The Marketing Minute

5 reasons why other people will spread your personal brand

I was part of a panel (with Claire Celsi, Nathan T. Wright & Dr. David Bulla) talking to journalists about personal branding this morning.

Part of my message was that it's fine and dandy to have a personal brand...but one of the keys to its success is in how you share your brand with the world. I used the analogy of a dandelion.

Once you figure out what your personal brand is all about....you hold it out to the world, like a dandelion.

Sure...the wind will gently blow some of the seeds along, letting them land somewhere and take root.  But...if you really want your personal brand to be spread far and near...you need other people.

When someone holds a dandelion close to their mouth and gives a big blow....those seeds go everywhere.  What would make someone want to use some of their power and influence to help spread your personal brand? 

Here are five reasons why someone else might make the effort to spread your personal brand:

Are you a go-giver?  Do you share what you know and have? 

People tend to want to help those people who help others.  If people know that you're not a taker, they're going to be more inclined to serve you up to their friends and colleagues.

Are you a credible resource?

Do you actually have something to say that is real, relevant and of value?  In today's world, one of the currencies that is most valued is relevance.  You need to be someone who walks their talk to earn that credibility.

Are you consistent and reliable? 

People only have so much "connection currency."  So they don't want to waste it by introducing the world (or their contacts) to someone who is wishy washy or doesn't honor their promises.  If I help set up a meeting between two people and one of them cancels at the last minute or is a no show...some of that bad karma rubs off on me. 

Are you real? 

If your personal brand is something you put on and take off like a hat -- why would someone run the risk of exposing you to their network?    There are many posers (as Steve Farber calls them) out there.  Don't be one of them.

Are you grateful? 

When someone goes out of their way to feature you on their blog or use one of their connections to help you -- do you say thank you?  Do you look for ways you can return the favor?  Do you make them look good by treating that gesture as a gift rather than an obligation or entitlement?

There you have it.  If you want others to help introduce you and your personal brand to the world...be the kind of person who makes that easy and enjoyable! 

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com

Grace

As the recession pounds on, it wears on people.   Everyone is a little more uptight, a little more worried and as a result, perhaps a little more "me focused."

That gets in the way of us being capable of offering our customers, co-workers and employees something very valuable.  

Grace.

My definition?  Simply offering support, forgiveness, or comfort to people in our world, whether they've earned it or not.  In other words...cutting them some slack.

It's more than turning the other cheek.  It's about assuming the best of everyone.  It's being empathetic of where they're coming from.  Meeting them where they're at. It's about choosing to give them the benefit of the doubt and being gentle.

It is acknowledging that they are human, in the humblest form.

Our clients/customers count on us to be their guide.  They're the experts in their field and they look to us to be their expert in ours.  We've promised to show them how to get where they want to go.   It's our job to get them there as safely and effectively as possible.

Do clients always behave like we'd want them to?  Do they always make the best decisions or react with the speed, amplitude or enthusiasm that we'd prescribe?  Do they drop the ball?  Or hand it off to the wrong person/team? Or forget about conversations about potential consequences and decisions made until there's a problem?

You know the answers to all of those questions.

But here are the questions that truly matter.  What was their intent? What was in their heart?

Hopefully when we slow down and ask those questions, it will be easy to offer our grace.   I truly believe it's a customer retention tool every business needs to embrace.

(Drew's note:  This was originally published in my weekly column in the Des Moines Business Record.  Normally, I don't re-use that content here but I received so many notes, e-mails and calls about the column that I decided it would be worth breaking my self-imposed rule and sharing it with you as well.)

Related articles by Zemanta

• Just Sayin - With Grace (successful-blog.com)
• in praise of do-overs (beyondjustmom.com)

Twitter transparency & tweet formulas

I fear that the word transparency may go the way of empowered, engaged and conversation -- words that once meant something but have now been turned into business jargon.  I think one of the downsides of social media is that we are wearing out words at a rapid rate.

But....having said all that -- one of the most important factors to remember about social media tools like Twitter is in fact....transparency.

As businesses and marketing folks wrestle with how to participate on Twitter  but do it without any facades...lots of people are trying lots of different things.  One of the constant complaints about Twitter is that if a company is the Twitter ID....who are you really talking to?

