Building your personal brand

Chris Brogan, social media expert blogger and speaker in the US, often writes about building your own personal brand in his blog.

He has recently published this excellent, free e-book on the subject and, whilst in the web 2.0 / social media / online world it is something that is perhaps easily understood and related to, in the less-aware offline world of networking amongst business professionals, the same thoughts are valid and have formed the cornerstone of many a business person's networking for years - Chris manages to link the on and offline "rules of engagement" really well.

Many years ago, at a previous company, my boss had several simple mantras that ran through every aspect of his business focus;
He would tell me "people buy people" and
"its not what you know, its who you know"
and, having generated the bulk of his work through personal recommendation for his whole life, would always ask clients "if you are happy with our work, please tell someone else, if not, please tell us!"
It worked.
And he had an impressive, yet simple database of all contacts, clients and prospects that he could easily sift to find a particular person.

I learned early on the value of these words and have always valued my contacts - you just never know when you are going to need a bridge to someone or somewhere, maintaining trust and respect with your network is essential to being able to use those contacts.

Over the years I have stayed tight to those mantras and with the advent of social tools, the whole process is much simpler to put into place and manage.

I can use LinkedIn to manage my business contacts (and now have a clearer idea as to who they can get me in touch with by), Twitter to keep my network up to date on what I am doing, my blog to publish thoughts and insight and garner response from my network and Facebook and other sites to manage personal contacts whilst maintaining a consistent profile across all sites.

Having a clear idea about your personal brand is essential, knowing how to implement it online is the next stage and Chris Brogan's ebook covering strategy and 100 tips on tactical suggestions and ideas should be on everyone's reading list this week. Thanks Chris!

The key things I think anyone should take from it at the very least are:
> Be yourself
> Be honest
> Listen
> Be confident and passionate, but dont brag
> Apologize if you mess up, and be sincere
> Dont try to SELL. Few people like being sold to, but most like buying. Help them to buy.

I hope that my old boss will be pleased that I have developed his ideaology into my own variant:
"Its not (just) what you know, but who, and how you can use it for and with those contacts"

What do you think?

Picture credit Brymo

New BMW Advert - no test pilots

BMW have without doubt got a fantastic and valued brand that has its values deeply embedded, which makes for a great platform for creative advertising and marketing.

This interesting new advertising campaign draws on the implied faultless nature of their pre-owned cars, making a (nearly) seamless jump from a car manufacturer to human beauty, with all their brand values intact. A great example of advertising brand value rather than product.

I was going straight to my local dealer to kick some tyres and arrange a test drive (!!) before I realised that the ad would work just as well as part of a Government STD awareness campaign.

Replace the BMW inset panel with "Get yourself tested" - hey presto!

Are you missing out on a social network opportunity?

The BBC report that Gartner have announced that many businesses are failing to embrace the "huge" opportunities of social networks.

The point of the article, however, is for once not about trying to market via social networks, but about how firms can understand and embrace how their staff engage via social networks to make efficiency savings and improve communications within their business.

But the opportunity goes further. Open-minded businesses can help be involved as staff build tighter communities in their organisations, places where they can share and innovate, in really constructive ways that are so fluid that staff will not even realise they are doing it.

So you get innovation.
And honesty.
And communication.
And community.
Which gives stronger loyalty and almost without doubt, numbers that hit the bottom line and therefore please the men in grey suits in finance, too..

Of course, this will not happen on its own, but an open-minded business can use social networks to truly engage with it's staff to ask questions and embrace collaboration, understand (and then potentially counter) areas of distrust or disenchantment and, in a broader sense, start to show the external world how they are listening to issues and feedback internally.

Its not just about listening, or even throwing sheep - careful use of tools like LinkedIn enable individuals and businesses to use the power of referral and networks of contacts, resulting in richer relationships and ultimately, better business with shorter lead times.

We all like to be heard and social networks enable ALL of us to share our innermost (or shallowest!) thoughts with our friends and peers.

