners around.
What do you like most about Social Media/Networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook?
The potential for reach and audience. Whereas before you might have been limited to print, radio or television (which are still important markets), and only for your local or (if you had the budget) national markets, now you have limitless access to any market you wish to be involved in. I've made great connections (many of who are now good friends) in Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Egypt, Germany, Austria, Peru and more. This kind of network allows Bonsai Interactive to better service our clients, by not having to narrow down the locales based on cost and geography. Of course, there's still cost involved, but it's to more manageable budgets than an equivalent TV ad in Europe might cost, for example. Also, the ability to measure campaigns is far more effective than traditional mediums - there's no need for stabs in the dark now.
How do you use it in your daily life - personal and business?
Personally, I use it to continue to make friends (yes, friends - I'd happily sit down for a couple of beers with a great many of the folks I interact with online). I'm a social person by nature, so social media has opened up some great doors. I've met a few folks that I never would have known existed without social media, and they've become part of my "inner circle" of friends that I trust implicitly.
Professionally, I use it to learn from some of the smartest minds around. If I have a question, I jump into Twitter or LinkedIn and ask, and within minutes I have a ton of crowdsourced expertise from some of the smartest people I know. Where else can you get that value? I also refer to social media as "the best focus group a company can ever have" - meaning, even if you're not active at the minute, more than likely some of your customers are, and you can see what they really think about you and your competitors. The first step to any sale is listening; social media offers you ears, eyes and the "in".
What is the biggest thing you've learned so far about Social Media and how have you implemented it?
That you can never take anything for granted - it's all about timing and a healthy dose of luck. You might have the greatest product and service, and made a video that you feel will be the viral hit of the decade. But unless the market is really ready for you, you might get a few thousand views or hits and nothing more. No interest, no brand awareness, no advocacy - nothing. Of course, there are a ton of things you can do to make the possibilities closer to your grasp, but at the end of the day, the market still decides. The great thing with social media, though, is it can be much more fluid than a traditional campaign - compare trying to recall 10,000 flyers as opposed to making a quick adjustment to an online blog post. So in that respect, clients are better equipped to deal with hiccups.
Where do you see this medium going in terms of your profession?
Convergence, pure and simple. Bringing together traditionally disparate mediums like advertising, marketing and PR. Instead of having teams trying to outdo each other, we'll be working together far better - which is how it should have been from the start anyway. Let's face it, we have one goal and one goal only - to sell or promote our client, whether it's for products, brand, services or any other tangible. So why would we want to jeopardize that by competing for the same targets? So yeah, definitely convergence - the sooner, the better.
How can people Follow or Friend you?
There are a few different ways, depending on where folks prefer to hang out. The two easiest ways would be the company website and my blog:
Bonsai Interactive - http://bonsaiinteractive.com
My blog - http://dannybrown.me
On my blog, you'll find my other main social networks to connect with - Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're interested in social media being used for charity, you can also find me over at the charity program I started at the end of 2008 (which relaunches this month after a summer hiatus): 12for12k - http://12for12k.org
(DGI's profile of members of the Twitter, Facebook or other social networking communities is in no way an endorsement of their services and therefore we assume no responsibility for the information provided by them. Consumers need to perform their own due diligence before hiring or seeking advice from anyone relating to their communication needs.)
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