The digital agency Modea has handled their Twitter account in a very smart and "look behind the curtain" way.  As you can see on this screen shot....although they are tweeting under the company name, they've identified who is the man (and woman) behind the curtain.

They're building equity in their brand but we don't feel like we're talking to an anonymous IT or marketing person.  Instead, we know it's David or Julianne.

We're all still trying to figure this stuff out...but this sure seems like a smart way to approach handling a company account.

Next step for Modea...I hope they'll start sharing more resources and knowledge.  It's great to learn more about what's happening at their agency -- but I also want them to help be (and all of their followers) stay current and smart.

Everyone should decide how they want to use Twitter and connect with their community.  But...for me and MMG, the formula we've informally created is 85% of the time -- provide value/resources.  10% of the time -- chat and connect with other Tweeters and 5% of the time -- promote our own agency and blog posts.

How about you -- how are you staying transparent and what's your Tweet formula?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Who really owns your social media persona? (drewsmarketingminute.com)
• How to use Twitter for PR (freshnetworks.com)
• The twitter follower fallacy (webtropic.cc)

Are you making the recession worse?

Let me first acknowledge that I know the recession is real.  I know people are losing their jobs, homes and life savings.    I get that.

But the truth is….we’re making it worse.  We’re letting fear make it worse.

Just like the kid who works himself up into a frenzy because he imagines what might be under his bed -- we're allowing fear and all the hype freeze us with fear. 

That paralysis is the biggest threat your business has ever faced.

Look around you.  Ask other business owners.  They will sheepishly admit that business is good.   Some, under the promise of anonymity, will confess that it’s great.  For the vast majority of businesses, especially B-to-B and the service sectors – things are fine.

And yet, they behave as though they’re down to their last dime.

I was talking to a friend of mine who owns a small business last week.  He admitted they’re having a fantastic start to the year and everything looks good moving forward. 

He went on to tell me that he needs a new company car.  He has the money to pay cash for it.  Car prices have never been lower.  But he’s holding off.

Just in case.

Simpson College here in Iowa has a brilliant outreach program, thanks to the Associate Director of the department.  She’s like a Pied Piper, getting to know theatre kids when they’re younger and encouraging them to visit campus, attend their very profitable summer program, etc.

Simpson just announced that despite great enrollment numbers and the construction of a new theatre space (capital campaign) – they’re eliminating the position.

Just in case enrollment goes down.

People, we have to stop this.  A stimulus package alone isn’t going to cut it.  Do you think any of those stimulus dollars are coming your way?  Check the list – you’re not on it!

Small business owners are the backbone of this country and we will determine how long we’re in this recession.  I’m not asking you to spend with reckless abandon.  But I am suggesting that we don’t get our business advice from the local or national news.

• This is exactly the time you should be investing in your employees and current customers.
• This is exactly the time you should be investing in marketing outreach and not blindly lowering your prices
• This is exactly the time you should be taking advantage of incredible pricing on those capital improvements and high ticket items that will serve your business for years

Look around.  See how your business is actually doing.  And behave accordingly.  We can be paralyzed with fear of what might be coming, or we can behave ourselves out of this recession.

But...it is up to us.

Hey non-profits, is Facebook your next fundraiser?

If you've been on Facebook for any length of time, you know that causes run rampant there.  You can join non-profit pages, you can play games that benefit non-profits, you can declare your allegiance to a cause.  You name it, you can probably do it.

Most non-profits, if they're there at all, are stumbling around, trying to figure out how to best use the space.  But some have really got it figured out.

Over 6 million Facebook users send each other virtual plants/flowers for their (lil) green patch.  And they're told that every time they do, they're saving bits of the Rain Forest.   But what does that really mean?

How about over $109,000?

That's how much The Nature Conservancy has earned from people passing pansies.  (Say that 5 times fast!).  And they didn't even develop the actual application.

Toby Bloomberg has an eye-opening interview with the Digital Membership Manager of The Nature Conservancy that should be must reading for non-profits looking for a fresh fund-raising idea.

If you're a non-profit or involved with helping one -- how are you using Facebook to date?  How COULD you be using it?

Want to work a little smarter?