Whether a business likes it or not, its staff, stakeholders and clients WILL be talking about it online, somewhere. So it is best to, at the very least, open an ear to what is going on and try to understand. If the business can engage, then there are potential riches that are otherwise almost certainly out of reach in this new, open World.

Picture credit Powi

Get your press releases up to scratch

I was forwarded some information on an intriguing application recently - Hubspot's Press Release Grader.

(hat-tip @mikeashworth) "A friend of mine has developed a tool which evaluates your press release and provides a marketing effectiveness score. This score is based upon basic factors from public relations experts including the language and content of the release, plus advanced factors from Internet marketing experts such as links and search engine optimisation characteristics."

Sounded interesting, but the email sat in my inbox for a few days until I had a chance to write something appropriate (conveniently, I was then asked for something on Go4Fresh's launch to go out to the wider vending and retailing community)

Now, I don't pretend to be an expert copywriter, or indeed, a PR guru, but my experience in marketing has given me an insight into what my target audience is likely to want to see, and in my opinion, the chance that a PR expert is going to know about MY skill, product or service as well as I do is slight, so I am better placed to draft or write the initial release at least. However, since I don't do this every day, it is still a case of learning as you go as to how to construct a press / news release.

So, I duly wrote about 250 words and structured the document as I would for a news release, conforming to expected formats for contact and the level of technical detail. I was happy with it, and without the grader application intervention, I would probably have sent it on for release as it was.

The application is really simple to use, intuitive and helpful - a good start.

It assumes no technical knowledge or PR expertise (so probably will bother PR professionals - though I think that gaining an understanding of how an expert does something helps you to better engage their services; there's only a minority who would want to take it all on and cut the expert out)

The fully-automated report takes moments to come back with a decently organised and well-structured report on your release. I was shocked that I only achieved 32/100 on my first pass, but easily fixable things including; slightly too few words (I needed over 250), I'd missed off some contact details (easily done!) and a slight restructure to provide the information in a better hierarchy, quickly gave me a more respectable 60/100.

The great thing for me (apart from the service being free at the moment) is that it provides a great opportunity to have someone else (something else?) proof-read the document without fear of them rewriting it totally. It is very easy to miss something obvious, or to forget to structure in a certain way.

It is very online-savvy, so helps to create releases that are social media friendly and, if I were using a PR agency, they would now be getting something from me that is virtually ready for them to distribute and work on immediately..

I suppose the only downside is that there is a danger that releases could start to look too similar if all were parsed through this software?

But that's a way off, so try it for yourself (whilst I go and try to eke out another 30 points at least before I distribute it), let me know what you think.

10 Tips for blogging for business

I was asked recently if I could suggest some light reading or advise how to set up and run a blog for an expert in his field, who was setting out on a new venture, but had little depth of knowledge of the Internet.

I thought initially, "oh, yeah, guide to blogging, no problem" - then went and looked and discovered I couldn’t easily lay my hands on anything that I would recommend to someone of his skillset - most articles and blogs assume that the reader already knows a fair amount about the media in which you are reading the article itself!

This might be fine for industry people, but not much use for most REAL business people, ie those NOT just in the internet industry.

Like this page you are reading, a blog (shorthand for Weblog) is merely a type of website that is enabled to allow you to add and amend the content yourself - it stores all the entries in an easy hierarchy and offers a simple way of gaining other's input and feedback on your posts (or blog entries).

And there's no need for you to be an IT prof to use something that can add value to your business, through building trust and engagement in your networks.

So, here's my 10 step quick guide to setting up and maintaining your own professional or company blog.

