Personal Branding & You

How to build a personal brand using Social media

Billy Blue Design school Presentation August 12 2009

Agenda

1. Introduction2. What is a brand3. What is personal branding4. Why create a personal brand5. How -The five steps to success 6. Summary7. Resources

The intro Hi I’m Dave Wesson @wess

• Social Media Marketing Consultant • Family Man

• Ocean swimmer

“A brand is a persons gut feeling about a product, service or organisation”

‘The brand gap’ -Marty Neumeier

Interactions + feelings = Brands

What is a brand

Some examples of brands

The rise of the web celebrity

Acts as a brand

Publishes content

Very influential

1.3 million followers on twitter

Perez Hilton

The Micro Celebrity

• The web thrives on niche • Every person has the potential to influence their

peers within their own niche

• Warhol “everybody will be Famous for fifteen minutes”

• May have 30 friends but you can influence each other or key influencers through chatter

• Six degree of separation

Personal branding is the process of how we market ourselves to

others. 

Yourself self impression = How People Perceive You

What is personal Branding?

Why create a personal brand?

• Stand out from the crowd/be memorable

• Share what you have to offer the world

• Tell your story• Make it easy for people to get you• Drive Your Career

How –The Five Basic Steps to Success

1. Research 2. Create Content3. Optimise & Distribute 4. Engage & Influence5. Monitor & Evaluate

1. Research

Where are the audiences you want to speak to?

What are they saying ?

Who are the key influencers within your

Community?

What forms of content are they using to

communicate?

Monitor your environment

Subscribe using the RSS feed to the top blogs & sites in your niche area

Subscribe to your favorites blogs & sites by setting up a

Google reader account

User twitter tools like Tweep Search to find out who’s

talking about your area of design on twitter & follow

them

Set up Google alerts around your keywords & your brand

2. Create Content

“The web allows us to create multiple streams & every time we activate a

online profile we are creating a life stream”

David Armano

All these life Streams are connected

The New Reality

Are we living in Planet Obama ?

"(Obama) recognizes that, in the same way a

blog can’t survive on just one post a day, a

presidency can no longer survive on one message

per day or one press conference per year.

Instead, you have to turn on a fire hose.“

New York Times

http://nymag.com/news/politics/58199/

Some Basic Rules to apply

1. Set up your home base foundations & move out from there

2. Create new content regularly 3. The more other can use your content the better

they will adopt it 4. Consider adding audio & video to the mix 5. Mix up the kind of pieces you put on your site/blog6. Think of yourself as a publisher for your audience 7. Write passionately 8. Be yourself 9. Don’t be afraid to experiment

3. Optimise & Distribute • Optimisation is the process of choosing

targeted keyword to increase ranking or online visibility search.

• Steps to achieve this include:– Attach keywords to text documents, video’s,

photos and in setting up any online profiles. – Include keywords in all file names– Tag articles in social bookmarking sites like

delicious & Digg– Distribute content through your life streams

David Carson Google Search

David Carson Images in Google

David Carson Wikipedia page

Which Platforms?

4. Engage & Influence

• Join the conversation • Start by Commenting on other peoples

blogs builds awareness fast • The more valuable your comments the more

it reflects on your credibility online • The aim is to build trust and credibility over

a period of time • Manage your social systems and add value

to them with your content

Manage your Social Systems

Work out which ones work best?

Do they aligns with your Personal

brand goals?

Rules of engagement

• Be authentic and personal• Be honest and transparent• Conversations, not push messages • Avoid advertising-driven messaging• Add value to the community• Understand & respect the community’s

rules of the engagement• Make no assumptions

5. Monitor & Evaluate

• Google Analytics • What’s worked what

hasn’t • Monitor buzz• Engagement

metrics• Identify

trends/themes• Future

opportunities 

Summary

• Starting today start thinking of yourself as a brand

• With social media you have an opportunity to create & define what your personal brand is

• Create life Streams• Experiment • Don’t forget how important Google is • You have the power to influence & be your

own brand .

Lastly

“You have to embrace your personality and be true to your self and let it shine through”

Rohit Bhargava. “Personality not included”

Resources

• Chris Brogan -Social media Guru http://www.chrisbrogan.com

• Steve Rubel’s Lifestream http://www.steverubel.com

• Adaptive Path (UI design) http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/

• David Armano (designer/communicator) http://darmano.typepad.com/

• Seth Godin (marketing guru) http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

• Anna Fraser Design http://www.annafraser.com.au

Find me here

• Blog: http://www.davidwesson.typepad.com

• Email: davidwesson@mac.com

• Twitter http://www.twitter.com/wess

• Linked in http://www.linkedin/in/davidwesson

Thank you