I recently participated in an online conversation in which someone was asking about his personal brand. He was wondering, since he had the same qualifications and offered the same skill set as several others who had been around about the same amount of time, or less, why they seemed to be doing so much better than he was. Why were they more well known and experiencing more success than him? Any of us who have an internet presence must be concerned with our own personal brand and it can be productive and even motivational to compare ourselves with our peers.
What is a brand anyway?
We tend to think of a brand in terms of consumer products like Kraft, Apple, Nike, etc. but it’s broader than that:
A brand is a collection of experiences and associations connected with a service, a person or any other entity.
~ Wikipedia
A good brand provides the consumer something of predictable positive value. Things like:
- Entertainment – great writing, interesting anecdotes, a great story, the latest gossip, a fun game
- Education – helpful information, up to date news, enlightening thoughts, how-to guides, lists of resources
- Experience – an easy to use product, products that make you feel good,
Let’s look at this in terms of blogging. Your readers are consumers of Brand You on your blog.
A good brand is predictable
Regular posting (note I did not say “frequent”) and consistency of quality are key. Readers have found quality at your site in the past and expect to find it with each post.
A good brand is positive
People who “consume” your brand come away with a positive feeling. They were entertained, educated, challenged, etc. and they will come back for more.
A good brand adds value
How are you making the lives of your readers better? How are you adding value to their lives?
Actions really do speak louder than words
Branding is not about defining yourself through words. It’s about defining yourself through actions. You will not build your brand much by telling all about yourself and what makes you so great. You build a great personal brand by doing great things. Obviously, you’ll want to engage in some self-promotion at times, but that’s not the main focus of your efforts. Even a blog like Dooce for example, which is by nature, all about herself and her family is a great brand because she provides consistent entertainment.
Adjust your focus
The reality is that people aren’t interested in you, your career, your passions, etc… They’re interested in themselves. For the most part, unless you just have some “fans” who follow you because they really do want to know everything about you, they’re asking, “what’s in it for me?” It’s the standard question people in marketing know that the consumer is asking every time they examine a brand. Focus on your readers, not yourself. Give stuff away for free. Ask, “how can I help you?” and “what are you interested in?” Readers can tell very quickly whether you’re out to promote and build up yourself, or whether you’re out to promote and build up others. Think about that friend you have, who when you have a conversation, continually talks about himself. He rarely asks about you, and you can tell when you’re talking about something that he’s just waiting for you to finish so he can talk again. He’s not someone you want to hang around much, is he?
A holistic approach to branding
Because a brand is a “collection of experiences and associations,” all of your online activities play a role in the perception people have of you. This seems like a no brainer, but let’s say you have a great site with copy that talks about being interested in your readers, blah, blah, blah… and then when they follow you on Twitter, all your tweets are self-promotional (read my latest post, vote for me, look at this thing I did) and you rarely reply to anyone. Your brand intergrity doesn’t mean much because it’s clearly insincere.
Up for some more reading on personal branding?
Elements of a Personal Brand by Chris Brogan
The Brand Called You at Fast Company
Very interesting, building yourself as a brand is very important in these times especially. Creating a positive personal image is necessary to generate business and interest in your brand. Great note about self-promotion on twitter, its very true, you have to always be wary of the message you are putting out to the public in this social media age.
Thanks for a great blog post. Your very first statement is so apt, when you said, “A good brand provides the consumer something of predictable positive value.” Everyone likes to see something positive and not only with value as a whole, but with them relating or enjoying the value personally.
You hit the nail on the head with the Blog being:
“Personal
Positive
Adds Value”
Those are essential to keep in mind in the branding process and it’ll draw readership to the blog when theirs targeted traffic coming in.
The one detail “Focus on the reader and not yourself” is timeless and if you miss that then no matter how great you may think your blog is others won’t share that opinion. What we share or create online has to be done with the reader in mind in order to best serve them.
My Two Cents
All very good points.
@james:You hit the nail on the head with the Blog being:
“Personal
Positive
Adds Value”
Those are essential to keep in mind in the branding process and it’ll draw readership to the blog when theirs targeted traffic coming in. Could not agree more.
You need a competitive advantage as well. There are so many similiar websites out there that are positive, add value, and are personal. You either need to become the best in your field or be unique to draw more readers.
I have recently started a website http://www.emergingtiro.com, which fills a niche and has a strong competitive advantage. It posts articles about successful proffesionals experiences, unlike any other website out there.
Nice post. Yes its important to create a own brand. But i think logos are more memorized than brands. A logo is a-must for your brand.
Thanks for the informative post. Your post gave me some important tips for branding my new website.
