Building Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn

 

From JDSupra, Robyn Addis and Lauren Forbes discuss establishing and maintaining your personal brand on LinkedIN. Robyn and Lauren write: 

Only 1% of LinkedIn’s 260 million monthly users share posts, and those 3 million or so users net 9 billion impressions. What does that mean? Almost no one is leveraging the power of the network, so those who do have a platform with very little competition for attention.

Establishing your personal brand on LinkedIn means completing your profile with your ideal client in mind, and establishing yourself as a thought leader by sharing valuable content for your network.

Robyn Addis and Lauren Forbes answer your questions about establishing your personal brand on LinkedIn and how to leverage the power of this network on this episode of LISI’s Ask Me Anything.

See video here.

 

Robyn:

Hey, everybody, welcome to LISI’s livestream, Ask Me Anything. Today, we’re gonna be talking about building your personal brand. This is me, Robyn Addis. I’m LISI’s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer joined by my beautiful and wonderful colleague, Lauren Forbes who is our Social Media…

Lauren:

And Marketing Manager.

Robyn:

Okay, so that’s gonna tell everybody where I’m at. I’ve had a very long week, I’m a little bit punchy and I’m a little bit out of it. So this is probably gonna be funny or a hot mess. We shall see. I was just telling Lauren actually right before we got on the livestream, so if you know LISI and if you know Jason Lisi, you might know Jason as the man with the pants ’cause he wears some very famously flashy pants. Sometimes they’ve got the LISI logo and sometimes they’re Lilly Pulitzer or they’re just very bright plaid. It’s his shtick and he loves it.

Lauren:

And he wears them well.

Robyn:

He wears them well, right, loud and proud. And not too long ago, my husband threw me a birthday party ’cause I’m turning 40 on Monday actually. And I was with some friends last night who were like, “Man, you had such an eclectic group of people “at your birthday. Everybody from the guy with the foot-long biker beard to the dude with the Lilly Pulitzer pants.” So that’s again, that’s just an intro into my life and into this world and today ’cause we’re a little bit punchy. How are you doing, Lauren?

Lauren:

I’m good, sounds like you could use a little coffee over there, huh?

Robyn:

I don’t think there’s enough coffee in the world for me right this very minute. Okay, so thank you, everybody, for tuning in. We’ll actually dive in and stop with a day in the life of Robyn. If you’re joining us for the first time or the hundredth time, we love having you here. We love doing these livestreams almost every week here on LinkedIn. And once a month, we do an Ask Me Anything session. This week, this month, our theme is “Building Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn,” in particular. And so we’ve received a number of questions in advance, probably more questions than we might get to, but if you have a pressing question that you want to share, please put it in the chat. And even just right now, drop us a line, say hi, tell us that you’re here, we’d love to hear from you, share a question, throw us a comment if you hear something you like. We would greatly appreciate it. So Lauren, you ready to dive in?

Lauren:

Let’s go.

Robyn:

Okay, so first question, what is a personal brand? I actually get this question a lot. So a personal brand is how others perceive you and how it’s a clear representation of who you are, what you do, what you’re known for, what it might be like to know you and to work with you. It’s that perception of who you are as a professional in the marketplace. And a lot of people credit Tom Peters for creating the term personal brand. He wrote an article for Fast Company back in 1997 called, The Brand Called You. And here’s the quote, I’m gonna read it verbatim, about personal branding:

“The key to any personal branding campaign is word of mouth marketing. Your network of friends, colleagues, clients and customers is the most important marketing vehicle you’ve got. What they say about you and your contributions is what the market will ultimately gauge as the value of your brand. So the big trick to building your brand is to find ways to nurture your network or colleagues consciously.”

So we work in legal marketing. The number one thing we hear all the time from lawyers about marketing in general is, “I get my clients from word of mouth.” Well, think about the reason you’re getting clients from word of mouth is because you’ve got a personal brand that people are aware of. And using platforms like LinkedIn are a great way to share that about your personal brand and expose more people to who you are and what you do. Wouldn’t you agree?

Lauren:

Agreed. Oh, 100%, yeah.

Robyn:

Yeah, so I’m going to dive into a couple of these hard and heavy questions and then we’re gonna get into some of the lighter easier ones and funnier ones, I guess I should say, in a minute. One question we got that I thought was really interesting is, how do I get followers? How do I find followers? And my response is, you don’t, followers find you. And the way that they find you is by putting content out there that makes them interested in seeing more of what you’ve got to say. And again, it all comes back to being consistent, putting yourself out there as a thought leader, which leads to another question. What types of content should I post?

There’s more about this than I could say in just this quick Ask Me Anything session, which I’ll plug it now. We’re actually doing a master class on August 4th for building your brand and growing your book of business, a deep dive into LinkedIn and more. It’s LinkedIn as a starting point and more. So if you’re interested in that, it’s from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Eastern. It will be a private livestream. Go ahead and register on our website. If you go to legaLISI.com/resources, you’ll be able to see it there and register. And I’ll get into a lot about how to build content, yes, ma’am.