1/ STRATEGY - Before you rush off and launch a web browser and fire up Google to find a blogging tool, let’s get the basics in place and sort a strategy out. Just start with the simple (but usually ignored) top level things:

• Why are you considering using a blog – what’s its purpose to be?
• Who will read it – who are your audience?
• Who is going to write and maintain the blog? (Even who is going to write it, it doesn’t have to be you. You might be a brilliant expert, but are you a copywriter? Is there someone else who is really expert and good at communicating?)
• What will you write about? (If you don’t have a plan of articles, you can soon dry up and there’s little more lifeless than a blog that’s not been updated for months)
  

There’s a raft more questions that are worth consideration here; my advice is just to put yourself in the seat of a potential reader and try and think from their view but basically, if you don’t plan a destination, how will you know if you’ve arrived!

2/ TITLE and URL - Your blog will be located at a web address (URL) of your choice either under a blogging service (like Blogger as I use currently) or it can be directed to a page under your main company URL.
Think about a URL and also short blog title that makes sense to your audience – something that people may search for, and easily recall.
Is it your own name, a product name or company name that the audience will remember most? If it is your name, then you can set up a "digital footprint" of your name and use it as similarly as possible across blogs and other social media sites if you use them. Or is it your company or a product or skill? If so, incorporate that into the title This is an important step, as, once set up, it is difficult or impossible to change a blog name and title.

3/ PLAN - Detail a simple plan as to what you will blog / write about over a period of time - I recommend starting half a dozen or so posts (blog entries) so that you can add notes and research and make them comprehensive and thorough whilst in draft. In your plan it is worth detailing the main topics you will cover (eg mechanical, equipment, techniques etc) so that all entries can be tagged (a means of labelling posts to classify them) for ease of cross-reference. Also, with a plan, there will most likely be weightier topics that could warrant more detailed "white-papers" that could be included or referred to during your blog.

4/ GO! – Ok, you can start with the online meccano now! Its straightforward to set a basic blog up using one of the free services online (using Blogger or Wordpress for example) - there are help guides and how-to's all over YouTube (search for "how to blog" or "how to set up a blog") to help achieve this if needed. There are other ways to do it, too, where a free service doesn’t offer everything you want or you’d like to add certain functionality an maintain a strong brand presence, in which case talk to your web agency (or contact the team at Preview!)

5/ BRAND - Think carefully about your audience and your values. How do you engage with your clients now and how will the audience engage, what do they want to read / hear about and what tone of voice do you take with them? - is it sincere and professional, or friendly and conversational? Be consistent and then deliver your copy / blogs in this tone. Note also, your brand is incredibly powerful and is not just limited to your tone of voice, there’s colour and imagery in a website and you must be consistent. If you don’t have brand guidelines, its worth thinking about, otherwise you are potentially cutting out hooks with your audience.

6/ CONTENT– Don’t forget the pictures! Blogs, like printed material that doesn’t include pictures can be incredibly boring to look at and read. You are working in a rich media and one where rules for copy and content are very different to print.
Keep the sentences reasonably short, and use paragraph spaces to separate the copy up. With a clear, relevant picture here and there the copy is broken up and draws the audience’s eye.

What also helps bring blog content to life are dynamic links. Where you mention something that refers either to another section of the blog, or requires an external reference, simply link to it with an embedded link, a hyperlink. You might refer to a peer, manufacturer or reference site - if it adds value, its worth linking and re-using their content (as long as there is no copyright issue!)

7/ FEEDBACK- Ok, so you’ve published a few entries and are enjoying it. Now encourage feedback. A blog that no-one interacts with is, well, a website of old!
Be controversial if you can, have an opinion and get others to feedback to you, on the blog. That way your audience can join in the conversation and learn from each other as well as you.

There is a consideration for moderation here, but most systems (eg Blogger, Wordpress) allow you to turn on and off moderation capability, so you can check feedback and comments before it’s published. One word of warning; if you don’t like what someone says, unless it's spam, resist the temptation to delete it – publish it, but respond to the criticism or comment and engage, just like you would if you have a problem with a client in the business world. You are building trust, after all.

