Whether you are seeking to attract new clients or get a new job, building your own personal brand is job #1. Using social media tools like blogs, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, you can create new content that informs your target audience and draws them to you.
In this video, I discuss how to build your own personal brand by creating content.
Networking online with social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are great, but it seldom pays off for you or the people you network with until it transitions to the offline world.
By the same token, you probably have a number of offline contacts that are not contacts online. If you can help these people to start using and benefitting from social media networking, they will be very grateful and will regard you as someone who has added value to their efforts.
Here are some ideas that may help you extend your online social networking into part of your offline network:
Send snail mail. Despite our technical age, everyone loves greeting cards and hand-written thank you notes. Facebook, for example, lists your contacts’ birthdays, so be sure to put them in a tickler file to remind yourself.
If you have a collection of your best blog articles, make hard copies and have them bound. You can send them to offline contacts to encourage them to follow you online. And you can offer them to your online contacts as a way to get their addresses.
These bound blog articles can be a great intro piece to prospective employers. Unlike 99% of other mail they receive, no one will throw a book or booklet away if it contains valuable information.
Put your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn IDs on your business cards and stationary just as you do your website and email address. Point them out when you meet people. Chances are they've heard about Twitter, etc., but aren't on using them yet. Explain how it can help them and "recruit" them to join your social media network as well as your offline network.
Organize or attend “Tweetups” as a way to meet with other Twitter users who live in your local area. Not only will personal contact solidify your existing relationships, you will also get the opportunity to meet new contacts.
Whenever you have a speaking opportunity, mention how you are using social media. Even if you just mentioned it in passing, you will be asked about it later. this will provide you with more opportunities to cross "pollinate" your online and offline contacts.
Another offline event you can organize or attend is a Meetup. Check out meetup.com for local events of interest, or else organize your own. Then you can announce it on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Organize free teleconferences with your contacts to discuss areas of interest. Sure it’s not as powerful as meeting them face to face, but hearing their voices still creates more personal relationships.
Look for ways to add value or send free stuff to your online contacts. If you value the person enough, you may purchase a book to send them or copy an article from a print publication. If you are writing a book, you may send them a draft for their input or to review on their own blogs. If they do write a review, be sure to send them a final copy once it is published.
Almost all of your online contacts have an agenda. They are either seeking a new job or they want to attract new business. How can you help them achieve their goals? Can you “match make” them with some of your offline contacts? Can you offer to hand deliver a resume to someone you know offline?
Attend big seminars or events like the annual Austin, Texas “South By Southwest” event. Send emails to your contacts before you go and make arrangements with them to meet while attending the event.
Participate in causes. A lot of people who identify with the Democratic Party in the U.S. made invaluable contacts and friends by working together to get Obama elected. But there are other causes you can either organize or support with your friends online.
Clippings of offline publications is not a lost art. Recently I saw a review of Pam Slim’s (aka @pamslim) book in my local newspaper. She was delighted to receive the clipping in the mail.
Because clipping and mailing something takes more effort than forwarding something by email, a lot of your online friends will appreciate your extra effort for them. Harvey Macay, the author of “Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive,” built a multi-million dollar business by remembering his customers’ alma maters and favorite teams and sending them clippings.
Networking, whether online or offline, follows the same rules. The more you give, the more you will receive.
Be prepared to give more than you receive and constantly look for ways to add value to your contacts.
After all, the goal is to turn contacts into friends.
Ok, let’s just jump right into the fray. Which is a better social media platform for business people who need to market themselves? And by this, I would also include those who are conducting a job search.
Facebook is obviously the bigger kid on the block with much more muscle to flex when it comes to building a social network online. But LinkedIn has its fans too, and seems to especially target business people. LinkedIn reputedly has the added advantage of being a place where corporate headhunters lurk in order to find high value talent.
