Interview on Atlanta Business Radio

Just a quick note to mention that I was interviewed recently on Atlanta Business Radio. Hosts Amy Otto and Lee Kantor made me feel right at home as we discussed how the Internet has impacted the way we brand and some tips that small businesses can learn from the big ones. Click here: David Cohen on Atlanta Business Radio to visit the site.

A seven-point tune-up for your personal brand

My friend Mike just sent me a link to a nice article on personal branding: Maintaining your Personal Brand Online by Jonathan Snook.  First of all, I happen to think it is one of the more attractively and readably designed blogs that I’ve seen lately, but I’m recommending the article for different reasons. Seven reasons to be exact.  Actually seven very practical tips for stepping up your engagement in your personal brand, that Mr. Snook has thoughtfully provided.   I won’t spoil his thunder, but I will say that I think these are good, easy to do steps that will help raise your recognizability online. And as you know that is the first of the three Rs of branding.

Visit: Maintaining your Personal Brand Online

Fickle Findability

Yesterday my friend Sherry asked me if I would be interested in leading some discussions on personal branding at SoCon08.  Of course I was delighted and flattered, but it occurred to me that it might be useful to offer up a few thoughts to set the stage for the conversation:  What I wish to assert is that personal branding is something other than self promotion.  I don’t mean to be coy.  Certainly an increase in visibility is a likely byproduct of personal branding.  In fact, for many it is a highly desired outcome.  As a business person, I count myself in that number. However, the part that I find really interesting is the fact that it is getting harder to be invisible.   We don’t need to act like P.T. Barnum to be findable - findability is happening to us, and a little more each day. Being findable is not the same concept as being popular.  Many of the attendees at SoCon08 will be people who have embraced the idea of being findable, when popularity was never an overt goal. Being findable is part of how they build community, it flows from their desire to have and share a voice with those who would find that voice of interest.  Vlog, blog, or podcast, link profiles, or tweet@twitter and you are actively enabling your own findability, but it is happening passively too.  You shop online and leave a vendor a comment,  you’re spotted on YouTube by someone’s phone-cam while attending a conference, someone tags you and puts your picture on Flickr, or maybe a customer mentions you in her blog - you didn’t intend it, but you just got a little more findable.  Promotion, as I see it, is about trying to accelerate and control the findability, but the control is an illusion. (You might hang on to the bull for the whole 8 seconds, but are you really in control?) Personal branding is about choosing to participate, choosing consciously to add your voice to a chorus that may already be out there.  A chorus that is probably easier to find than any platform of your own.  So will you be in harmony?  Can you influence the chorus?  This I hope is an interesting place to start a conversation about personal branding.

Are you nodding in agreement or just nodding off?

I’ve posted here before about being the Ambassador of your Brand, but I thought that Seth Godin made a nice point in his blog today (big surprise) that tied in neatly with the concept.  In his post, entitled Always on (everybody markets), he points out that how you act throughout your day, is in itself a form of marketing.  If you’re falling asleep or looking bored during a meeting you are advertising your lack of enthusiasm, and like it or not, that reflects on your personal branding.  There is an old saw that goes “how you practice is how you play” and whether you choose to believe that or not, it is often how you are measured by those around you.  If you consistently project an air of apathy, chances are you will be labeled as an apathetic person — not usually considered a career enhancing trait.

This also points out the importance of the brand ambassador’s job to communicate:  if you are yawning in the conference room because you’ve been pulling all-nighters to meet a critical deadline, then don’t be reluctant to politely share that fact.  Better to be thought of as someone who might be tooting his/her own horn a little bit, than to be perceived as someone too bored to stay awake, or worse, labeled as someone who just doesn’t care.

“Don’t be humble, you’re not good enough.”

No, I’m not picking on you, I’m quoting an old mentor of mine, Archie Rand. Archie is an artist and teacher and walking encyclopedia of art history (and music history for that matter). I don’t know if the line is his originally, but it is a gem I’ve hung on to for over 17 years, since I was a long-haired MFA candidate with more paint on my clothes than on my canvases. And no, Archie wasn’t picking on me either - he was giving me a gift, and in a way paying me a compliment. His point was that none of us is so good that we should just rest on our laurels or risk being passed over for the sake of mere modesty. Think about the most talented, successful people on the planet - what do they have in common? A publicist.

“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” That’s a risky strategy when Inferior-Mousetraps-R-Us has a weekly newsletter, a larger sales force, better distribution, and a keynote at the next cheddar cheese conference. No matter how talented you are, no matter how top-notch your team, or how world-beating your business process is, a little self-promotion, a gentle reminder, even a bit of selective bragging can do you a world of good. Think first: think about who you are, how you want to be perceived, how you bring value and can genuinely benefit the customers you serve, but don’t think you’re doing anything wrong by telling people about your skills, experience and successes.

And if you find yourself the target of praise (lavish or otherwise) don’t be the one “who dost protest too much.” Instead, take the advice of another sage, my late grandmother: “Say thank you, and sit down.”

You are the ambassador of your brand.

This one goes out to all the good folks who are up early in the morning, going to their local chamber of commerce, hitting that networking breakfast, and doing their part to keep the economy going through good old fashioned hustle.  You are the ambassador of your brand. 

When you swap cards at the chamber you are engaged in economic diplomacy and the stakes are high for you and your business.  When you stand up and give your 60, or 45, or 30 second speech at that networking lunch you are in the process of setting policy and expectations for inter-business relations.  Now here’s the rub: you are you AND you are the impression-setter for your company.  You are the window by which your friends, partners, customers, and prospects become acquainted with your brand.  If you are not projecting an image that is consistent with your brand you are creating a disconnect in the minds of the people you meet, yet you must also be authentic to yourself. Of course it is easier when you own the company and you are the one setting the tone for vision, mission and value for both yourself and your enterprise.  but even if you are working for someone else, you are shouldering the responsibility for framing the brand story for the people you interact with - if you are phony, it reflects on the brand, if you are impatient, it reflects on the brand, if you are overly what’s-in-it-for-me, that reflects on the brand.  A brand can be a lot of things, and a person is a whole lot more complex, but you have to find a harmony that fits, that gives people access to you, and through you, to all the great value your company can bring.

What’s your brand’s diplomatic policy?  Try writing down the 3 to 5 most important aspects you want your business contacts to recognize in your brand.  Then write down the 3 to 5 perceptions you want people to have of you. How well do they align?  Ask a trusted friend if this the image you are projecting.  Go over your elevator pitch, your handshake line, your stadium pitch, and see if it serves both you and your brand to meet the criteria you’ve written down.  Keep tweaking and tuning - you’ll know when you’ve found the right balance, because it will both feel good, and will get you the folks you want to connect with: the ones aligned with the value you offer and the working vibe that suits you best.  That’s the best kind of business diplomacy.