Great read and excellent points, all around. I especially like your emphasis on the entire “experience.” The intangible relationship you build as a result of sincere effort, not simply marketing gobbledy-goo, is how you manifest a brand.
I agree completely. Your words are a big part of what my company does (I apologize for the plug – that’s as far as it will go). I’m still working with our staff to build the infrastructure for an effective/sincere/useful social media presence, so your words hit fairly close to home. The tools of a mature internet aren’t just new avenues for assaulting people with archaic marketing techniques; they provide a real opportunity to interact with customers in a meaningful way. It’s at the heart of modern CRM issues.
I am an artist first and foremost and while I have often resisted the impulse to “brand” myself for fear of pigeon holing my creative expression, I have understood how critical it is ultimately to sell my art. Whether that be in a gallery or online the advice you offered really resonates with me.
Randa, you’ve the very solid points here. Take an example, you, Randa Clay was the icon of the marketing, where you’ve successfully set up the brand for yourself here!
It’s hard sometimes not to confuse branding with shameless self promotion. So to think in the holistic way you are talking about Randa is a big paradigm shift in perception. Once I can realize that branding is all about how I will be perceived through my actions in terms of how much value I offer (education, entertainment,information) in my blog, then I think my business will also shift for the better. Thanks for offering such value and practicing what you preach.
@Jose – your point about confusing branding with promotion is a good one. Randa is making the point that this must be a well thought out approach. However brand is a mass market concept and having a well conceived identity that is known by a few people is not a brand. Somewhere in the plan the issues of scale and promotion need to be cracked.
I wondering when branding will finally come full circle and become once again a focus on the nuts and bolts of a company’s or individuals offering.
Have the 20 n unders been so inudated and immersed that they will emerge innoculated from it? (oops 3 strong i words – my english lit teacher always told me alliteration was a virtue in poetry, a vice in prose – appropriate apologies to all)
I think there’s a difference between branding and advertising. We’ve all been inundated with advertising and don’t even notice much of it anymore. Branding, however, is something apart from and beyond mere advertising though.
This is a great post, the comments about twitter posts and how they relate to your brand is a good point and i’ve never thought about it like that. Branding can be so hard to get right especially depending on the clients needs and ideas. I really enjoyed the 2nd article link, very informative read!
Glad you enjoyed it Tom – Fast Company has always been one of my favorite magazines.
I think a lot of people (even professionals in the arena) are unaware of the importance of ‘personal branding’.
Particularly for smaller businesses – where the director(s) personalities really do define the business ethos.
And yeah – mechanisms like twitter, etc are critical, because the offer direct connectivity to the public plus the ability to pro (and rapidly re) actively manage your brand!
i’m newbie, i think it’s a good knowlegde for me, thanks
yes, i agree that brand or branding for product is important, but to build good brand is difficult. thanks rand for this article, make me clear
Nice post. I’ve not paid much attention to branding on my site, and I’m afraid that’s one thing that’s held me back. This is yet another good reminder of what I need to do!
“The reality is that people aren’t interested in you”…lol! I love that. I wish some people would open their eyes to that. Thanks for the article and the two great links on branding. I will certainly share with my readers.
I was thinking of a brand that is like the products we have. I found out that an experience is another term for the word Brand.
Anyways, I agree that actions speak louder than words.
A word is not enough to show that you are good.
This article resonates with me because I have had several of the experiences that you noted.
I’ll be honest, there are many blogs that I follow simply to find out what’s in it for me. Well, all of them. When I do find something that is helpful I usually comment. At this point, I believe there’s a good relationship because I learned something and hopefully the blogger has learned something from my comment (whether it be feedback, insight etc.).
I think the best advice in branding yourself is to be yourself. Don’t try to portray yourself as something you’re not because it will backfire sooner or later.
Thanks for the great insight.
Creating a brand requires hard work. And basically, you need a unique design which is interesting and adorable at the same time. This may be a business process design – like PayPal created a unique payment system design and became a “brand”-, a lifestyle or trend icon design like most fashion designers come up with unique designs and become “brands”; such as RayBan sunglasses or prada sneakers. More examples can be found, design a breathtaking tech invention; like iphone or so… So for yourself; the most important thing is to design yourself. Your mood, your lifestyle, your habits etc..
I constantly struggle with developing my brand but you had some words of wisdom in this article. I truly feel just backing up what you say and making sure EVERY point of contact that your branding is consistent.
I liked this article. I run my own website that is living off of whether or not I can push the brand name — http://JerseyMic.com. The flaw is that the name isn’t descriptive. This article gave me a much needed boost.
that’s right what you said..it’s so dificult to make our own brand. This is my problem to create a product in blog…by the way thanks for sharing the tips, good luck my friend
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