Tag Archives: branding

Can You Be A Brand?

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A savvy award-winning marketing colleague of mine took me to task today regarding my incorrect use of the word “brand.” He especially brought attention to how I’ve been using the term “personal branding” wrongly, for according to his experience a brand is not a person, but an inanimate object. And as it turns out he’s right. Here’s the definition of “brand” from netlingo.com

brand

A logo, corporate image, or distinct product or service identity that can become firmly rooted in the public’s mind. Its purpose is to establish a meaningful, differentiated presence that will attract and retain loyal customers.

To drive it a bit more home, here are some illustrations for you.

Are You One of These Products?

Products are Individual Brands

Bleach and Clorox Are Co-Brands

*An Author is Not a Product, But His Books Are

So if brands are products, like the three to the left. Then what do people have, if not personal brands?

It was explained to me that people have reputations. They have personality. They have interests, desires, ambition, talents, integrity and passions.

They are not objects like Q-tips, or Valvoline Oil or bread crumbs or WordPress Themes.

However, as the definition states above, the purpose of brands are to attract and retain loyal customers. Couldn’t the same be true for individuals?

Let’s look at the case of real estate executives for they are a perfect example. Realtors often work for a firm, (i.e., First Team Real Estate), but they act as individuals and are chosen by consumers for a variety of reasons. They pick up clients via referrals, online presence, personality and/or knowledge of the area.  Like branded products, “trust” plays a major part of their sales. (BTW-Trust is important for every professional by the way.) So if there are branded products that we “trust” couldn’t we say the same for people that they have “trusted” brands as well? Or is it more correct to say that you “trust” a person’s reputation instead?

I thought this topic was delicious food for thought and one I’d love to hear your opinion on…Are We Brands or Not?

Do tell.

*(I recently attended a speaking engagement featuring super savvy and smart social business consultant Gary Vaynerchuk, hence, the reason why I used his new book “The Thank You Economy” as an example of a brand product. This was my way of giving him a nod and a way to promote his efforts. I’m a big fan and will blog about my him in upcoming posts.)

GOOD PR STARTS AT HOME

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The Best PR Starts at Home

Do People Feel Welcome Working With You?

Imagine knocking on a friend’s door and your friend just opens the door for you to walk in. They don’t say hi to you nor call you by name, they just let you in and walk away. No, hellos. Nice to see you. Thank you for coming over. Nothing.

This is what happened to me recently when I volunteered at a major conference. I volunteered to work the event for a rather long time period. For this duty, the volunteers would be furnished lunch…it all sounded good to me and I was happy to be of some help.

But….as soon as I reported to duty things went awry.

I was told to be there very early in the morning and thus, was the first one on the scene. The staff I reported to showed up a hour later. And if that wasn’t enough, they never said hello, or thanked us for volunteering nor did they even care to know our names. And lunch, forgetaboutit. One of the volunteers had to remind them of their offer so they ordered a pizza.

This poor experience reminded me of this hard fact - the best PR starts at home. Here’s what I mean by that.

1) When working with volunteers – it is imperative that you make them feel welcomed and valued. They are as important to your event as the event. Without them, you would not be able to produce the event on a shoestring budget. So do your best to make them feel special.

2) PR people need to be friendly. I am embarrassed that I even have to write this statement. But, I am mortified to meet other colleagues that are not friendly to the press nor to people around them. Being relational in this field is a must.

Are you really Friendly

Are You Friendly or Just Appear to Be?

So, this little lesson isn’t just applicable to working with volunteers, it also applies to your Facebook page, website and reactions to the media.

Therefore, when people visit your Facebook page – do they feel welcome there or do you turn your back on them? Do you know their names? Do you not only listen to them, but do you truly hear them.

When a visitor lands on your website, how are they greeted? Can they easily access the information that they need most like how to contact you. Is your phone number prominently displayed or are you just selling them something?

As you can see a friendly welcome will go a long way in life and business. Check your attitudes online and in-person to make sure you are putting your best foot forward.