The minds behind Working Smarter (SmartDraw's blog) decided that they would create a small network of blogs that they believe can serve business leaders with practical, actionable information and ideas.

As they said in their official announcement:  "Today we are proud to formally announce the launch of the Working Smarter Network, WSN for short, an exclusive consortium of websites and blogs that provide varied, relevant and useful information to help business people become more effective."

I'm delighted to report that I was invited to be one of the 13 charter members.  If you'd like to check out the other sites that were invited to join....here you go.

1. Altman’s Better PowerPoint
2. B2B Marketing Confidential
3. The PowerPoint FAQ
4. Selling Magic Sales Journal
5. B2B Sales & Marketing Knowledge Sharing
6. Drew’s Marketing Minute
7. Indezine – PowerPoint & Presentations
8. The JF Selling Resources Blog
9. Marketing Interactions
10. PBR – Sales Training & Leadership
11. The Sales Hunter
12. The YouBlog - Presentations & Communication
13. Wilder Presentations

I have no doubt you'll find some useful and thought provoking reading among these sites.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Prefer to Listen To Small Business Marketing Ideas?
• Grow Your Small Business in 60 Minutes A Day

Personal Branding is its own reward

Each year, Dan Schawbel's organization recognizes some of the standout brands with Personal Brand Awards. Last year, Rohit Bhargava won the gold award, and this year Jeremiah Owyang was presented the 2008 gold award. An esteemed panel of judges made the selection and people were graded based on a few factors, such as value proposition, differentiation, and marketability.

I'm humbled to tell you that I was one of the 6 people honored with recognition.  It's quite an honor and even more so, when you see the other recipients.  I’d like to take a minute and introduce you to each of the honorees (well, except me…you know me!)

Gold Award:  Jeremiah Owyang

Jeremiah is probably one of the most trusted and sought after experts in the social media space.  As a researcher for Forrester following media trends is his day job.  He's very generous with his time and knowledge and the judges wisely selected him unanimously.

Silver Awards:  Daniel Scocco and Laura Fitton

Daniel is certainly a go-to-guy for blogging, people trust him and he constantly rewards his community.  He offers up tips and strategies on blogging and currently holds the #29 spot in terms of popular blogs (according to Technorati).

Laura's focus is on social media consulting, specifically "microsharing" which is all about harnessing the power of tools like Twitter, Pownce, Plurk and Jaiku.  She's often quoted on and offline about where the world of social media is headed.

Bronze Awards:  Jim Kukral, Wendy Piersall, and little old me

Jim's thing is all things affiliate marketing, social media and internet marketing each and every day. He communicates his brand through both video and written entries and is a common face at industry events.

Wendy introduced herself to us as eMoms at Home which has now evolved into SparkPlugCEO.  Wendy's message is about the power and possibilities of working for yourself and from home.  Her personal story inspires many to take the leap.

Me.  Enough said.  If you want to read what Dan and the judges said...(this link is for you, Mom and Dad!)

Congrats to all the recipients.  As you can imagine, it's heady stuff to be among them.

If you're wondering who made the call, the judges were:

• Dan Schwabel, founder of Personal Branding blog
• Andy Beal, online marketing expert and owner of Marketing Pilgrim
• David Jones, Vice President of Digital for Hill & Knowlton and one of Canada's top PR bloggers
• David V. Lorenzo, Managing Partner of the Executive Development and Organizational Effectiveness for Gallup.
• Chris Brown, Marketing consultant and top marketing blogger
• Mario Sundar, Community Evangelist at LinkedIn and top marketing blogger
• Kevin Dugan, Director of Marketing communications for FRCH Design Worldwide and a leading PR blogger

 

Read more about the award in the most recent edition of Personal Branding Magazine.

Related articles by Zemanta

• I've Worked VERY Hard On My Personal Brand...
• Ladies and Gentelmen of the Jury, The Social Media Release is not a Meatball Sundae
• The web is buzzing about personal branding
• My Best Advice About Personal Branding

When does 237 = 15,000?

Image by andrewodom via Take 237 generous authors.  Cull them from 15 different countries.  Add in 8 topics of discussion and what do you get?  Hopefully, $15,000.  But for sure, you get...