One thing I especially like about LinkedIn is that it provides a visual representation of the “Six Degrees of Separation” concept. If you look someone up - assuming that person is on LinkedIn as well - you can often find that they are connected to someone you are connected to... or connected to someone one of your contacts is connected to, etc. This visual landscape of connectedness can be very valuable as you can then ask your contacts to make introductions for you via their system.
Another big plus going for LinkedIn is that it displays a person’s profile and references at the click of a mouse.
All this means that if you are on the buying side of a transaction, you can easily use LinkedIn to seek out quality vendors and get recommendations from people in your network.
But for the self marketer, there are a number of flaws that I find in LinkedIn’s system. The first is that it is very difficult to add new people to your first level of contacts. Obviously this is done for the purpose of preventing a lot of unsolicited sales pitches, but as we will see, there may be a better way to accomplish this purpose.
Like all such platforms, LinkedIn gathers most of your first level of contacts from your email address book. The trouble is that many people I network with are no longer people I communicate with by email. I have met a great number of people using other platforms, such as my blog, Twitter or Facebook. We may communicate with each other quite a bit, but I just don't have their email addresses handy.
Contrast this to Facebook, which provides a button that I have placed on my blog. If someone wants to “friend” me on Facebook, they just have to click the button and send me a friend request.
If I want to “friend” someone else on Facebook, I just have to search for that person and send them a friend request. I can add a small comment to tell this person that what we have in common or where we met, etc. Then that person has the option of confirming or ignoring my friend request.
If I want to add someone to my LinkedIn contacts, I have to send a message to an existing contact who must then send an introduction to the person I want to contact. (I don’t think LinkedIn allows for third or fourth level introductions, but I am willing to be corrected if someone knows better).
Let’s contrast both of these to Twitter, which is the 800 pound gorilla when it comes to ease of adding new contacts. In an excellent article, 7 Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Twitter’s Success, Rohit Bhargava, points out that enabling users to “Skip the Extra Step” is one of the reasons Twitter has grown so quickly.
Admittedly, Twitter has one purpose and Facebook/LinkedIn have another. I use Twitter’s fast growth capabilities to attract people to my Facebook page and to my blog. But I like the control Facebook gives me to ignore some friend requests if I choose. On the other hand, LinkedIn’s process is just ridiculously onerous, in my opinion.
Another big factor tilting the scales in Facebook’s favor is the ease of joining or creating Facebook groups. These groups can be formed around a common purpose, which is an awesome way to expand one’s network.
If you become an active participant in such a group, you can then send friend requests to various members of the group based on a common interest. Although LinkedIn also has groups, the “Extra Step” they require to reach out to fellow members and add them to your contacts makes them practically useless.
I am well aware that some of you may have strong opinions on this subject and may even (perish the thought) disagree with me. If so, I welcome your comments.
Since posting my earlier article today, A Social Media Strategy For Job Seekers - Part One, I had a couple of really interesting articles forwarded to me about using social media to find jobs. So, at the risk of seeming prolific, I thought I would post these links, plus a couple of others, for your consideration:
1. First,Ann Handley of MarketingProfs.com, sent me this article by Kevin Smith called, How I Got My Job Through Twitter. It shows how he made an important contact through Twitter and even got this contact to go to bat for him when his resume got lost.
4. The fourth article is one I found on my own (he pats his own back ever so humbly). Since Facebook is, or should be, a core tool in using social media to find a job, I thought this was an essential. It is called, "Basic Facebook Strategy | 5 simple steps."
5. Fifth, since Twitter is another essential tool for any social networking campaign, I thought "Twitter - The Second Most Important Social Network" should also be included. I would, however, forego the tempting offer to purchase TweetLater Pro. The free version will suit you just fine.
6. Sixth, another vital Twitter resource is Twitter Tips. This is practically an encyclopedia of Twitter tutorials, tools and apps.
7. Seventh, no online job search campaign would be complete without mentioning LinkedIn. Check out this helpful LinkedIn Tutorial to help you get the most out of using this vital tool.
