I will be conducting a workshop on "Personal and Corporate Branding thru Social Media" next week in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. In order to keep my presentation up-to-date I read quite a few articles by (some of them self-proclaimed) experts on this topic. What strikes me is that most, if not all of them focus on HOW to achieve branding, i.e. the tactical bits like profile pic, posting valuable & regular content, commenting, etc. To me, this is only of secondary importance.
To me, the strategic decisions of WHAT you are trying to achieve thru branding, and WHO you are trying to brand yourself for are more important starting points - tactics will then follow.
Example: as evident from my LinkedIn profile I conduct corporate training and speak at international events. My (personal) branding goal is ONLY to get both more corporate training engagements and more invitations for speaking gigs. These are the clearly defined goals that I am aiming to achieve with my personal branding efforts. This is the ‘WHAT’ I mentioned in the previous paragraph. In my opinion, having a clearly defined goal for a branding exercise is a very important strategic decision, together with the next point:
While keeping a focus on my goal I need to clearly identify WHO on LinkedIn I need to reach so they can help me achieve my goal. In my case, I need to connect with and ‘impress’ HR / L&D professionals so I can get more corporate training engagements. I also need to ‘impress’ event organizers so I can get more speaking gigs. [NOTE: this is simplified to make a point, the reality is a bit more complex]
To put it bluntly, in order to reach my goals I do NOT need to be liked by the majority of people on LinkedIn. If there is pretty much no chance that someone will hire me as a trainer or speaker I don’t care if that person likes me or not. In other words, my personal branding goal is NOT to be liked by all or to have thousands of connections, etc. My aim is to ultimately make money from my profession, and my branding effort has simply that aim as a goal.
So when it comes to posting content I keep the two points I just made in clear view: will the post help me towards my goal, and will it ‘impress’ those connections who can help me achieve my goal. If there is a ‘NO’ to any of these two questions I will not post that content.
Let’s say I just recorded myself playing with my cat, and it’s the cutest video you will ever see. I’m very tempted to post it… Before I do so I ask myself: will this video aid me in getting more training or speaking engagements? Probably not. Will it ‘impress’ HR / L&D professionals or event organizers? Likely not either. So, although my fingers are very itchy I won't post it.
Similar scenario: let’s say I volunteer at the local SPCA. As a volunteer, I shoot a video of me playing with a cute cat. Should I post it?
Well, in this case, the focus would be on me being a volunteer rather than on the cute cat. While me being an SPCA volunteer is not related to my job it might still help my goal since volunteering is generally highly respected. My relevant connections may also appreciate that I spend time on worthy social causes. So, while it’s still a cat video, this time it would serve my goals, and I would post it.
When it comes to personal or corporate branding the first decisions that ought to be made are:
- WHAT is my branding goal? What am I trying to achieve with my branding efforts? Be specific!
- WHO do I need to reach and ‘impress’ so they can help me reach my goal? Be specific!
The clearer your branding goal and your branding target market is the easier it will be to generate valuable and useful content later. Everything you do to your LinkedIn presence, from profile picture to tag line and posts all need to survive the question: will it help me achieve my goal?
Take my profile picture as an example. As of this writing, my pic shows me wearing a headset microphone. I’ve heard people say that it looks ‘show off’. Do I care? Absolutely not. These people are not in any position to hire me, so their opinion doesn’t matter for my goal. On the other hand, if an HR/L&D professional or an event organizer looks at my profile pic they immediately get an idea of what I do. This is important to me. They matter as they are the ones with the money.
My tag line below my name and pic is another example. Some people use the fanciest of descriptions with the aim to stand out from the crowd. Again, ask yourself if these fancy titles are helpful for the WHAT and WHO. In my case, if an event organizer is searching LinkedIn for a ‘keynote speaker’, and I use some other fancy description to make myself unique I will not be found. So what’s the point?
My tagline is “Corporate Trainer for Digital Transformation & Digital Marketing | Experienced International Keynote Speaker”. This is what I do, and this is what I want to be found for. Will this tag line help me getting closer to my goal? Will it get me in the view of connections who can help me achieve my goal?
Give it a thought when it comes to your own branding efforts, be it personal or corporate. Think about the strategic WHAT and WHO before you revamp your profile and post your content. Focus and specificity are the keys, so you can create the most impactful content to reach your branding goal.