Lauren:

And hosted by the one and only you.

Robyn:

Oh yeah, and hosted by moi. True story, but yeah, I’ll get more into how to actually create that content, but just super high level about content creation and how to put content out there. You should be putting content out there that is potentially of value to your target audience. It should not be, the majority of it should not be self-promotional in nature, meaning… And we usually give a 70/30 or 80/20 rule. Ideally, it’s 80/20. That means that 80% of the time, you’re sharing content that is, hey, I saw this article in the New York Times. Here are the key takeaways for you, my audience, and this is why I think you should read it. Hey, so and so just put out this survey. Here are the key takeaways. Always providing value and not necessarily asking anything in return.

The 20% of the time that you are allowed to be self-promotional is you were recognized in Chambers, you won an award, your firm was recognized as Innovation of the Year winner, whatever it was, that kind of stuff. And there’s a whole school of thought on how to write that so you don’t sound overly self-promotional, but you’re still allowed to do it once in awhile. But most of the time, you should just be providing value for the sake of it, which Lauren, I know you help our clients with a lot. What is the biggest I guess challenge that our clients, that you find in working with our clients when it comes to creating that value-driven content consistently?

Lauren:

Just making sure that there’s things that they, for instance, what you were talking about as far as awards they’ve won, other things that they do on a regular basis. If they do blogs, if they have white papers, anything that they do, we consistently try to put out there so that their audience knows that they are what we like to call thought leaders within their industry. And it sets them up as the go-to for certain things. Oh, I think we’ve got a question that just came in actually. You want me to get to that real quick?

Robyn:

Yeah, that’s great.

Lauren:

Let’s see. If you have time, could you reflect on the intersection of personal brand and professionalism? What even is professionalism these days? Do you wanna take a stab at that?

Robyn:

Yeah, it’s such a great question from our friend, Jennifer Forester. Thank you, Jen. It’s a great question because there’s a lot of seemingly overly personal content on LinkedIn these days and I think it falls along the spectrum of what you’re comfortable with. The fact of the matter is from my non-scientific studying of content performance on LinkedIn, personal content is what gets people to pay attention. It’s what gets people engaged with who you are and your personal brand. And so by sharing that personal content, there is a greater likelihood that you will be able to get their eyes on some of the promotional stuff or some other things of your thought leadership, so that you have a chance to expose yourself to a broader audience.

I personally talk a lot about my kids on LinkedIn because as a leader, as a business leader, there is a lot of parallel between figuring out how to lead a small army of Addis’ and lead a team of people. Being empathetic and giving them space to figure things out. Anyway, so I think the intersection of personal and professional is different for everybody. That’s my personal opinion on it. I think the type of content that I see on LinkedIn, I have personally yet to find something on LinkedIn that I look at it and I feel that is so inappropriate, that doesn’t belong on here. There are a lot of people during Pride Month, there were a lot of people sharing on LinkedIn that they were coming out as gay or transgender or whatever. Or they’re sharing about marriages and weddings or losses of children. The fact of the matter is that all of these things are deeply personal experiences that shape who we are. I don’t wanna see LinkedIn be only those things, but I think a healthy mix of that and getting to know people in such a highly digital world is really an okay thing. I don’t know, what do you think, Lauren?

Lauren:

Oh, I completely agree. It helps establish the personal and professional. It gives more insight into who they actually are and it helps connect them with other people that may be going through the same experiences. It’s just in a slightly deeper level, but I enjoy more of the personal stories. I think it helps people connect. I love all your stories. And as a mom myself, I can definitely relate to some of those things.

Robyn:

Yeah, I think it’s interesting, at least from my own experience, sharing that type of content has been community-building for me actually. And I’ve had on more than one occasion somebody reach out to me when I’ve admitted that I’m struggling with something or that I’m really frustrated about something in my personal life. I’ve had people reach out and just really appreciate that somebody else feels the way they do or that they’re not alone. And that is really the highest and best use of any social media. I saw somebody’s… Oh, Trish Lilley recently put out on social media a comment about a news story in Philadelphia and there was a perpetrator and the perp was found essentially through social media. And she said, a lot can be said negatively about social media but this is the type of thing that social media is for, coming together, being a community, and helping one another out. And so, anyway, I know that we’ve probably given more of an answer than Jen was looking for.

Lauren:

Before we move on, I do need to just quote Kristyn, one of our colleagues. As she always says, “People do business with people.” And it’s 100% true.

Robyn:

Yeah, it’s totally true. And yeah, it’s a great line. And it’s so spot on. Okay, so keep the questions coming, friends, because we’d love to answer them. And if you wanna hear us wax poetic about your question, we’re happy to do that. Okay, going back here, is LinkedIn the only network where I should or can build my brand? What do you think, Lauren?

