Personal Branding Advice from Dan Schawbel

Personal Branding Advice from Dan Schawbel

I recently interviewed Dan Schawbel on my podcast show. Dan is the best selling author of Me 2.0 and widely recognized as an expert in personal branding. Dan is also Managing Partner of Millennial Branding.

Me 2.0

In his book, Me 2.0, Dan offers a four step personal branding process: Discover, Create, Communicate, Maintain. Whether developing a brand for a company or individual, it’s all about figuring out who you are and what you represent before you can create your online presence. Dan stresses the importance of setting goals and developing a personal brand plan where you communicate through online media, network and constantly work at maintaining your reputation. You must be involved in relevant conversations. As you grow, your brand must grow along with you.

Social Media Position

Dan worked at EMC for about a year. He met fifteen people over eight months to get his job at EMC. Dan had created a blog on personal branding. Fast Company wrote about him. Google invited Dan to speak at their headquarters. Once he built his personal brand, and EMC created the social media position, Dan was the obvious choice for the position.  Dan’s success from his book and media engagements snowballed his career as a personal branding expert.

Twitter as a Communication Channel

Dan used to use to his Twitter profile as a marketing platform. People would often retweet his content. He noticed that as his followers increased, engagement decreased. He likens Twitter to a public forum where everyone has a level playing field.  But, Twitter allows you to move people to other forms of online relationships such as email, or a phonecall or in person.  Now, Dan uses Twitter it as a communication channel. But, he’s now investing more of his time in Facebook. Dan also has a popular LinkedIn group on personal branding.

Native Strengths of Online Channels

Dan recommends the use of each online channel in relevant ways, and to bring people back to your blog. Depending on your goals, Dan suggests you figure out your marketing funnel. Take people through the online touch points where they can get exposed to your products or services in ways that meet your goals. To emphasize this point, I borrow from Wayne Gretzky; “skate to the where the puck is going.”

Digital Immigrants

Those of us born before 1985 are digital immigrants. The public Internet as we know it was created during our lifetime. On the other hand, digital natives grew up using the Internet. For digital immigrants, we must figure out which tools work best to build our personal brand. We must be willing to experiment over the span of months. It’s a huge process. There is no simple answer. There must be a mindset shift to leverage both the technology and cultural evolution of the Internet for personal branding value.

Personal Brand Example

I asked Dan for a good example of personal branding. He told me the story of Joel Backaler, who is an American fluent in Chinese. He developed a blog called TheChinaObserver.com. His focus on China has earned him recognition from The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, BusinessWeek and other prominent media outlets. His career has taken off as a result of his focus and content on China.  Dan makes the point that small opportunities often lead to larger opportunities. But, the hardest thing to do is to get the first hit.

Millennial Branding

Dan’s Millennial Branding consultancy is his attempt to create a personal branding world with four integrated business divisions.  The Media division includes blogs, a magazine, online television and a newsletter. The Consulting division helps individuals and companies build their personal brand.  The Community division is all about building his community by connecting with people online on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. And, the Education division produces books, conferences, webinars, etc. Despite the name of his company, Dan acknowledges that most of his clients are not millennial, but rather people and brands beyond the millennial phase in search of a personal branding strategy.

How do you mix personal and company branding?

My good friend Chuck Palm asked me to ask Dan this question. Dan’s advice is to build your name before your company name if possible. If you already have a company, then build both at the same time by connecting the two together. When people think of you, they can think of your company.  For example, ChuckPalm.com is synonymous with IPN.

Me 2.0 Second Edition

In October Dan is releasing the second edition of Me 2.0. It will contain another chapter called: Social Networking for Job Seekers. It will provide a step by step plan for job seekers to build their personal brand using social networking.  This is a topic which is very near and dear to me, as I am speaking and delivering education on this topic.

My podcast interview with Dan has more on personal branding. Just click the play button above, or listen to it in iTunes.

You can connect to Dan Shawbel and visit him at his various online properties including:  DanShawbel.com and MillenialBranding.com.

What are you doing to build your personal brand? Share your story in the comments below.

Podcasting for your Business: Interview with Chuck Palm

Podcast interview with Chuck Palm recorded live from Barcamp Tampa at the University of South Florida.

Chuck Palm is the Chief Podcasting Officer at the Internet Podcasting Network, aka IPN. If you’re new to the Find and Convert podcast you may not know that Chuck was my co-host for the first year of my podcasts and IPN actually hosted my podcasts during the first year of my show.