Age of Conversation 2.  Why don't they get it? 

After a very long process, the hardback, paperback and e-book versions of Age of Conversation 2 are on sale, starting today.

As many of you will recall, Gavin Heaton and I got a wild hair in the spring of 2007 and solicited 103 authors to help us create the first book, Age of Conversation. 

With that book, we were able to raise over $14,000 for Variety, the Children's Charity.  Surely, with twice as many authors, we can top the $15,000 mark. I'm hoping for $20,000 - truth be told.

Each author contributed a single page chapter and wrestled with topics like:

• Manifestos 
• Keeping Secrets in the Age of Conversation
• Moving from Conversation to Action?
• The Accidental Marketer
• A New Brand of Creative 
• My Marketing Tragedy
• Business Model Evolution
• Life in the Conversation Lane

Put it all together and you have insights from social media pros, traditional agency veterans, authors, ministers, directors of marcom, artists, PR experts, non-profit directors and many others in between.

The book will make you think, shake your head and on occasion, laugh.  It will also mean that you helped us raise money for a very worthy charity that cares for the world's children. 

As my friend (and one of the authors) John Rosen succinctly said...Buy this book.  Period.

Here's a complete list of our gracious authors.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Age of Conversation Returns
• Age of Conversation Podcast with Jay Ehret: Episode 1 Starring Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan
• Collaboration Knows No Borders

Feel like a manic juggler?

Image via WikipediaI don't know about you but sometimes it can be a little overwhelming.  Okay...that's a lie.  It can be incredibly overwhelming.

We're all juggling as fast as we can and no matter how many balls we have in the air, there's always another one being tossed into the rotation.

There's a new project (or three) at work, a new book to read, 5,000 new blog posts in your RSS feed reader, six fresh social media tools to explore and 200+ e-mails.  Daily.

That doesn't even take into account your family, friends and just carving out some down time.  Have a hobby?  Like to travel? Well, sleep's optional, right?

Never before in my career have I seen a more turbulent time.  Turbulent is not necessarily a bad thing.  There's just so much swirling around us, our customers and the work we do.  And it's exciting.  Intoxicating.  And important to continuing to be relevant in our jobs.

So...how do you juggle it all? How do you stay sane AND productive?

Here's my plan.  Help me spread the word that we're looking for Sanity/Productivity tips.  Once we get a good collection here, I'll create an free e-book that we can offer to others suffering from the same manic juggling that we are.

Come on...share a tip, idea or solution that works for you.

 

Related articles by Zemanta

• 50+ Ways to Improve Your Productivity as a Freelancer
• Focus On Your Priorities and Stick to Them
• Download: Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity

The answer to ending poverty? Education. Ours and theirs.

Today is Blog Action Day '08 -- the one day a year that bloggers unite on a single topic.  We hope to raise awareness, initiate action and shake the web.

This year's topic -- poverty.

Here's the truth, if we're willing to be honest with each other. 

Most of us don't think about poverty every day.  Because we don't have to.  Sure, we might sponsor a child in a poverty-stricken country or donate canned goods to our local food shelter.   We bring old coats and mittens to church every winter for the homeless. 

But then we stop for brunch on our way home from church and poverty is the furthest thing from our minds.

While all of those acts are kind and serve to meet an immediate need -- we fill a belly or warm hands -- they don't actually address the problem.  As long as people are shackled to poverty, they don't have the tools to break free.  They are reliant on us to continue to put bandages on their problem.

My friend Laura Hecht tells me that if we could lift people from illiteracy, we could take a big bite out of poverty.

In educating myself to write this post, I also discovered the End Poverty 2015 organization.  They've identified 8 major goals that would make it possible for us to be the generation that ends poverty forever.  Not surprising, universal education is one of their core tenants.

I don't even begin to pretend I have the answers.  But I do know today is the day for asking ourselves the tough questions. 

We can't help educate the world until we begin to educate ourselves.

Related articles by Zemanta

• How Can We Help Beat Poverty? [Ask The Readers]
• Reflections on Poverty - Blog Action Day 2008
• Increasing Equality By Educating Every Child
• Living in the Shadows: Illiteracy in America
• The Deficit Model of Poverty (and NCLB).