Lauren:

No, I don’t think so at all. I think it depends obviously one, who your audience is. So if your audience is more on Instagram or they’re more TikTok users, I would heavily hone in on those specific platforms, but definitely spread your love throughout all of them ’cause you never know where you’ll find a new connection. So I would never just settle in on one, but definitely pay attention to where your audience is for sure.

Robyn:

Right, and the tone on those platforms is important, too. On TikTok, if you’re really super rigid and, excuse me, buttoned up, that might not land so well. But if you can take some content and make it funny and engaging… I’m not saying be like the comedy lawyer, but just make it engaging in a way and approachable.

Lauren:

Yeah, and even for our own clients, let’s say, we have one specific post and it is more business related. We’ll make sure that goes onto their LinkedIn page and their Twitter, sometimes Facebook if it’s a little bit more soft content, like there was an event they attended. Most of the time, that will end up on Facebook and Instagram. So it just depends on what kind of content that you’re trying to put out there drives where it should actually land on social media.

Robyn:

Yeah, so speaking of tone on a platform, here’s a great question, Lauren, that I want you to tackle. Should you use emojis in your LinkedIn post?

Lauren:

Ooh, yes. So I just put a poll up earlier this week and actually I just had it up on my phone of the results. So let me grab that super quick. And a nice chunk of people responded, which I appreciate. Thank you very much. It was a mixture of yes, sure, emojis can go up on my posts, no, it’s unprofessional or it depends. So as of right now, the sure was 65%. And then it was a split of 18% for each of the no and the it depends. So I think it really caught more traction during the pandemic. And I say that because there was a study done and emojis have increased by 775% over the past three years. Another statistic that I found was emojis in your social media post can increase engagement by 25.4%. So with that, can you include them, absolutely. Do you need to include them, no, I think it’s preference.

At the end of the day, it’s whatever you’re comfortable with. Some posts on the more serious side, obviously, you probably shouldn’t include. On a lighter note, yes, you can include them. And I also think it helps to get the reader to understand what it is that you’re trying to say. You know when you’re reading something, it’s hard to understand what the person who’s writing it, their intention. So by you writing a note or a sentence and ending it with a laughing emoji, that can be taken differently than if there maybe wasn’t an emoji. So I think it all depends. You don’t have to use the firecracker or the smiley face. There’s emojis as arrows or bullets. I think that really helps especially when you have a list of things. It draws people in. Human beings are much better at retaining information when there are graphics or pictures involved. So I think that it just helps. But again, know your audience and it depends on what your post is.

Robyn:

Yeah, the only thing I would add to that is we find that, or I found, again my unscientific research, that I felt like certain emojis were helping trigger the algorithm, the LinkedIn algorithm sometimes and pretty consistently for a couple times and then the next time I would go and I would use that emoji, it didn’t help at all. That could be a complete coincidence. And I think this gets to the heart of what might be frustrating for people who don’t know where to start on a platform like LinkedIn. It could be any social platform, but I just like LinkedIn the best, personally. I think the algorithm’s in a black box. Nobody knows exactly what it is. And yes, there are people who study it and who are putting content out there about what works and what doesn’t and how things perform, but it’s always changing and it’s not something that the public at large is really going to ever understand.

So there is a little bit of trial and error, but especially in our industry, it’s very uncomfortable for our, LISI’s, target market. We work with lawyers. Lawyers they like to know the answer to the question when they ask it. That’s what they’re trained to do. And so it’s a little bit gray and it’s a little bit… Why did this work one time or why isn’t this working or why aren’t I going viral? None of that is gonna happen unless you start somewhere and you just have to put yourself out there, which is the first step. You just have to take a leap of faith.

Lauren:

And I think, too, that the same thing can be said when using images. Sometimes posts do great when there’s images included and then sometimes not. It’s like you said, it’s trial and error. You just don’t know how much traction you’re actually gonna get. So play around with it and see what happens.

Robyn:

Yeah, agreed. Here’s a good related… Well, I think you just actually answered this question. Should I include images in my post or just text? Mix it up, I think–

Lauren:

Yeah, mix it up.

Robyn:

I feel like I do a pretty good job of posting consistently but I’m not getting the number of views that I want. What can I do to increase visibility of my posts? Great question. So there are a number of things that you can do. It goes back to the trial and error piece of it. There’s conversations about what’s the right time of day to post. I think, I’m not the first person to say this, pre-pandemic, everybody tended to favor the commuting hour. Now, with lots of people not commuting, maybe that’s not as important maybe. I still like to post first thing in the morning. First of all because I wanna be consistent, I want it to be out there all day for my people, my connections on the east coast, and to what works for me. Is it the best way to do it? Maybe not, but that’s what works for me and I’m okay with that.