8/ ADVERTISE – Publicise the blog - put the address on the footer of your emails, mention it in your newsletter, put it on your business card and link to it from your website. Get contacts to forward it. If you write good and regular content, it will propagate naturally as people refer it on, but make it easy for them to do so, especially if you add social bookmarking tools like Digg, Stumbleupon and Del.ico.us.

9/ MEASURE - Dont forget to measure the success of your blog. Google Analytics can do this for you, but you'll probably need technical help to incorporate the code into your blog. It’s well worth it, as you can track the take up of your blog and what interests people and what doesn’t, and then hone the direction of it to make it more popular.

10/ FREQUENT – Keep your blog up to date. If you’ve decided that you will only blog once a month, fine, but it is generally better if you can write an entry at least once a week, or every day, if what you have to say is relevant. Short, punchy articles, or news stories that relate to your audience, re-distributed with your opinion are usually well-received.

One word of caution. Don’t forget that the internet is for ever. Even if your blog is only aimed at close friends or a small client list, the mighty tendrils of the search ‘bots will find everything you publish. It gets viewed, stored, distributed and archived, even if you think you’ve deleted it from your blog, it will most likely have been cached or copied within a few days and could come back and haunt you, so be careful what you write!

Once you have a few good results under your belt (and don’t lose sight that you have a product to offer and you are encouraging an audience to buy it, it’s not just free opinion), then you can look at other ways to promote your blog and increase engagement with your audience - see a great article here by a great blog writer

Have I missed anything significant? Please comment or feedback.

Let me know how you get on!

Designing Demand..

I had a flyer thrust at me yesterday from a long term business advisor and mentor about "a programme pushing the benefits of design for business and how good design can lead to a real return on investment".

This struck a chord, its something that rings very true with me - long have I been espousing the benefits of good design consideration to our clients!

It's sponsored and run by the Design Council and they certainly seem to have done some homework; the stats are impressive, they claim:



Thats a pretty bold statement, however, in my view its not the complete story. For example, you can have a beautifully crafted and designed website, but no strategy to launch it or get it to market, so the great design doesnt get aired and the business gets no return on its investment; or a brilliantly designed advert, but not have considered your target market or their needs and completetly miss the spot.

However, if the design is part of a coherent business strategy that encompasses business objectives, target market, purpose, measurement and delivery, then you have a really good chance of your good design hitting the mark.

And its not just about good visual design and branding; (though there's a huge amount to be said about positioning your products and services appropriately for the target market, and why brand perception is given so much consideration by the FMCG marketers!) - its about designing a good product in the first place...

I met with a friend today, who has a fantastic business concept but is struggling to work out what will sell best and how to pitch it, but doesnt want to launch it early or malformed for fear it may get snaffled, or miss an opportunity; ah-ha I thought - he needs to get his idea aired and get some feedback from a sample market, or a focus group to help him work out how others will actually take to it.

Trouble is, most entrepreneurial types dont have the money to invest in this kind of activity so go off to market with a half-baked idea or it stalls and never sees the light of day.

But what about the social web? There's a huge opportunity, on a tiny budget, to set up a forum, or microsite, or a blog (!!?) that could be published to a select (and controlled initially, if IP is an issue) group to engage with them to run the idea in its barest form - its an online / easy access, brainstorming session. There's loads of ways to setup and run this kind of social community for pretty much zero cost, and you get free product / service design feedback that can make or break that leap, and, assuming they liked it, you know that part of your target market are already buyers of the product you are about to launch. And if they didnt, they either help you shape it ("Ok, so what about if we offered it in blue, with a handle on this side?") or go back to the drawing board and start on something else.

The great thing about communities is that if you listen properly you can often find a need, even if its not what you thought they wanted. I was ranting recently about how some big brands are doing this, but the great thing is it can work for any product, any market and size company - welcome to New world marketing - conversational marketing, where your audience can define and then buy your products.

Pats on backs

I'm not sure what the correct blog-i-quette is for self promotion, but in this case, I dont care!

