The constant evolution of online marketing is becoming more and more challenging, especially for those not in the industry. I recently gave a presentation at an AZTechBeat Lunch & Learn (#AZTBlunch) on how to build your brand and become a top influencer. What was most interesting about this presentation was that everybody in the room was interested on a personal level.
I shared some “ninja” secrets on the top 5 ways to build your personal brand (executive branding) to grow your influence and relevance online. Here’s a quick rundown:
- Be ‘The Hunted’ Online
- Get Down with O.P.P.
- Be Review-markable
- Be like Tom Sawyer
- Start a Trust
Here are some of the top take-aways from the presentation:
- Personal and professional networks should no longer be considered separate events.
- Your influence online is a combination of all your social networks and things you have published articles: blogs, press releases, video, etc.
- You dedicate time online by either “spending your time” as a social event or investing your time to build your brand equity.
- It makes sense to focus your social media efforts with the top social networks:
- Google Plus
- Tumblr
- …do you have others that should be listed here?
- Most importantly, you need to define what your overall goals are (e.g. – generating inbound opportunities)
This leads to ninja secret #1 about being ‘the hunted’ online. Although this may sound like a bad thing, you know from your own experiences that you don’t go online to find the 5th, 6th, 10th or 20th best person/business suited for your needs. You are looking for the expert, the best in class, and that’s whom you want to reach out to and become.
Looking for a quick way to get to the top…think O.P.P (ninja tip #2). I am not referring to the song by Naughty by Nature, O.P.P., but Other Peoples Profiles. Find influencers in the markets that you want to become a top influencer in and come up with a strategy to get access to their profiles with a blend of your marketing message that best suits the interests of the influencer. One of the easiest ways is to simply do a Google Hangout and then turn the video into a collaborative multimedia marketing event. Think of this as an ongoing campaign by developing articles, images, status updates, video and think of creative ways to get this campaign on other peoples profiles to help get the message out. We call this content marketing methodology, the content wheel.
To become review-markable (ninja tip #3), you need to be remarkable and think in terms of giving instead of receiving. About half of the top influencers write 2-5 reviews weekly. Build some karma credit by writing reviews and going out of your way to help other people and their brands and this will come back tenfold to you.
Regarding being like Tom Sawyer (ninja tip #4), this is the art of segmenting your brand into the three buckets of you:
- Your personal side – @ Play
- Your professional side – @ Work
- You socially conscious side – @ Community
If you think of the story of Tom Sawyer, he was such a master negotiator that he got other people to paint his fence for him (willingly) and they also gave him something of monetary value just for the privilege of doing the work for him. By looking at his personal and community interests, you get a better understanding of how this was accomplished.
There are three dynamics to building and marketing your executive brand. Start by going to your LinkedIn profile and organize it in the three buckets of you (professionally, personal attributes and your community outreach).
Here is a tip for reaching out to influencers…just because you have a professional commonality doesn’t make you interesting. When reaching out to influencers, focus on the personal aspects and communities ties and then show your human side to reach the influencer on a professional level. This common ground is a far more interesting and effective outreach strategy.
The last tip (ninja tip #5) is to build a trust, a digital asset trust. This is the way you organize all of your online marketing channels and how to best leverage them to grow your influence and relevance online. Take inventory of all the social media profiles you have as an individual and for the brand that you represent and put them into a Google Doc or spreadsheet. Use tools like Klout.com to connect all of the social networks in one place to see how to enhance your online clout and influence.
If you are interested in getting access to MINT Social’s upcoming launch of The Digital Asset MINT, click here to complete our online form and reference Digital Asset MINT.