On the internet, content is king. And building a personal brand is all about creating and giving away lots of quality content in order to create an audience.
And that, of course, is the rub. When I talk to people who want to become recognized authorities in their fields, ie "micro celebrities," a good number of them HATE writing. The idea of writing a book, even though they may be incredibly knowledgeable about their topic, is just too daunting to consider.
Yet having written a book is the very best credential anyone can have in any field. The value of being titled "author" cannot be exaggerated.
But there are other types of content that can be just as valuable. Writing ebooks, producing videos, conducting seminars and training, writing articles for print magazines, or producing audio materials can all go a long way toward establishing a professional as an expert in his or her field.
So how does a very busy person, who may or may not like to write, create this kind of content?
My answer is blogging.
A blog should be the engine that drives any personal branding campaign.
And if done properly, writing a blog can be done with minimal effort, PLUS blogging can be done within even the busiest of work schedules (I'll prove this shortly).
Here are 10 reasons to use a blog as the engine to drive your own personal branding campaign:
With just a minimal time commitment, regularly writing a blog can help you organize your knowledge and material into a book or other project. In fact, you will find that blogging will almost write your book for you.
Blogging builds an audience and establishes you as an expert BEFORE your book is published. In the publishing industry, this is called having a “platform.” Readers can discover you through your blog and you can have a built-in list of people ready to buy your book (or other project) as soon as it comes out.
Readers may also post comments on your blog articles, which give you instant feedback and may also give you anecdotes or additional information you may wish to include in your book.
A surprising number of excellent blog posts contain very little original writing. Many bloggers find relevant material on the internet or print books and quote or link to them, adding their own comments to another author’s articles. Of course you want to always give proper credit to your sources and provide links to them as well.
You can monetize your blog and earn money while you are writing your book. You can place Adsense ads, link to books and other materials on Amazon.com, and earn affiliate commissions long before your book is published. If you have written other books, ebooks or your own digital materials, you can also link to these products and earn money selling them as well. Additionally if you conduct paid speaking engagements or offer consulting services, your blog can also create more revenue for this work.
You can find material to write about quickly and easily by setting up Google Alerts that will send relevant information directly to you by email. Google Alerts is a little like doing a one-time Google search on a topic and getting all new updates on that topic sent to you as soon as new content appears on the internet. Go to http://www.google.com/alerts for more information.
You can also find information to write about quickly and easily at social bookmarking sites like Digg.com, delicious.com, reddit.com, YouTube.com, Fark.com, and stumbleupon.com. These sites are bookmarking tools used by thousands (maybe millions) of other people to bookmark websites and news items related to whatever topic they choose. Searching a social bookmarking site rather than a search engine allows you to know that the sites you find were ranked by people as being relevant to a certain topic. Whereas the search engines simply rely on algorithms to categorize various sites.
If you don’t feel like writing, you might simply post a YouTube video related to your blog’s topic. While a video cannot be incorporated into your book, it still may attract new readers or get your blog noticed by search engines. You may also simply post an audio recording on your blog as a podcast. Podcasting is easier than writing and still attracts visitors to your site.
Your blog gives you something to talk about on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or other social networking tools. Many people misuse social networking sites as mere platforms to be carnival barkers shouting about their wares. The better social networkers use them to point to valuable content that solves problems and addresses the needs of their market. If the theme of your blog is offering solutions to certain problems, you can mention each new article, and even refer back to your old articles, every time you Tweat on Twitter or post on LinkedIn or Facebook.
Finally, and to my mind one of the most innovative way to use your blog, you can use it as a means to network with others in your field. You can contact experts and ask if you can interview them. Then you can post either a written transcript or a podcast of the interview (or both). In the process you have made a valuable contact, given that person free publicity and, if that person is also blogger, you may attract some of that person’s readers to your own blog.
Have I challenged you to get busy writing a blog? If your goal is to establish a personal brand, then a blog is the core of your online marketing efforts. No other online marketing tool even comes close to the effectiveness of a blog.