So figuring out what works for you is the first thing and the keyword I said in there is consistency. You have to do it consistently. I have seen several users post on LinkedIn about how they committed to posting every day on LinkedIn for a year and their average impressions, meaning the number of times their post was visible in a user’s feed, increased exponentially over the course of the year. So the consistency part of it is first and foremost the bedrock of being seen on any social platform, LinkedIn especially. Number two, you can read up on and leverage the algorithm. Again, too much for me to go into here today, but you can join the master class if you wanna hear about it. But there are a lot of things that you can do in terms of leveraging the algorithm. One, one, one, oh wow. One tip that I am happy to give you is if you’ve heard this debate about link in comments, when you see people put in their post, link in comments.

So it used to be, a year ago, let’s say, six months ago, people who were in the know wouldn’t put the link in their post and they would instead say, LinkedIn comments and then put the link to that content in their comments of their own post. Then LinkedIn got smart and the algorithm got smart and so now, there’s all sorts of advice out there that you shouldn’t be the first person to comment on your post and you shouldn’t say link in comments. And there are workarounds around it. At the end of the day, ultimately, my advice here is yes, you can share content, you can put the link in comments if you really want people to see, to jump off to that content. You might want to have somebody else post the link as a comment for you. And I know that feels like unnecessary work, but it is a good workaround. But also, I would even go so far as to say leverage what LinkedIn wants you to be doing, which is keeping users on the platform.

So starting conversations with people or creating opportunities for conversations on the platform is what LinkedIn is there to do. So that means if you’ve done some survey, some research, some whatever that you wanna talk about, you can talk about that and maybe just say read the full, download the full survey on my website, whatever the call to action is. And I know we like to make it really easy for people. The whole thing about digital marketing is how to reduce the number of clicks and how to make it as easy as possible for people to get to you and to bring them through the funnel.

That’s great, but if they really wanna engage with your content, if you’re putting really great content out there and it’s really interesting, make it easy for them to find you and open that door for them, but leverage the platform the way they want you to use it, which is to keep users on there. Don’t indicate to the platform, to LinkedIn, that you’re intending to take people off platform. That was a rambling thing, but I think that that’s an easy thing to do if you just change your thinking about what you’re doing when you’re posting on LinkedIn. Does that make sense? Did I just completely speak a foreign language?

Lauren:

No, no, no, it totally makes sense. And actually, the one thing that you did say brought up something that I remember reading. When you were saying about maybe have somebody else post first, I read somewhere it was called, and I’m probably gonna get this completely wrong, but it was your social squad or your posting squad…

Robyn:

Yeah, your social whatever, yep.

Lauren:

Yeah, so basically, it’s a core group of people of your connections that would go into each other’s posts and react to each other’s posts to get the ball rolling, to start the conversations, to get it up higher up on your feeds and their feeds. So it’s something that you might wanna think about, maybe a couple of your connections, couple of times a week, once a week, change it up who responds to whose and see where it goes.

Robyn:

Mm-hm, yeah. Oh, I lost my train of thought. I was gonna go off on a tangent about that, but that’s better for everybody that I don’t. Another question I actually posted about on LinkedIn recently is should I accept connection requests from people I do not know? So a number of years ago in the not too distant past, the rule of thumb on LinkedIn was only accept connections requests from people that you know in real life. And there was a reason for that because again, the way the platform is set up is that people can see people who are connected to you. So salespeople, this is one reason, salespeople for example, if Lauren is my connection, I can go in and search LinkedIn for people that are my connections because they’re connected or they’re second degree connections of mine because they’re connected to Lauren. And then I could ask Lauren to facilitate an intro and all this different stuff.

Okay, that’s all well and good. It basically essentially diluted the digital network that you were curating on LinkedIn. Now, and I don’t think that this is specifically because of COVID, although I do think COVID plays into it to a certain degree. I think that that’s outdated thinking. Nowadays, digital networking is so commonplace and making connections. Jen Forester who asked a question earlier, I met her through LinkedIn. I think she reached out to me or I reached out to her or something. It just was a very organic outreach that made sense. She’s in my industry, we do somewhat similar things to a certain degree and it made sense for us to connect across the country ’cause she was based on the west coast.

Since then, we have gotten to know each other as well as two people can from opposite sides of the country and coming out of pandemic, but we’ve gotten to know each other and we’re friends. We hung out at the LMA conference in Las Vegas in the spring. So it is not always a bad thing to accept a connection request from somebody you might not actually know. I think you just have to develop your own go, no go checklist of whether or not this makes sense. Somebody responded to my post saying, they see if there’s any shared connections, if they have the shared industry, if their company makes sense for them. Whatever your reasons are that make sense, it’s okay. And like I said in my LinkedIn post, no, I am not suggesting you accept all the requests that you get because nobody wants those BS sales connections and immediate outreaches, including me. So I’m on your side about that, don’t worry.

Lauren:

Yeah, there’s not a race to see who can have the most connections. So definitely have your… I can’t even think. Now, I’m lost for words.

Robyn:

Welcome. Welcome to my world, girlfriend. Welcome to Friday afternoon with Robyn.

Lauren:

Yes, have your checklist on who you should connect to.

