Having taken on this new role of blogging on the Personal Branding Blog, I naturally have been looking at many of the other personal brands that are out there. A few names come to mind very quickly when you think about strong personal brands: Robert Scoble, Guy Kawasaki, Steve Jobs (the only non blogger), Jonathan Schwartz, Gary Vaynerchuk.
Seems to me when you think of these individuals you also think of some attribute(s) about each of them. Essentially that’s the position they occupy in your mind whenever you think of them. Take Robert Scoble for example …. I think blogging, I think Microsoft, and I think Video.
So what does your Personal Brand stand for?
But as I review them I also do a review of my own personal brand and where I want to drive my own brand. Early on I purposely chose Buzz Marketing but decided to niche-ify it with applying it only to Technology …. hence my blog Buzz Marketing for Technology was born. I went from wide to narrow. Is it too narrow?
Ask Gary Vaynerchuk and he would say no …. “I don’t care how small your niche is – find what you want to do every day and DO THAT!”
Is your brand growth oriented or more of a value play? Buzz Marketing is more growth than value and I am sure you would prefer more value in this economy. Recently, I got a call from a good friend who just got laid off and I did a quick review with him of his personal brand. He is a consultant that does cost reduction efforts. Great but in what industries, in what parts of the company I asked him …. where won’t you provide those services? What economic value were you able to create with those services …. was it growth, customer intimacy or just cost reduction?
Either way you craft your brand I believe you need to continually refine it, keep these things in mind and test. Prune your brand every 6 months and be sure to have a clear objective (see last post on Becoming a Thought Leader)
5 Tests for your Personal Brand
1) Is your brand objective still relevant? Do you need to rearticulate it?
2) Is your brand a growth or value brand? Should you shift direction?
3) Is your brand wide or narrow? Should you narrow /widen it more?
4) What industries won’t your brand play in? Should you include/exclude more?
5) Where in the company won’t your brand play? Should you include/exclude more?
Tags: Personal Branding
Hi Paul,
This is an interesting and complicated topic.
I agree with most of what you’ve said, however, it seems to me that your post has left out a key component …. your personal brand competition (another expert/peer/co-worker/etc). For example, you state your approach early on was purposefully focused on buzz marketing for technology, but not how that is different or better than how your competitors are strategically positioned. An important question left unanswered in your post is whether or not another expert/peer/co-worker already owns buzz marketing for technology? If someone does, how can you position yourself in light of them? Where are you worse, at parity, or better than them? Simply grabbing attributes may or may not be effective due to the dynamics of the environment.
Since the essentials of positioning is not to create but to manipulate what already exists in the mind, it’s critical to know how your competition is perceived. Positioning assumes your brand has a presence in the mind of the target, and that one knows where they and others stand in relation to one another. Positioning is difficult with a personal brand because there are few objective ways to know (1) what space you occupy compared to competition, and (2) what actions will positively influence your personal brand in the mind of the target compared to competitors.
With this in mind, I would add a 6th test to your Personal Brand Tests: 6) What space is your competition currently occupying? How are you different or unique in the mind of the prospect?
Colin Hatch
Colin
that is a great point – and very true today – unlike when I started 3 years ago there was a little more untouched land available
good point thanks for commenting
p