Communicate Your Value - and Brand Yourself to Win (Designer Edition)

COMMUNICATE YOUR VALUE — AND BRAND YOURSELF TO WIN ERIC WEAVER • SVP SOCIAL STRATEGY • MEDIABRANDS

MARCH 2013

Currently SVP Social Strategy for Mediabrands (IPG)

22 years in digital marketing

Brand strategies for Ford, Brita, P&G, BMW and others

Social strategies for Intel, Jack in the Box, Holland America, HP, Starbucks, HTC

Last three roles came from my social media footprint!

WE ALL BRING SOME KIND OF VALUE TO THE WORLD

…yet — cobbler’s kids — not all of us can package and communicate our value — to managers, peers or clients.

How do we communicate our story and our value?

Prove you’re the kind of person successful businesses want?

Create a visible, concise story that is easily found online?

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TODAY’S TOPICS

  The need for a personal branding strategy

  How to craft this strategy

  Content

  Venues for content

  Best practices/ cautionary tales

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PERSONAL BRAND STRATEGY

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A PERSONAL WHUTT? A personal brand strategy is a simple 2-3 page document that can help you:

1.  KNOW YOURSELF

  Who am I, really?

  How do I work? What am I like? What do I value?

  What problems do I solve?

2.  DETERMINE WHERE YOU WANT TO GO

  Subject matter expert? Team lead? Creative?

  Where do I get the most joy? Challenge? Satisfaction?

  Who is my audience for that kind of role?

3.  POSITION YOURSELF FOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

  What are competitors saying to the market?

  What makes me different? Better?

  What are the reasons others should believe me?

  Can I leverage existing truths about me — and suggest new truths — that will make me a more desirable candidate?

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AND WHY WOULD I NEED SOMETHING LIKE THAT?

Judging how we are perceived is difficult

A little thought and structure around our perception helps remove subjectivity

If you can create a perception that better aligns you with what your clients want — and if you can bring consistency and clarity to that perception — you can get past their time starvation and build trust

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TWO PROBLEMS

TRUST ISSUES FOR JOB APPLICANTS

49% of surveyed hiring managers caught a job applicant fabricating resume data

34% of all applications contain outright lies about experience, education and ability to do the job

The average cost of a bad hire can equal 30% of their salary

To replace them: $7k for entry-level, $10k for mid-manager, $40k for exec

OUCH. SOURCES: US DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, SHRM, CAREERBUILDER.COM

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PROBLEM #2:

TIME STARVATION Attention deficit

Smartphone addiction

Girl Scouts now can earn a merit badge in time management

Hiring professionals are ESPECIALLY time-starved, so asking for their time means a good ask, and a good story.

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#1) WHO ARE YOU – REALLY? WORK TRAITS – DESCRIBES THE ROLE FIT: think #keywords. Adjectives others would use to describe HOW you do what you do. Analytical. Collaborative. Strategic. Consensus builder. Investigator. Translator.

PERSONALITY – DESCRIBES THE CHEMISTRY FIT: adjectives others would use to describe WHO you are. Funny. Warm. Humble. Friendly. Driven. Matter-of-fact. Trustworthy. Both good & bad.

VALUES – DESCRIBES THE POTENTIAL OUTCOME: what’s important to you? Curiosity. Dependability. Speed. Accuracy.

THE PRIMARY PROBLEM YOU SOLVE:

“I help overworked clients make smarter decisions around their marketing efforts.”

“I bring clarity and usability to digital channels.”

“I persuade clients to innovate without adding risk.”

“I bring stories to life through unique, compelling creative.”

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#2) WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO? DESIRED CAREER PATH: what do you see yourself doing in three years? Five years?

SPECIALTY EXPERT, TEAM LEADER OR FREE AGENT? Do you want to be the best in your field? Lead and coordinate people? Or act as a lone agent accomplishing tasks for a company?

SUCCESS MEASUREMENT: how do you know you’ve achieved your goal? Salary? Title? Responsibilities? Staff? Industry recognition? Awards?

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#3) HOW DO I POSITION MYSELF TO GET THERE? AUDIENCE: who do I have to connect with and communicate my value to, in order to advance along the path? What do they want to hear from me? What don’t they?

DIFFERENTIATORS: for that audience, what makes me different? Better than the next person? Uniquely qualified?

REASONS TO BELIEVE: why should anyone believe I’m better? What proof points do I have?

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EXAMPLE: JENA

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EXAMPLE: JENA

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• Problem-‐solver

• Pursuing excellence

• Elegant solu�ons

IMPORTANT

  Do an HONEST assessment of where you are today – good and bad – warts and all

  Tweak your traits to become aspirational — but don’t be so far off-script of who you are as to be non-credible

  Test your personal brand strategy with colleagues and friends

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CONTENT

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WHAT TO POST OR PUBLISH?