In addition to helping businesses create great podcasts as part of their marketing strategy, Chuck also hosts a show called Podcasting for your Business.  This show is for people who want to learn about how podcasting can be a valuable communication medium for almost any business (Chuck would argue that podcasting is great for any business).

State of Podcasting Industry

There is limited data available (that doesn’t cost a mortgage payment) on the size of the podcasting industry. But, we know it is growing in popularity as evidenced by growth in popular podcasting networks such as BlogTalkRadio and PersonalLifeMedia. If you have more current stats on the podcasting industry, please share them in the comments below. But, we definitely know that the podcasting industry is evolving. There are more new podcast shows posted every day. However, the low barrier to entry has produced many low quality podcast shows. The secret sauce to successful podcasting is quality content and quality audio.  After all would you listen to a radio show that either doesn’t interest you, or the audio quality is so poor that it makes the listening experience a painful one?

The Strategic Value of Podcasts

I asked Chuck what is the strategic value of a podcast show to any business? His answer: “It’s all about building a fan base!” I agree…Building a fan base is not only measurable, it’s also very valuable to a business. A good podcast show will reach a very targeted audience and engage them. It will give them a connection to you. Why wouldn’t any business want that?

How Do You Monetize a Podcast?

There are many ways to monetize a podcast.  One way is the value of relationships built through your fan base. If you want more tangible methods consider what products you have to sell. You can make offers on your products available only to your podcast audience by offering a coupon or discount code. Regardless of how you monetize a podcast show, focus on creating quality content consistently, share it and distribute it through your social channels and syndicate it through RSS. The biggest distribution channel for podcast shows is still iTunes. But, remember that the content in your podcast becomes your marketing. Calls to action are great. But, you must have quality content for a successful podcast show. BTW, I make an offer in this podcast not included in this blog post. To learn about it, listen to the podcast.

Other Reasons to Podcast

While most businesses podcast to market their company’s products and services, there are many other reasons to podcast. Organizations such as churches, associations, entertainers and user groups podcast just to get out their message. Podcasting is an effective way to broadcast a message with broad reach and word of mouth (WOM) potential. Even if your target audience is local, the global reach through online syndication can have a very positive impact on your message.

Educate, Enlighten, Entertain

As I point out in my book, Marketing 2,.0 a good content marketing strategy should strive to achieve the three E’s. Podcast content is a medium that allows any marketer to deliver on any of these three E’s. And, anyone can do it. Every business has much to talk about. Think about how your business or organization can deliver on the three E’s. But, many businesses are intimidated by the notion of podcasting. The best advice is to just be real. Be yourself. Tell stories. Deliver on the three E’s and you’ll create fans.

Podcasting Strategy Process

Chuck shared his secret sauce to creating a successful podcast strategy. Here it is…..Write down the top 20 things that are interesting about your business. Then, create a show around the top 5 or 10. Tell stories about them.  That’s it. It’s not rocket science. But, it’s very important to commit to a podcast as a series of shows, not just one. A podcast show should be a  minimum of 6 shows. Make it a series. Break it up into multiple parts. You’ll engage your audience by breaking it up. And, you’ll start to create a fan base.

Measuring Podcast Analytics

This isn’t one of Chuck’s favorite topics. He points out that too many marketers want instant results. While some podcasts can provide instant results in one way or another, it’s usually not the point. A good podcast show takes time to build an  audience and build a relationship with them. If you have good content and quality audio, and you give your podcast show at least 6 or 10 events, you will be able to measure analytics that track meaningful data about your show. Some of the analytics tools to consider using include PodPress, Blubrry and Volomedia.

Targeted Audience

People listen to your podcast because they want to. Most podcasts are summarized in a blog post which is index-able by search engines. For example the stats in my WordPress blog tell me which podcasts are the most popular. These stats are important but should not be overshadowed by the value of building a fan base and the impact on your brand.

Podcast Consumption

The global phenomenon of smart mobile devices allows people to download and consume audio and video content anywhere. The iPhone and the Google Android devices are just two examples of mobile devices that allow people to consume podcasts (audio and video). It’s believed (depending on the research you read) that most people still consume podcasts on their computer by clicking the play button (as you can do in this blog post). When you consider how we all multitask, that’s very easy to believe.

Want More on Podcasting?

This blog post summary doesn’t capture the entire interview with Chuck Palm. Are you going to click the play button or download it or subscribe to it in iTunes?

