What You Need to Stand Out in a Noisy World

From Harvard Business Review, Dorie Clark share great advice on how to stand out in a busy, noisy world.  She offers three key features:  social proof, content creation and your network. She writes: 

Social Proof

Humans, especially busy ones, have a bias toward conserving mental energy. It’s cognitively taxing for them to independently evaluate every person they come into contact with to determine, “Is this person credible?” Indeed, performing that calculation is almost impossible if the person is outside their field of expertise, because they simply may not have enough information to know. That’s why social proof is so critical. Social proof is a heuristic that allows people to judge something — in this case, you — based on your affiliations with brands they already trust. If you went to Harvard, the thinking goes, you must be intelligent; if your book was a New York Times bestseller, it must be good. 

Obviously, these are exceptions (sometimes glaring), but in general, social proof provides shortcuts that are helpful for people most of the time. You can leverage the power of social proof to ensure your ideas are taken more seriously — immediately — by making an effort to align yourself with people and institutions that are known and respected within your industry.

For instance, if you make it a priority to start blogging for a publication that everyone in your field reads, that can be a quick shortcut to credibility. If you’ve worked at an industry-leading company, make sure that it’s prominently featured in your bio and that you periodically share anecdotes highlighting your time there. If you take on a leadership role in a professional association, that sends the signal that your peers respect you enough to select you as their leader. Social proof enables others to “relax” about you; they don’t need to be so vigilant in evaluating your credentials because you’ve already been vetted by others. That primes them to listen to your ideas more carefully and with an open mind.

Read the full story at What You Need to Stand Out in a Noisy World

13 Daily Activities That Will Double the Size of Your Personal Brand in 6 Months or Less

From QuickSprout, Niel Patel provides great recommendations on how to improve your personal brand by offering 13 specific things you can do.  Some of Neil's suggsetions are:

1. Write from the heart

One of the best things you can do to build your personal brand is to write daily/regular authentic blog posts where you talk about your life, your struggles, and your triumphs while offering real value to your audience.

People love to read the authentic stuff.

You can’t fake authenticity. It’s hard to open up, to be real, to feel raw, and to share things that are, well, heartfelt.

But what does this do for your personal brand and your audience?

It will show others you are a real person, just like them, and make you far more relatable. People like to know the person from whom they are buying, and doing this positions you as a “friendly expert.”

2. Take a picture doing something you love, and post it on social media

A picture is truly worth a thousand words. Posting regular pictures on social media of you partaking in a favorite activity will make you more relatable to everyone and will build special rapport with people who share your interest.

For example, gym pics, pics at the gun range (a highly polarizing activity that will likely generate some controversy, so be warned), in the kitchen, or at the movies are all great ways to seem more personable and start great conversations with your followers.

Read the full story at 13 Daily Activities That Will Double the Size of Your Personal Brand in 6 Months or Less

Personal Branding Lessons from Muhammed Ali

Sheri Allain offers great advice on building your personal brand based on the great Muhammed Ali. She provides three terrific recommendations:

1. Brand Voice - aside from Muhammad Ali, has any boxer or fighter ever been associated with lyrical lines, political poetry and inspirational orations like Ali? Ali quotes are ubiquitous: strong, succinct, compelling and emotionally rich. While his trash-talking served as great sound-bites, it also established his rep as a fearless athlete who understood the importance of self-promotion.

Personal Branding Implication - determine your style of voice and make your statements bold, brazen, clear and strong. Move hearts, motivate minds and make 'em laugh. Speak the truth, aways.

2. Brand Visual - Ali was pretty. And he knew it. He looked good in boxing trunks, traditional African kente cloth and dashiki or the iconic bow-tie of the Nation of Islam. His figure was a vessel for winning fights and for making a political and cultural statement. When you think of Muhammad Ali, you don't think "sponsored by Brand X" or wonder what designer he wore to the awards gala. The man wore the clothes, the clothes never ever wore the man. And while tattoos today have become the equivalent of skin graffiti, Ali's body was an unmarked work of art and physical perfection.

Personal Branding Implication - worry less about the label and more about the package. Hold your self in high esteem always, for everything that you do is a direct reflection of your personal brand.

Read the rest of the story at 3 Knock-Out Lessons on Personal Branding from Muhammad Ali

How to Build a Memorable Personal Brand on Twitter

From Hubspot, Wendy Marx offers terrific guidance on how to build your brand on Twitter.  She recommends following the leaders in your industry, defining your brand, and sharpening your profile and provides actionable takeaways.  For example, she writes:  

Step #4: Create and curate great content. Repeat.

