I’ve built and managed personal brands for national and international names. In fact, we have a new one upcoming that I can’t discuss yet, but is a flavor of celebrity that I haven’t promoted and I’m very excited about it.
In the course of meeting with this client’s manager and agent, I was asked about the beginnings of what must be considered in the strategy, and I think they’re worth sharing:
- Core creative design and branding - This separates the men from the boys. This is the difference between Starbucks and Joe’s Coffee. It starts with core creative concepts that must have consistent messaging and feel. Color palettes, logos, tone, positioning etc. — they all go into that “core” and just like product marketing, much identification, awareness and success branches from that.
- Stage and Personality - Establishing a stage on which you exude your personality is a chief initial consideration. In the same way that Gandhi needed a press to assemble followers and promote change, nothing can be done without that initial stage. The personality itself must be branded. The stage must follow the brand of your personality. Tone and context need to be handled carefully. Good writers that know their character can do this easily, but much thought goes into it that people don’t see. People follow personality, not just random thoughts and text. The stage may involve a blog, a regular video piece, or a podcast, but it must showcase and develop the personality.
- Community - Building community around the brand, the stage and personality involves two worlds of development: brand community and network extension. Your participation in your brand’s community must be active and well thought out. It must include reliable, prompt responses on the stage (i.e. answering e-mail promptly, personally and publicly, involving the audience, crediting the ideas, etc.). Also, providing a place for fans to congregate around your brand is essential, even if it’s a simple message board. Outward facing efforts should be integrating the brand into other networks. Extend more acute levels of personality in Twitter, assemble fans on social sites, syndicate content, organize appearances through Meetup, etc. Be active and extend your brand and personality to other networks.
- Positioning and segmentation - Know your audience and what motivates them. Segment the fan from the follower and then from the casual visitor. Provide “inner circle” membership, benefits and products for those that are closer to the brand (online shops, giveaways, etc.). Speak to each segment in an applicable manner.
- Analytical strategy - Just like anything else: measure everything. Identify what works and what doesn’t. Cut off what doesn’t and feed what does. Never implement anything without the ability to measure its effectiveness.
This is a basic roadmap—a condensed list of first points to consider when developing a strategy for feasibility and execution. And by all means, it is never a one-size-fits-all proposition. Each personal brand has its own challenges and taboos.
I used a photo of Gary Vaynerchuk (garyvaynerchuk.com) for good reason. You don’t have to be a race car driver or a world-renown philanthropist to engage in this practice. Gary did it himself, and does it right everyday. Whatever your roadmap is to success in the area of personal branding, remember that you must:
- be passionate
- be real
- be ready to work
Best wishes!
[photo by: Zach Inglis]
