Branding

Personal Branding as a Leadership Requirement

• A brand is a commitment that builds a relationship between a professional/a company. For a professional, this means the following, as detailed by contributor to Forbes, Glenn Llopis (2013):
  • The process of developing a personal brand is a big responsibility that extends beyond social media and an online presence
  • Managing one’s personal brand means that you are showcasing your achievements and success stories
  • You must be fully accountable to your audience and your customers, as your personal brand should become instinctual and natural, a genuine part of who you are
  • Llopis suggests living through the “lens of a brand” to develop more mindfully a true authenticity that will be meaningful to customers

Social Media Branding for Professionals and for Businesses

• Social media is an effective way to manage a brand’s equity, image, and campaign. Sprout Social contributor Dominique Jackson writes of ten social media strategies, from which, I have chosen the three I find most useful (2016):
  • Develop your voice
    • How you communicate should connect with your audience
  • Use your bio/profile section
    • Let people know who you are and what you do, don’t fill this section up with hashtags or motivational quotes
  • Engage, engage, engage
    • Share content, but also reply to tweets and comments

Designing Brand Identity

• One of the most significant steps in branding is the actual planning and design of the brand identity. Alina Wheeler created a comprehensive guide-style book from which I have found the following self-reflective questions to be useful in my strategic planning (2013):
  • Who are you? Who needs to know? How will they find you? Why should they care?
  • When do you start the process of designing brand identity?
    • New company, new product
    • Name change
    • Brand revitalization
    • Creating an integrated system
  • When companies merge/when you partner with someone
  • Who are stakeholders? Who are constituents? What are their characteristics and needs?

References

Jackson, Dominique. (2016, February 3). 10 Social Media Branding Strategies Every Business Should Follow. Retrieved from http://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-branding/

Llopis, Glenn. (2013, April 8). Personal Branding is a Leadership Requirement, Not a Self-Promotion Campaign. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2013/04/08/personal-branding-is-a-leadership-requirement-not-a-self-promotion-campaign/#4aedb7e315c0

Wheeler, Alina. (2013). Designing brand identity. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.