In Jena’s case, she wants to not only explore UX/UI, but become enough of an expert to become a thought leader. So we’ll suggest she both CURATE and CREATE content that will

  Help her grow

  Build trust in her abilities

  Show off her thinking process

  Show off what she’s learned during her career

  Share her vision for her area of expertise

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CURATE

Post articles to friends and colleagues that discuss or demonstrate great UX/UI

Engage in related forums

React to related current events or industry news, and solicit opinions

CREATE

Continue to showcase her design savvy

Post commentary about how function can have compelling form

Share her team’s success stories

Share her own cautionary tales

Share her career journey and learnings

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STRONG VENUES FOR CURATION

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  Tumblr

  Pinterest

  Facebook/Twitter

  LinkedIn groups/Q&A

STRONG VENUES FOR CREATED CONTENT

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  Personal blog

  Facebook/Twitter

  Video blog

  Audio podcast

  SlideShare

MORE ABOUT SLIDESHARE   60MM monthly visitors,

140MM monthly pageviews

  Content sharable on intranets

  Audio “slidecasts” give the audience an idea about you

  Voted amongst the World’s Top 10 Tools for education and eLearning

  By paying for PRO edition, content more likely featured on homepage

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MORE ABOUT RICH MEDIA   Aids in retention

  Easily digestible when time-starved

  Provides a more 3-dimensional view of you as an expert

  BlogTalkRadio allows you to interview others, provide more perspective, widen the value

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RICH MEDIA NEED NOT BE DIFFICULT – NOR EXPENSIVE Animoto.com lets you create a HD video very cheaply (or free) – synced slides to music or an audio track

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YOUR SOCIAL SITES

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TRICK OUT TWITTER   Contact info

  Link back to your primary site

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FILTER YOUR FACEBOOK   Links back to your primary site, blog

or profile (aggregator) page

  Share personal side of yourself, but:

  Create a separate list for clients or colleagues

  Segregate your posts so colleagues and potential hiring managers aren’t bombarded by this:

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LEVERAGE YOUR LINKEDIN   Ask for testimonials

(particularly from clients with whom you have a good relationship)

  Link back to your blog, Twitter account, SlideShare

  Keep it succinct

  Probably should think about “Open to Job Opportunities”

  Provide industry-specific advice on the successor to LinkedIn Answers

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PONDER PINTEREST

Pinterest has grown to the size of Twitter, in a shorter time

ADD A PIN IT! BUTTON TO YOUR WEBSITE

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PONDER PINTEREST

Pinterest has grown to the size of Twitter, in a shorter time

ADD A PIN IT! BUTTON TO YOUR WEBSITE

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BEST PRACTICES/ CAUTIONARY TALES

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SET UP ONE PRIMARY PROFILE PAGE   About.me

  Google+ profile

  LinkedIn

  Naymz (Premium)

…and add links to content to drive traffic back to your profile

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CONSIDER GARY VAYNERCHUK

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REMEMBER IF YOU FRIENDED YOUR BOSS

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REMEMBER THAT GOOGLE HAS A GREAT MEMORY – AND THAT SOME EXECS ENJOY VANITY SEARCHES

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MAKE YOUR CONTENT KEYWORD-RICH

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OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

  DO build proof points

  Video

  Testimonials

  Sourced statistics wherever possible

  DO build a content calendar, targeting:

  Important industry dates, events, conferences

  Regular update times

  Example: Jena might read about an upcoming Facebook UI change & prepare a post

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DON’TS

Don’t ever lie or even stretch – you run the risk of being called out, publicly

If you have experiences where you have damaged others’ trust, make a nod to them first, before others do

Don’t stalk hiring managers on social channels

If you friend them, explain why you’re doing so

Don’t spam, bombard or intrude as it annoys recruiters and managers, as it would in real life

Fear smells awful

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DON’TS

Don’t ever lie or even stretch – you run the risk of being called out, publicly

If you have experiences where you have damaged others’ trust, make a nod to them first, before others do

Don’t stalk hiring managers on social channels

If you friend them, explain why you’re doing so

Don’t spam, bombard or intrude as it annoys recruiters and managers, as it would in real life

Fear smells awful

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IF YOU’RE SAYING POTENTIALLY INFLAMMATORY THINGS, MAKE SURE YOU’RE NOT STILL LOGGED INTO THE COMPANY ACCOUNT

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BBOOOOMMEERRSS

All about pprroopprriieettyy.. We were trained in formalities, taught to never offend. Oversharing is “weak.” Guarded = safe. And your suit & tie is a sign of trustworthiness in business.

GENS X&Y

All about affinity. Formalities are ignored, sharing means being found, and they grew up with Google. Your suit & tie = untrustworthy.

2010 THE YEAR MILLENIALS SURPASSED BOOMERS IN THE WORKFORCE

PHOTO: FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/KATINALYNN

CONSIDER GENERATIONAL NORMS

PROBABLY NOT A GOOD IDEA

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SUMMARY

Structure will help you get rid of subjectivity

Content will help you tell your story, showcase your thinking, and BE FOUND

Leverage social – whether you personally use it or not

As you build your footprint, think TRUST and TIME STARVATION

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THANK YOU!

FOLLOW ME AT

@WEAVE OTHER PRESENTATIONS AT

slideshare.net/weave

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Communicate Your Value - and Brand Yourself to Win (Designer Edition)

Business

Transcript of Communicate Your Value - and Brand Yourself to Win (Designer Edition)