The Charismatic Personal Brand: Issue and Solution

Lately at Drive Action Digital we’ve have the good pleasure of speaking with individuals that are very interested in social media. They’ve mostly experience some sort of success and notoriety, whether it be in the local news, business, or even former American Idol contestants. These interactions have inevitably kicked off stimulating conversation regarding Joehow to leverage the power of social media to enhance these people’s personal brand.  So this week, as I’ve done in the past, I’m going to offer a week long blog post break down of some of the issues presented, and hopefully offer some guidance regarding finding the right solution for you. This information has been proven, has value, and will ultimately save you time and money – so pay close attention:

Issue:

Most people don’t realize the power of creating a charismatic personal brand.  They realize they need to “do” social media, however their efforts usually tend to be disjointed and lack an element of management that they bring to their chosen profession. Now, more than ever is the time to change this. There is too much opportunity to ignore social media in your marketing mix.  So let’s take an example. We’ll call the person Joe.

Joe is a charismatic executive in a major corporation. He cares about making money, and ensuring that his bottom line is in good shape. He’s a phenomenal orator, and he has a loyal team of executives that he directs. Joe is always looking to help his team, and his attitude has cultivated a great deal of success for him in the past. However Joe is now hitting a wall. He’s always been a good listener, however he’s starting to realize that he may have been listening to the wrong people.  While his team is talented, they understand that they need Joe in order to thrive in their business, so sometimes they tend to tell Joe what he wants to hear. Joe doesn’t listen to his community of consumers. This, is more of an issue today than ever. Today, the community has access to social networks, blogs and technology that when dissatisfied they communicate about their dissatisfaction. They could communicate about how much they love Joe’s company, however they have nothing to chat about. They want to open a dialogue with Joe, and he’s interested in their feedback, however he’s not certain how to facilitate that conversation. Just as this community has resources, and free technology to communicate about and with Joe’s company, so to does Joe. Again, he’s just not sure where to start. So what’s the solution?

Solution:

Joe needs to create and cultivate his Charismatic Personal Brand by leveraging the power of social media. Joe, as an executive of a company should take a few simple steps. Create a blog, twitter account, and a business Facebook page. He can also create a Linkedin profile or group, and Youtube account.  These outlets will ensure that Joe’s content will be viral distributable, and discoverable. His blog will serve as the center hub of all of his communication. As the leader of his organization he can leverage the blog to offer a peek behind the curtain. To discuss what Joe is truly passionate about, and to help his community to better understand what Joe is all about. Remember, Joe is successful. They’re going to want to know how he got to where he is today, and what drives Joe. What’s important to him, and what get him out of bed in the morning.  The key to this solution is to generate unique and interesting content. Most people when faced with this fact tend to think – “why would someone want to know where I am, or what’s on my mind”, but here’s the rub – they DO. They want to know more about you, and they want to understand you better. This is human nature.  Think about how powerful it would be if Joe, while he may be based in New York is traveling to LA on business. He tweets out to his followers that he’ll be in LA. One of Joe’s business associates that he hasn’t spoken to in years sees this tweet, and reaches out to Joe to set up some time to meet. This would not have happened if Joe didn’t set up his social community. While Joe may not think anyone in interested, again, he’s incorrect and he may be missing an opportunity to interact with his peers.

I’ll get into more specifics regarding content generation, as well as tools that will assist in the expeditious distribution of all content.  So that when Joe creates a blog post, it posts to his Twitter Account, and Facebook page. It will also allow Joe to track the interactions around his content, and offer him guidance regarding what types of content resonate with Joe’s social community. Therefore helping him generate more content that will resonate.

In the coming days this week, I’ll cover how Joe can change his organization from a “me” centric organization to a “we” centric organization. We’ll discuss how to truly engage in social media, as well as articulate how social media can be leveraged as a new way to sell. He can “own” the discovery process about his products and services by cornering the google searches that are conduced on him, as well as his organization.

Over and out.