You can connect with Chuck Palm on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn by his name as well as at his podcasting company at IPN, The Internet Podcasting Network.

P.S. Take the Marketing 2.0 Challenge.

Bruce Almighty: Exemplary Content Marketing

In this podcast I fly solo to provide an interesting story about a house painter named Bruce.  Bruce is not the podcast interview type so you’ll have to hear the story from me. In fact, Bruce doesn’t know much about the web. If I talk about “social media marketing” with him, he wouldn’t know what it means.

Bruce is a successful house painter located in my Tampa Bay area. He’s been in business about 20 years. He works alone. He does no marketing. None whatsoever. He has a business card and a magnetic sign on the side of his truck with his name and phone number. That’s the extent of his marketing.

Bruce’s marketing is a combination of great content and great customer service. So, how does a house painter produce great content? I’ve said before, “let your content be your marketing.” In Bruce’s case, his content is his knowledge of quality painting, his willingness to give clients paint samples, show up on time, be courteous, be reliable, be friendly, exceed expectations and be clean during and after the painting process. The result of all this great content is that his work is outstanding and his 20 year reputation is proof.  100% of Bruce’s painting jobs are from word of mouth. If the phone doesn’t ring, he doesn’t work. And, even in a weak economy Bruce is never without work. When Bruce completes a painting job at a residential or commercial property, he cleans up so meticulously you wouldn’t even know he was there. Bruce has even been flown out of state by affluent homeowners who have learned of his reputation from a satisfied client.

What does this have to do with social media marketing? If you follow me (and my contemporary social media evangelists) you’ve heard me say that successful social media marketing is based on two pillars: great content and relationship building. Bruce’s example in an offline world transfers to marketers who are marketing online.  Bruce could produce a website displaying photos and video of his painting experience. He could list testimonials of thrilled clients. He could Tweet about his experiences, and share them on Facebook. Sure, he could share that great content online but then he would probably have to hire other painters to keep up with the demand. Bruce is pretty happy working alone, so he won’t do any of these.

But, the rest of us can learn from Bruce’s exemplary content and relationship building as we project our brand through our online strategies. Let your content be your marketing. Produce great content, build relationships online and like Bruce, you’ll do just fine..

In this podcast, I also provided an update on my book: Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap Between Sellers and Buyers on the Social Web. The book is at the publisher going through the second round of editing. It should be available by the end of June. I will be podcasting chapter summaries soon with my podcasting buddy Chuck Palm (@chuckpalm). Stay tuned on that…

I also will soon be interviewing interesting guests on my podcast shows. Some of my upcoming guests include Steve Tingiris, CEO of Enthusem, Justin Levy, General Manager of New Marketing Labs, Mike Volpe, V.P. Inbound Marketing at HubSpot and Susan Bratton, CEO of Personal Life Media and host of the DishyMix podcast show. Other guests include successful marketers whom I wrote about in my book. You’ll hear firsthand their stories about how they are using social media marketing in their business.

I hope my solo podcast was interesting and enlightening, if (admittedly) not as entertaining as they are with Chuck Palm. The podcast medium allows us to do whatever we want with little regard for professional studio quality (Chuck Palm notwithstanding). If the content is useful to you, that’s what matters most, even if you have to tolerate a little bit of hissing in the audio.

As always, I welcome your feedback, input and suggestions for future podcasts.

Bernie Borges, aka @berniebay

Christmas Eve Message from Bernie Borges

In this brief year end podcast I reflect on our 2008 podcasts and look ahead to 2009.

In 2008 Chuck Palm and I have brought you podcasts on SEO, paid search marketing and social media marketing trends. We always strive to bring you web marketing content that helps marketers create actionable strategies for measurable results.

In 2009 we’ll bring you more of the same as well as interviews with interesting guests. In February I’ll begin podcasting content from my forthcoming book: Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap Between Seller and Buyer on the Social Web.

Best Social Media Podcasts in 2008

On December 21st, social media strategist Lee Odden posted a list of the best podcasts on social media of 2008 on his popular TopRankBlog. I’m proud to say that the Find and Convert podcast is on this list!  Please visit this list and please vote for the Find and Convert podcast. I will greatly appreciate your support!

Thank you for your loyalty in 2008.  I wish you many blessings this holiday season.  And, I wish you blessings of health and prosperity in 2009.

I look forward to reaching out to you with our first podcast of 2009 in a couple of weeks!

Cheers,

Bernie Borges
@berniebay