And as you’ve seen, writing a blog does not need to be a major time commitment to be effective.
Note: Last week, I started a series of articles on how to integrate online and offline social networking.
While researching this topic, I ran across this excellent article by Andy Britnell. Although he primarily focuses on offline social networking, his lesson is just as applicable for those using Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
I have been networking for many years and attended nearly every sort of networking event imaginable. I now recognise the benefit of seeing networking as an art rather than a technique. Rather than provide you with 7 tips on how to improve your networking effectiveness, I'd like to pass on a story that gives us a different view of how to network which I think is worth sharing:
I was always impressed with a particular person in my networking group who managed not only to provide quality referrals but received a lot as well. As I am a student of success I decided to find out what his secret was.
I noticed a number of tactics and strategies that he used, such as listening intently when people were doing their 60 second infomercials,writing down relevant facts, clarifying what was being offered and what was of value in the product or service, and who specifically that person needed to get connected to. He also was very good as a host during networking meetings and had a skill of engaging new visitors and pointing them in the direction of people in the room who would be useful connections.
This still didn't answer the question of why he was successful at networking, as others used the same techniques with less success. I decided to approach him and determine what the secret was.
His answer surprised me. He said it was his purpose in life to help other people succeed and he believed that everyone had something of value to offer in business - they just needed to articulate that value. He felt it was his job to help people to grow their business and in order to do that he needed to be clear on their outcomes and passion in business. In encouraging them to talk about this he helped them to become inspired and motivated about their business.
So rather than clever techniques or strategies it was the intention, values and beliefs that this person held which made him successful. It seems to me that this story proves that the more we help other people succeed in their business and pass on our kernels of knowledge about how to be effective, the more we become successful and effective ourselves.
Andy Britnell is an executive coach who works with high achievers in both the private and public sectors who wish to fulfil more of their potential by thinking and behaving more effectively.
His message offers a very practical social networking idea that utilizes the power of LinkedIn (LinkedIn, for those who may not be aware, is a social networking site for business professionals, but in other respects is similar to MySpace and Facebook).
One of the distinguishing features of LinkedIn is that it enables one person to recommend another. Recommendations are sort of endorsements based on your experience with that other person. Because it is a business professionals' group, LinkedIn members are evaluated by the number and quality of their recommendations.
That said, here is the message Larry sent to me:
Gaining credibility and developing messaging "allies" are critical factors in reaching Thought Leader status. Here's one technique you can do today to help in both areas:
Go into your LinkedIn account (if you don't have one, go to www.linkedin.com and get set up asap) and endorse some of your contacts work with a SINCERE recommendation that comes from your heart. (Do NOT blow smoke...this is a blunder many of the uninitiated make that will completely backfire on you.)
Don't ask for permission and don't tell them after you've done it. Once you've done this a few things will happen:
1) You will be elevated in their opinion of you 2) You will activate the reciprocity principle and they will feel like they "owe you one" 3) Many will likely reciprocate and endorse you, giving you genuine testimonials that you can use in your marketing to demonstrate your competence and expertise 4) This endorsement of you, by them, activates the commitment/consistency principle where they will be more and more inclined to recommend you to others because they've already gone on the record stating something positive about you 5) They will be more likely to become a messaging ally of yours and spread the word about you
Make this a regular practice. Do a few of these every day and see what happens after a month. Report back into the group with the results.
If you are on Facebook, I encourage you to join Thought Leadership Marketing Group. I also urge you to visit Larry Genkin at http://www.thoughtleadershipmarketing.com/.
I consult with businesses on the strategic use of social media, web marketing and email marketing. I also speak and conduct workshops on social media marketing for organizations.
My team offers outsource solutions and training for companies needing to engage with their target market with social media.
Contact me at 817-501-6892 or by email at: or chbrown/at/webmarketing-coach.com.
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