Robyn:

Yeah, we’re gonna get close to wrapping up ’cause holy cow, it’s already been 30 minutes. I feel like we’ve only been talking for five. So if you have any last questions, please drop them in the chat. I’m going to see ’cause I have a lot of questions here in front of me. There was a question I saw when I was scanning through this about recommendations and is that even still a thing. So they’re two things that might feel similar, but are different. On your profile, on your LinkedIn profile, there’s skills and there’s recommendation. And several years ago, people were asking for endorsements for skills, like digital marketing, leadership, contract negotiation, whatever the thing was.

Robyn:

And I think if I recall correctly you could select a certain number of skills that you wanted to put on your profile, but then other people could endorse you for skills. And that’s fine, it still exists on your profile, but I don’t know that it’s as big of a deal as it was a number of years ago. Separate from that is recommendations. That’s where I can go in proactively or be solicited by Lauren to go and write her a recommendation that shows up on her profile. This can be tricky if there’s ethics rules, but let’s imagine that there’s no ethics rules in play. We know that in financial advisors, for financial advisors and wealth managers, it’s really against I think even SEC regulations. You cannot do that, people cannot do that.

So of course, you can ear muffs and not listen to this part ’cause it doesn’t apply to you. And for lawyers, too, depending on your jurisdiction, it might be a little bit of a sticky wicket. But I can go in and I can write a recommendation for Lauren simply because I want to or she can solicit a recommendation from me. What happens then is my recommendation that I’ve written in either scenario will go to Lauren and she can decide whether or not to post it to her profile. There’s a few reasons why this is a great tool to still use.

One, if you keep it up to date, you don’t just have a couple recommendations from 2007 when you joined LinkedIn. It’s a way for people to continue to have that social proof of the who you are, what you do, what it might be like to know you and to work with you, especially if they don’t actually know you right off the bat. And it also helps to tell the story of who you are a little bit. The key there is that you really again should be if you’re going to focus on recommendations, which I think everybody should if they can, is that you should put a process in place for yourself where you’re reaching out for recommendations with some regular cadence. That’s once a month, if that’s once a week, whatever makes sense. Realistically, if you’re reaching out, you’re not gonna get a recommendation from every single person who writes one, but it is a way to every so often when you do get a recommendation to put on your profile.

And last tip that actually our friend, Samantha McKenna, suggested, I think she has an article on JD Super about this as well and I think it’s a really smart tip, is if you’re reaching out to solicit a recommendation, put a way in your outreach for them to opt-out politely ’cause they just might not want to or they might not have time or whatever. So you might I think she says put in there something like, I understand it might go against company policy for you to do so, so if that’s the case, no worries. Something really simple, so that somebody can save face but just not have to do it and there’s no hard feelings about it. I think that’s a really good piece of advice.

Lauren:

Yeah, I agree, good tips.

Robyn:

Yeah, good tips. Well, thank you, all of you who stayed with us for 30 minutes of crazy talk with Robyn and Lauren. We appreciate you being here today. Remember to sign up for the master class on August 4th if you’re interested in really diving into these a little bit more. I promise I will be far better rested on that day. And we will see you next week. Thanks so much, everybody.

Lauren:

And happy early birthday!

Robyn:

Oh, thanks, yep. 40, woo-hoo! Thanks, bye.

Lauren:

Bye

Source: Ask Me Anything: Building Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn | Legal Internet Solutions Inc. - JDSupra

 

Trademarks: How to protect your brand legally

"Trademark" flickr photo by alpha_photo https://flickr.com/photos/196993421@N03/52680398441 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license

 

From JDSupra, BCLP discusses how to protect your brand. BCLP writes: 

Among the first and most valuable assets owned by a start-up is its brand name.  Your brand name is your reputation.  It identifies your products to consumers and differentiates you from others in the marketplace.

Trademarks are the legal instruments that protect your brand.  They are also assets that can be sold and licensed to third parties, generating a revenue stream for your business.

When you have selected a name for your start-up (and/or each of the products and services your start-up will offer), it is prudent to engage in the following process:

1. Selection – Select a distinctive brand rather than a descriptive or generic term.  Distinctive terms are stronger as well as easier to protect and enforce which, from a business perspective, means greater brand recognition among consumers and lower legal costs.
2. Search – Conduct trademark searches to ensure that your proposed brand name does not conflict with another person or entity’s preexisting rights.  Otherwise, you run the risk of having to change your brand name after launching the business and/or defending against a costly litigation for trademark infringement.
3. File – File trademark applications.  While a trademark application/registration is not required to use a brand name, filing does confer significant legal advantages that use alone does not, including rights based on your intent to use the mark, a nationwide priority date, and a presumption that the mark is valid.  Moreover, trademark registrations add value to your business.  Potential buyers and licensees will want to know that you own registrations for the marks that you are selling and licensing.  Failure to register could negatively influence sales pricing and royalty rates.