Preview has been through a lot of changes and reorganisation over the past 18 months or so, and its all paid off in our new team and the work they've been doing.

To cap it all, I had another look at our 2007 yearbook today, that Martyn Reding (our Creative Director) put together, and it reminded me, it's blimmin great.



If you do nothing else, please take two minutes, pop over to our news page and have a read of THEIR yearbook - its worth it, honest!

Great stuff everyone - thanks, I'm really proud!

Who are your brand guardians?

I was at a company in Crawley a while ago, fairly sizable - they turnover about £800 Million, and was delighted to see that they really take their brand and values seriously. They realise that every staff member is an ambassador for their company and empower them to be positive brand guardians from the day they join. EVERY new employee they take on has to complete a 3 day course in the values, personality and structure of the company, ensuring they understand and buy into the whole ethos.

The company realise the strength and power that they have and how, by empowering their staff, they can deliver it consistently from board level to shopfloor. It not only improves understanding of what the company is, but also where it is going, why and how. Maintained, it's an direct route to great communications, whilst also building brand perception and ultimately, brand value.

Brilliant.

Ask yourself this, If you could be a fly-on-the-wall for ANY single employee within your organisation and hear them out socially (for example in the pub) with their mates being asked what it is they do and what the company was like, would they answer it how you or any member of the board would...? And if they cant answer that consistently, what would they say about the mission and direction of the company..?

At Preview we have worked hard to ensure that our core values and the company ethos are something that not only exists through the company but are actively challenged and developed - the team are always questioning communication and marketing activities to check that we are following our own rules - I'm not saying it's easy, but its well worthwhile - I think it also makes change management one helluva lot easier to confront.

Marketing to a niche market

In my other business we make specialist livery and graphics kits for emergency vehicles.

But we have an interesting set of problems to surmount.

We are one of only a handful such specialist companies in the country, and largely, the UK leads the world due to our research and development into acheiving high visibility on our roads. However, our specialism makes for an interesting marketing case:

> There are 3 manufacturers of suitable materials for this work, and we all buy from the same sources at very similar prices.
> There are guidelines as to the designs and layout of the livery we make and we all have to follow them (within reason)
> There is only one method (currently) of manufacture to cut and seal the materials we use - we all use that technology
> There are a finite number of users in the UK in the emergency services, and we all know who those contacts are already

Therefore, the only obvious ways we can differentiate from our competitors is on service or price. Trouble is, clients EXPECT good service and support, or change suppliers, and if you compete on price, well, anyone can cut their prices, cant they - it doesnt actually offer a better product, does it!?

We were a late entrant to the market (and my background gave us none of the advantages or hindrences of legacy information or knowledge) and from day one I saw that service was a key route, but also that our competitors were all parts of bigger organisations, so we were able to offer one unique point - Specialism. I also strove to set up a brand that conveyed all our key attributes consistently and clearly. We have always been free with our technical and legal knowledge; my belief is that if you empower people to understand your offering, they will lean more naturally toward you when they come to purchase - and it's worked so far, through our regular newsletters, thorough website and technical bulletins - we do have a great name for helpful, knowledgable staff and good quality service.

However, thats all great, and we have grown to a point where we are a pain to the other competitors, but we want to gain more market share of the core, relatively static, emergency service business.

The only way I can see to differentiate is to dip back into the bag that got us here in the first place and INNOVATE. We've had some fantastic open days recently that have attained great feedback and we'll be acting on some of that.

The conclusion I have come to this week is to really engage again with our target market and open up opportunities for them to share and discuss the issues they face, so that we can use the feedback to hone our offering. Not just online, though that would be innovative(!), but face to face, over the phone and at exhibitions etc. A truly rounded "Customer First" approach that I think will reveal completely different issues and requirements than just price... we'll see!

If you have any suggestions for how I might approach this, I'd welcome them - it all helps in the mix!