There’s no risks involved in being friendly and it all starts at home. Make sure when you put your feet on the floor to start the day, that you remember a warm hello and greeting will go a long way.

Thanks for reading and I hope you know that you are always welcome to leave messages or comments or can contact me directly. If I can ever be of any assistance, I hope you know my door is always open. You will always be greeted!

Thanks for the read.

Cindy

AlwaysOn OnHollywood Day 2 Update

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As the second day of the Always On & ETC OnHollywood conference draws to an end – on this day I gathered a few great nuggets of interesting info as the event took a peek into the future.

Some of the take-aways included:

  • The Economy is Coming Back-The conference featured several Los Angeles based equity investors with available money to support business opportunities.  There is VC money not just in Orange County, but also in Hollywood! That’s good news for all.  Apparently, the Silicon Valley is the best hotbed for engineering talent, but LA has a diverse workforce to pull from. LA is a great place for starting up companies in gaming, Internet, analog and content.  Not a great place for enterprise. Another tip is stay local for your investments.
  • Mine! Mine! Mine! - Yeah, it still appears that large content corporations want to keep their product on their own portals and are not willing to give it to distribution partners outside their walled gates.  They call this managing their exclusives.  I am not a fan of this practice, but corporately I understand it.
  • Smarter is Better - Yesterday I learned that all life will be done on our mobile phones, but today I heard about Smart TVs that include a hard drive and include widgets and apps.  Not only will our TVs get more robust, but I love that web content producers are cutting deals directly with smart TV hardware companies to provide their content.  This new approach bypasses the service provider.  What an amazing shift and change.
  • No More Flops - As someone who worked in the online gaming space for a number of years, I was blown away to hear that online gambling will soon become legal in this country.  I never thought the day would exist and I’m not sure how I feel about it. I mean I know there are ways that people have gone around these laws and have gambled online…but, opening it up means that more people will be able to lose whatever money they have. I believe that when this happens there will be another surge in popularity of online poker.

    Do you think it will be good idea to legalize online gambling?

  • It’s Not About the Money - I was excited hearing that web broadcast is a hard business and that if you’re in it for that reason, then that’s not the right reason. We can’t assume that the traditional broadcast model should be applied to new media. It’s apples to oranges.  They are radically different.  We are in the pioneer stages and it’s a wild, but adventurous frontier open to all.
  • Social Role Model - I’ve been meeting superstars in new media on a regular basis, but I haven’t met a female yet whom I thought was a definite rock star.  Justine Bateman blew me away today. She possesses the same philosophies as I do and had me captivated and in awe with this answer. She told a person in the audience that just because you aren’t getting traction pitching cable development executives, doesn’t mean that you should pitch online distributors as a default. She said you should pitch online if you live online. I so agree. I always say you shouldn’t hire a social media/pr consultant unless they practice social media themselves.
  • Branded Entertainment - Well, there’s no way it’s going away on broadcast nor web. Drats.  The motivation is too great to not employ these techniques online as well. In web, they see it as brand extension. It’s about efficiency, reach and deliverables. It is just in the infancy and it has tremendous growth.
  • Kangaroo TV – Steve Ross, owner of the NFL Miami Dolphins apparently gives a interactive hand held device to some of his season ticket holders that allows them to see different camera angles to the game as well as watch the other NFL games going on at the same time.  What a game changer. Brilliant idea Mr. Ross.
  • In-Home – You will start hearing this phrase more and more (In Home) entertainment. What this means is that is that this phrase means content provided to you at home via another service other than your cable company.  Also, keep an eye out for web content to be on their VOD channels as well. How cool will that be!

  • The Open Media Revolution is Over: Are We Better Off? Session (L-R) Jonathan Aronson, Tony Perkins, David Wertheimer

    Tony Perkins – I want to send a giant thank you to Tony Perkins, Founder and Editor of AlwaysOn, and his entire team for organizing this conference as well as the others.  He webcasts each one and for those of us who are not able to travel or pay for these cutting edge and topical conferences – this is a priceless gift.  I know I am smarter because of these conferences and more knowledgeable about areas I would have never been exposed.  So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for the opportunity.