Note that reserving your brand as a corporate name with a local Secretary of State and/or obtaining a domain name registration for the brand do not grant exclusive rights to use that brand name.  Corporate names and domain names are separate legal instruments wholly distinct from trademarks.  Only filing a trademark application with the appropriate government agency (e.g., the United States Patent and Trademark Office) confers trademark rights.

Finally, keep in mind that trademark rights are territorial.  A trademark registration in one country does not confer exclusive rights to use the mark anyplace else.  Therefore, it is advisable to search and file in every jurisdiction of interest to the business.

Source: Trademarks: How to protect your brand legally | BCLP - JDSupra

The Power of Your Personal Brand - Building the Global Business of You

 

From JDSupra, JD Supra Perspectives discusses the importance of personal brands and provides recommendations for building a personal brand for lawyers, but the guidance is relevant to everyone. 

You must meet prospective clients where they are ... online, with access to more information than ever, and searching for a story that resonates.

In 2010, 24-year-old violinist Lindsey Stirling appeared on America’s Got Talent. She was eliminated in the quarter finals. According to Wikipedia, judge Piers Morgan told her: “You’re not untalented, but you’re not good enough to get away with flying through the air and trying to play the violin at the same time.”

Stirling later wrote on her blog: “I was devastated at the results … It was painful, and a bit humiliating; however, I had to relearn where it was that I drew my strength.”

Never heard of Lindsey Stirling? Perhaps choreographed violin performances aren’t your thing, but she’s crafted a big and profitable niche in the ensuing years since America’s Got Talent judge Sharon Osbourne told her: “What you're doing is not enough to fill a theater in Vegas.”

Eight years later, Stirling is a successful touring artist and has sold millions of singles worldwide. In 2015, she was named in Forbes magazine “30 Under 30 in Music.”

How did she break through despite being told she didn’t have the talent to make it? She went direct to consumer. She started posting her music on YouTube and built up a big fan base.

She didn’t wait to be chosen by the publishing gatekeepers—she chose herself, and fans followed. Today, her YouTube channel has nearly 11 million subscribers and more than 2 billion views. 

...the biggest personal brands are being built by going directly to the people.

What can lawyers learn from Lindsey Sterling, and thousands of other musicians, comedians, writers, and actors like her?

In today’s world, in which worldwide distribution of content across the Internet is largely free, the biggest personal brands are being built by going directly to the people.

In yesterday’s world, publishers held the power. If you wanted to write a book, publish an article, get on the radio, have your face appear on video, or get a record deal, you needed to scrap, grind, and pray that you got discovered. Otherwise, you’d be a starving artist toiling in obscurity. Today, you can share your talent with the world with no one there to stop you, edit you, or tell you that it’s not good enough.

And therein lies the rub: When there are no more barriers to entry, the market gets flooded with content (some good, most bad). While it’s easier than ever to publish one’s work, it’s harder than ever to capture people’s attention because of the availability of content alternatives.

Accordingly, the democratization of content distribution poses challenges and opportunities to lawyers hoping to make an impact online. If you want to write a book, start a podcast, create a YouTube channel, or publish an article, all you need to do is put in the sweat equity to produce the content. At the click of a button you can make your work available for the world to consume. But getting people to take notice? That’s a much more difficult proposition.

Why it’s Important to Build a Powerful Personal Brand Online

I’m going to share a few ideas about how lawyers can break through online in a moment, but first let’s take a quick step back and consider why it’s important in the first place. 

...your personal brand is what sells you when you’re not there to sell yourself.

There’s no great dictionary definition of what a personal brand is. One of the most often cited colloquial definitions of “brand” is attributed to Jeff Bezos, who said: “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

As a busy lawyer, branding is important because you can’t be everywhere, all at once. You can’t be taking a deposition and also taking a prospective client to lunch.

Indeed, before you ever have the opportunity to take a prospect to lunch, the client will have done a deep-dive online, peering into every nook and cranny of the Internet to learn more about you as both a person and as a professional. In this sense, your personal brand is what sells you when you’re not there to sell yourself.

Accordingly, to position yourself for success in today’s digital world, it’s imperative that you make a great first impression where first impressions are made: The Internet.

You must meet prospective clients where they are, which is online, in control, with access to more information than ever, and searching for a story that resonates. A qualified alternative to your services is only a click away. Are you going to leave business development to chance, or are you going to seize the initiative and build a powerful personal brand online?

Here are five rules that lawyers who are hoping to build personal brands should follow.

1. Focus on a Niche

Your ideas and your services are not for everyone—at least they shouldn’t be. Whether you’re trying to build a practice or build a following online (in today’s world, these are one in the same), a narrow focus helps you gain a laser-targeted audience that delivers more loyalty, interaction, and business. 

Having a niche allows you to position yourself as an expert on a narrow topic rather than as a generalist on a broad number of topics. In an environment in which consumers have access to more information than ever, they are searching for particular solutions to particular problems. To position yourself for success online, you must develop a deep body of work in a specific domain so that prospective clients (not to mention Google) perceive you as a trusted authority in your area of focus.

