Tips for creating a smoking personal brand

A few days ago, I was lucky enough to participate in the Social Media Arizona conference, a day-long event for corporate employees and entrepreneurs who wanted to learn how to use social media effectively in their business.

My presentation was called How to amp up the personal in your brand. I uploaded it to Slideshare and added narration to make a 30-minute presentation which you can view here:

The presentation drew from a previous post I did for John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing during Make a Referral Week. The original post is here.

I think the keys to having a successful personal brand are:

1. Clarity. Say what you think and mean what you say. Personal branding is nothing more than amplifying who you really are. Don’t try to get fancy and mix a bunch of “strategery” in your communications, just speak clearly and plainly. I expand on this topic in detail in my post Let the wild rumpus start.
2. Spice. Bring out your own unique flavor in your communications. If you are bold and spicy, celebrate that. If you are smooth and subtle, enhance that. We all have spice, and people want to experience yours.
3. Polarity. Guy Kawasaki told me long ago “controversy is good.” You do not want to serve the whole world, and if you try to, your message will come out bland and boring. Serve your people. If you feel you have to change yourself or your message to be accepted at work, change environments, don’t change yourself.
4. Reality. People want to know about you as a real, live human being. Don’t be afraid to share some parts of your personal life online if they will help people to understand who you really are. No one wants to befriend/do business with a slick corporate robot. Example of my very human shortcomings: Crafts from hell.

What makes you feel connected to someone online or in person?

Links referenced in Slideshare:

Cindy Willick’s liberating YouTube video Body Image
Freshbooks
Jeff Moriarty
James Andrews
Whole Foods CEO Op-Ed fallout