Hardest PR to Do – Your Own

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Publicists are Company Cheerleaders

Tonight I spoke to a group of PR students about the hardest PR to do and in my opinion, your own publicity is the most difficult. Just as your resume is painful to write as is cleaning your own house.  I’d much rather do someone else’s PR than my own and I’d rather draft their resume and even help clean their home or garage.  When I do it these things for myself, it’s drudgery for some reason. It’s just less fun.

But, I wanted to point out to this energetic group how important it is to do your own PR, especially when looking to start a career.  This must never be overlooked.  I have seen these stats lately that 97% of all jobs are found through networking.  If the only way you will find your next job is through another person’s assistance, then it becomes imperative for you to be able to tell others what you are looking for in a position and what companies you are targeting in a 30-second elevator speech.  You need to have a clear, concise answer as to your work desires.

And after you’ve gotten down your elevator pitch, then you need to make sure your brand is reflected in everything you are posting online. Once branded, you need to stay true to that brand in all that you do on-and-off the record for as it was so aptly put in an article in today’s Wall Street Journal written by Jeffrey Zaslow-we need to think that cameras are always watching us.  Whatever appears on the web about us-is part of our brand-so it’s best to control it through blogs, comments, tweets and video.

The best comparison that I can make regarding publicity is that publicists are cheerleaders for a company. We’re standing out in front of the crowds yelling to the top of our lungs, touting the company’s accomplishments. We have their emblems on our sweaters and we are a walking sandwich board for them wherever we go.

It’s my calling and I love it.  But, I do act as a publicist in all that I do.  I’m constantly filtering what I’m saying, posting, shooting or visiting.  Because of my profession, I also edit what I think to make sure what I say is exactly the right words.

And when I’m not doing that I’m reading and observing how people engage with each other.  When I read a newspaper article, I’m looking at the responses to see how others counter attack.  That’s why you’ll see me write about such events as Toyota’s crisis, or Tiger Woods or now I’m watching BP Petroleum.   I look at how PR is being practiced in all areas around us.

Me In Action Doing Personal PR

All this leads to the fact that it’s important to have a sense of who you are so you can help others become who they want to be. And the field of public relations has a bright future, because of the harm that others are inflecting through digital abuse.  There will always be some mess for publicists to clean up whether that be a giant oil spill, a high-profile divorce or tainted aspirin.

Publicists will always come to the rescue.

Who Do You Portray Online?

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How Would You Describe Yourself?

Headlines are supposed to grab your attention…but, the cover of Parade on Sunday, March 21, captured my eye, but not exactly in the way this newspaper insert would have imagined.

The cover featured a story on Miley Cyrus, truly the new top teen celebrity, but it wasn’t the profile that got my attention, but its headline that made me chuckle. The editors of Parade gave it this title “I Know Who I Am Now.”

Which begged the question – do we ever really know who we are at any age?

For me, at age 10, I wanted be a cartoonist.  At 17, I wanted to be a sportscaster.  At 21, a TV news writer.  And now today, I am transitioning from a life in publicity to social media.

But I love this question and I’m posing it to you like I do with my clients — Do you know who you are?  And if so, is that brand projected online through all your syndicated products?  This is my favorite subject – my passion – personal branding. I enjoy working with people to help them define their uniqueness and authenticity and then have them project it through their online personae.

As we mature through our life our brand will change as our interests and passions do.  Therefore, our brands are always fluid and ebb and flow as we do.   I like to give my clients the same freedom to mirror themselves as they are currently are today.   Next year, your personal brand may change to support a new cause. Also it does take a time to find your brand.  It doesn’t come overnight.

Finding your brand is one of the best practices you will ever do and by knowing it – it will make you more profitable in business and assist in increasing your followers and community members.

I’ll be offering some advice to help you define “who you are” in later posts, but  until then, I want to you to be keep changing and taking on new challenges.  For that’s what life is about…it’s a wonderful journey with zig-zagging roads.

All My Best,
Cindy