2. Build a Platform 

If you’re active online, the purpose should be to direct people who are interested in what you have to say to your digital “home.” Your home is your platform—be it a blog, podcast, YouTube channel, or simply your LinkedIn page. A platform is a place where people can consume more of your content and, ideally, subscribe and/or connect with you so that you can communicate with them in the future.

The purpose of building a personal brand is to gain a following of loyal followers who ultimately can become clients or refer clients to you. By having a platform you can stay in touch with your followers, and be top of mind because you’re appearing at the top of their inboxes or social media feeds. It’s not enough to merely have an attorney bio page on your firm’s website.

Even if you have no plans to ever leave your current position (and if you do, you really need to build a platform ASAP), you need a way to nurture and communicate with your prospects. Having a platform that allows you to communicate your thought leadership and unique value proposition with a niche audience is the best way to compete in the marketplace of ideas. And in a world in which information has become commoditized, ideas are all that matter.

3. Create Compelling Content 

Remember the days when lawyers and law firms used to ask questions such as, “Do we need a website?” and “Should we be on social media?”

Okay, some still ask these questions, but by and large we’ve turned the page on whether it’s important to have a strong digital presence. Today, it’s conventional wisdom, and a much better question is being asked, namely: “Now that we have these digital tools and platforms, what the heck should we be doing with them?” 

Content is the differentiator online, plain and simple.

Since there’s no barrier to distribution, generating attention and compelling action online all comes down to creative execution. If you can create insightful, inspiring, educational and entertaining content, you’ll be in the game. If not, you’ll be sidelined.

Content is the differentiator online, plain and simple. If Netflix just streamed other people’s content, it likely would have gone the way of Blockbuster by now. Instead, because it produces some of the best content available in all of media, it has millions of paying subscribers and a $170 billion valuation. 

As a lawyer trying to build a personal brand online, it’s not enough to “be on” social networks. You need to take advantage of the distribution channels that are made available to you to build a network full of members of your target market, and produce and distribute content that’s so good they can’t ignore it.

4. Connect with Influencers

One of the biggest challenges you’ll face as a lawyer trying to build a personal brand online is getting people to take notice of your content. People are busy, they’re bombarded by information, and they jealously guard their attention. They pay attention to those they trust, and ignore the rest. Accordingly, if you’re not already part of someone’s trusted inner circle of content producers, they will hold you, and your content, at arm’s length.

The solution to this dilemma is to make an end-run around their attention-defense measures by associating yourself with those who already hold sway with your target market.

...publish your content on platforms that your audiences already trusts.

These “influencers” consist of people who are considered authoritative in your industry, and publications/platforms that are read and respected by members of your niche market (JD Supra is a good example of an influencer platform if you’re hoping to reach decision makers).

Seek opportunities to publish your content on platforms that your audiences already trusts. This will help you to penetrate your target market with your insights.

Putting it All Together

Successful legal marketing and personal branding are all about consistency of effort and high-quality creative execution directed to a targeted audience. The primary way that powerful personal brands are built is through content marketing.

Producing and sharing great content is effective because it permits a respectful conversation to take place with your clients and prospects online. Over time, as you continue to provide valuable content to the marketplace, you can build a passionate audience, dynamic platform, and compelling personal brand that provides work and referrals for years to come.

Source: The Power of Your Personal Brand - Building the Global Business of You | JD Supra Perspectives - JDSupra

What Does it Mean to Develop Your Personal Brand?

 

From JDSupra, Lindsay Griffiths provides terrific advice about how to develop your personal brand.

In Business, Personal Branding Is Important

 

From JDSupra, Nancy Myrland of Myrland Marketing & Social Media discusses personal branding and suggests writing down the five words that describe you and your interactions with others and try to be true to them - - terrific advice. Nancy writes: 

You know that knot you get in your stomach when anticipating a difficult or challenging person or situation?

Last week, I had that feeling as I was expecting a phone call. I was pretty sure of the outcome, but also knew there was a slight chance it could go either way. In this situation, it wasn’t the person who made me anxious because we’re friends…have been for a long time, and I suspect we will continue to be for even longer.

The knot in my stomach was because the discussion was about something I really wanted to happen. It would have made my week (okay, my year) to get good news about this project. I really wanted it. I won’t share what it was because much of what I do I consider confidential because of my focus on the legal profession.

As I anticipated how I could react should the call not go the way I wanted it to, I decided that, whatever the outcome, I needed to just be me.

Just Be Me

Long story short, rather than just sit and feel nervous until the call came in, I sat back for a moment and thought about the words that describe how I strive to act, and how I want those actions to come across to those with whom I come in contact. I also decided I would be true to those characteristics because they are a thousand times more important than any project. They are my brand…or at least part of it. If others don’t know my brand, it is my responsibility to let that brand show.