Tweet negative things and you’ll be seen as a naysayer. Tweet helpful, insightful content and you’ll grow your reputation. If there’s a common thread among those with impressive Twitter brands, it's that they all post a steady stream of valuable content.

“You can’t tweet enough,” urges Schaffer. This doesn't mean that you should aim for 100 tweets a day, but if you're seeing positive engagement, keep it going.

The lesson? Find your rhythm. For example, Michael Brenner, author and CEO of Marketing Insider, says he tweets every hour typically from his smart phone while reading. “I’m a big fan of email newsletters,” he says. “I scan the headlines and if I read the article, I share it.”

While it’s tempting to rely solely on curated content, if you’re serious about building your personal brand, try to post some original content. “The fuel of social media is content,” says Schaefer. “I devote an enormous amount of time to creating original content on my blog which then becomes something I can deliver on Twitter that is helpful and unique.”

Smith says she likes to spotlight up-and-coming bloggers and experts that not many people are tweeting about. “I want to give people a leg up and not just share the same super popular blog posts others were sharing,” she says.

Actionable Takeaways:

1. Don’t share content without identifying the source or the author, says Schaffer. Don’t simply say via @HubSpot or @HuffingtonPost. Take the trouble to also identify the author, who will appreciate the mention.
2. Tweet with an image whenever possible. Posts with images on social media are 40X more likely to get shared. “I tweet 100% of my tweets with images,” says Schaffer.

Read the full story at How to Build a Memorable Personal Brand on Twitter

6 Personal Branding Secrets from Drag Queens

From Fast Company, Gwen Moran offers six fabulous lessons about personal branding gleaned from drag queens.  Gwen provides these two to start:  

1. DEVELOP YOUR PERSONA

Huba recommends thinking of the brand you wish to develop as your "alter ego," just as many drag queens develop big, bold personas.

"You craft your persona with intention. It has to be authentic, but it also has to stand out and stand for something. You need to develop a fully rounded character," Huba explains. Answer those questions about yourself as a first step."If you're a good drag queen, you think about a 360-degree view. Who is this person? What is their name? What is their backstory? What are their personality traits? How would you describe them?

2. DEVELOP "EVERYDAY DRAG"

We live in a visual world, and when people see you, they form immediate opinions about who you are, Huba says. Drag queens know this and dress the part. Huba changed her personal style to help make her more confident in various situations and better project the way she wanted other people to see her. She worked with a department store stylist and found a few pieces that made her feel great about herself. The stylist told her that she wasn’t dressing "as fierce as you really are," she recalls.

"No one had ever called me fierce, and that’s what I wanted to be," she says. It’s a new take on "power dressing," where your clothes match the persona you’re building.

Read the full story at 6 Personal Branding Secrets from Drag Queens

Personal Branding: 10 Steps Toward a New Professional You

Dorie Clark says that the Internet is Your Resume.  People will find out more about you online than they will through almost any other means.  It is important to manage your personal brand on the internet so that anyone who googles you gets the best impression of you.

Rose Leadem has shared the following infographic the provides 10 basic steps to managing your personal brand on Entreprenuer. These steps are a great way to get started.

 The infographic was developed by Mel Carlon of Delightful Communications.

12 Storytelling Techniques For Creating A More Powerful Brand

From Forbes, Forbes Coaches Council shares its recommendations for storytelling techniques for building your brand.  They write: 

1. Use The Word That Most Describes Your Brand Repeatedly

If your brand were one word, what would it be? If you’re telling a story about your brand, bring each peak and valley in your story back to that one word. Use a powerful word that artfully describes your unique brand. Use something emotive, as people tend to remember how you make them feel versus what you say. And, if that word can be visually linked to your brand, you’re gold.   – Cha Tekeli, Chalamode, Inc.

2. Share Your Hero’s Journey

You are a company run by human beings for human beings. Share the authenticity of your hero’s journey with the world. Life is full of obstacles, pain, and low points, not just high points and celebrations. Show your light and your darkness. Invite the world into what you stand for as a brand and where you are strong, but also where you are frail. It’s time for companies to get real.   – Corey Blake, Round Table Companies

3. Be 100% Real And Share Your Journey

People connect with people. Stories that share triumph, tribulations, and the overcoming of obstacles are examples of ways to achieve this. More simply put, allow yourself to be seen as a round character rather than a flat character. This literary idea can be inputted into a powerful brand by conveying your emotions, inner thoughts, and the struggles you have encountered along the way.   – Wendi Weiner, JD, NCRW, CPRW, CCTC, CCM, The Writing Guru

Read the full story at 12 Storytelling Techniques For Creating A More Powerful Brand