Just as with firm and company brands, I also know personal brands can’t be faked…at least not for long. You and I can’t make up characteristics that we are not and expect others to believe they belong to us. Those characteristics are either you, they are characteristics you are teaching yourself to adopt, or they are not. We can’t fool the masses for long, nor should we try. That would be exhausting, not to mention confusing to others. Even worse, it would be confusing to us.

Here Are Mine

 

1. Be gracious.
2. Be happy.
3. Be positive.
4. Be smart.
5. Be respectful.

Is There Ever Reason To Stray?

You betcha. There are times in our lives when people decide they want to push our buttons. It is my practice to go as long as I can without letting mine be pushed. Every once in a while, I will encounter someone who wants to be difficult, or nasty, or confrontational. It typically disappoints me because I know people are capable of so much more, but this is life, and people are human, so they stray from their ideals now and then. Not one of us is perfect.

I do my best to stay above it all, even when pushed, but I will share just enough with you to let you know that I also believe in respect of other human beings, and I’m one of those human beings, too.

Bottom Line

Decide what your brand is, and do your best to let that show in all situations.

Write down the top 5 words that describe you and your interaction with others.

• Print it out.
• Look at it often.
• Revisit the list when you are preparing for a difficult situation.
• If something is missing that would serve you well, then make a note to work on that characteristic until it deserves a place on your list.
• Update it if anything needs to be added or subtracted.

What Are Yours?

I shared mine. As I mentioned above, I know I’m not perfect, and I never will be, but I try really hard to stay true to my 5.

What are yours?

Here…I’ll give you some space to write them in.

Let me know what you come up with.

1. _______________________________
2. _______________________________
3. _______________________________
4. _______________________________
5. _______________________________

Source: In Business, Personal Branding Is Important | Nancy Myrland - Myrland Marketing & Social Media - JDSupra 

Lady Gaga Taught Me These 4 Secrets to Building a Successful Brand

From Entrepreneur, Giovanni Marsico offers personal branding guidance from what he learned watching Lady Gaga. Giovanni writes:

1. Get crystal clear on who you want to help. 

It is so important to find the right customers for your company. 

Like a lot of people, Lady Gaga is attracted to people who were like her. She has written countless times about being bullied in school and felt like an outsider. It was these same people she went after when she decided to build her community (more on that in a bit). 

For me, I needed my perfect avatar to target. I wanted to help entrepreneurs like me: those who are mission-driven and want to create an impact. To find these people, I met with anyone and everyone and started asking a million questions to get to the root issues and how I could be of help. I started to look for patterns to define my mission. 

For you, focus on whom you want to help right off the bat. Take a stand. Look at your core values, what issues are important to you and your mission. This will help create cohesion and bonds among your core base. Look for those people who fit into that community. But also, just as importantly, do no try to appease to everyone. You can't please everyone.

2. Build a tribe. 

Next, you need to find these people -- a lot of these people -- and build your tribe. 

When it came to building her community and ambassadors, Lady Gaga didn't go for the traditional, top 40 pop audience. She went after the fringe -- the people who were bullied, those who didn't fit in, the outcasts -- and made them her family. And then she branded her tribe -- "Little Monsters" -- which was so important. 

Every year, for our Archangel Summit, we sell out, with more than 3,000 people attending. We are able to accomplish this by building our own tribe. When I launched the entire Archangel platform, I didn't start off with a product, service, experience or event and try to sell people on that business model. Rather, I started off with a tribe and asked out how could I serve them. 

By going down this path, it is much easier, in the end, for entrepreneurs to sell. After finding this passionate audience, you can figure out what the most common challenges this tribe is facing and how you, as the founder, can be the most helpful.

3. Focus on being memorable. 

Whatever you do, be remembered. 

Usually, when artists perform, they do pretty much the same act in each city. It can be a bit, well, blah. But, Gaga customizes her shows to each specific audience -- adding in personal touches to make each performance memorable. It is very micro level. So, people throw things on stage, and she interacts with them. I have seen her do it with a Canadian flag, which she danced with; a denim jacket she put over her dress; and a touching moment, when a concertgoer named Brittany tossed up a letter. Lady Gaga stopped the set, opened the letter, learned that the girl had just come out to her parents, who didn't accept it, and asked Brittany on stage. She then sang directly to her. I am not rehashing this story for no reason; I am doing so because I remember every single moment of that concert. 

In each instance, she made people feel special, like they belonged. 

For us, I go crazy when it comes to the day of the Archangel Summit event. It isn't just panels and keynotes, but also Cirque du Soleil-style performances. I do this to not only keep people energized, but because I haven't seen it anywhere else. 

Do the same for your own business. Do things that don't scale -- and they don't have to be such a grand level as having trapeze artists swinging through your event. For instance, you can insert personalized videos into emails, thanking someone for her purchase. Or send a special thank-you card after your service. Whatever you choose, you just need to show people you care about them.

Read the full story at Lady Gaga Taught Me These 4 Secrets to Building a Successful Brand