Tom Peters’ Personal Branding Lessons, Part 1: Why YOUR Blog Matters

Brand Called You - Personal Brand

 

 

Fast Company published The Brand Called You by Tom Peters in August 1997.  Mr. Peters’ timeless advice about personal branding is especially relevant in our current economy.

Personal Branding is Important.  Here are two (2) direct quotes from the article:

  • “We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc.”
  • “To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for The Brand Called You.”

A Brand = A Promise of Value.  Think of personal branding like this:

  • The distinctive role / niche you create for yourself
  • The message and the strategy you’ll conduct to promote The Brand Called You


Your Personal Branding Hub: A Personal Blog
 

A personal blog can be an important component of your personal brand (maybe the most important): 

* Blogging provides your forum for demonstrating your expertise about a subject you’re passionate about.  And, you get to pick the subject area — don’t worry about your current job description.

* Blogging drives your creativity, imagination, and intellect.  Adam Singer says it best: Blogging Is Like Going to the Gym … For Your Brain

* Blogging and personal branding means building community.  Community is a key concept in Mitch Joel’s book, Six Pixels of Separation.  Building community (online and in-person) includes:

  • Commenting on other blogs
  • Attending conferences related to your chosen subject area
  • Participating and contributing to conversations in social networks relevant to that subject (i.e., LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.)
  • Developing new relationships inside and outside of your current employer

You’re Not Defined By Your Job Title … 


… And, You’re Not Confined by Your Job Description.
  This is another timeless lesson from Mr. Peters.  For corporate employees, his insight brings significant career implications:  

“No more vertical.  No more ladder.  That’s not the way careers work anymore.  Linearity is out.  A career is now a checkerboard.  Or even a maze.  It’s full of moves that go sideways, forward, slide on the diagonal, even go backward when that makes sense.  (It often does.)  A career is a portfolio of projects that teach you new skills, gain you new expertise, develop new capabilities, grow your colleague set, and constantly reinvent you as a brand.”  

Mr. Peters explains this concept in the following video:

  


You Own The Means of Production to Mold Your Personal Brand


Take the Initiative — The Internet Levels the Playing Field.
 Paraphrasing a key concept from Seth Godin’s book, Linchpin, “employees no longer have to be cogs in the giant industrial machine.”   

Why? The Internet provides direct and infinite opportunities in building a personal brand.  The only limit is your imagination.  On page 24 of Linchpin, Godin states:

  1. “Today the means of production = a laptop computer with Internet connectivity.”
  2. “Three thousand dollars buys a worker an entire factory.”

Godin shares his thinking with David Meerman Scott in this video interview (time stamp 3:48 to 5:12). 

 

David Meerman Scott interviews Seth Godin from David Meerman Scott on Vimeo.

 


You are Responsible for What You Do with the Means of Production.  There are two (2) important requirements in leveraging the “Digital Age Factory”:

  1. Initiative — Having the courage to start.  
  2. Persisting and persevering to finish.

Career Security Versus Job Security.  The means of production can lead to career security.  I’ll take career security over job security everyday of the week (and twice on Sunday).  To understand the difference between them, read these articles by Adam Singer of The Future Buzz:

Start Your Personal Blog.  Select a subject you’re passionate about.  Set up a WordPress, Blogger, or TypePad account.  

Keep Keeping On.  For most beginning bloggers, the writing and creative process doesn’t always flow easily.  Don’t worry.  It gets better with time and practice.

 

The Most Important Marketing Tool for Your Personal Brand

Tom Peters and Seth Godin Say Blogging Matters.  Check out this video.  Both Peters and Godin provide their personal insights on why blogging is a powerful marketing platform.  

Mr. Peters says “blogging is the best damn marketing tool by an order of magnitude that I ever had.  And, it’s free.” 

 

Blogging = Writing …  

… And, Writing is a Vital Business Skill.  Thoughtfully expressing written ideas directly impacts your career.  Think about it.  How many corporate emails do you write on a daily basis for one of the following audiences:

  • Your clients
  • Your boss
  • Your teammates
  • Your boss’s boss
  • Outside vendors

Practice Breeds Confidence.  I’ve published and maintained my personal blog for five and half years.  Blogging allows me to practice writing more than any other business activity.  

And, blogging is something I love practicing!   

A resulting benefit of consistent practice — increased confidence.  Written communications require confidence when:

  • Summarizing “the so what” to an executive audience
  • Delivering good news
  • Delivering bad news (and the plan to address the situation)
  • Crediting a colleague(s) on outstanding work (especially to upper management)
  • Gaining consensus (especially among team members beyond your management control)
  • Framing / Describing a politically sensitive situation (and the plan to address the situation)

Writing and the Link to Your Business Career.  Don’t believe me?  Listen to what Mr. Peters says about business writing skills and its importance:

 

Conclusion

You Don’t Have to Make the Op-Ed of The New York Times to Make the Grade.  That’s my favorite direct quote from The Brand Called You.  Your effort, your passion establishes your personal brand / reputation.

Publish. Connect. Give.

Do these three (3) things regularly and people WILL:

  • Find you online
  • Link to your blog
  • Cite you in their blog posts and articles
  • Ask you to contribute to their publications
  • Say you contribute value to their respective communities 

It Happened to Me. It Can Happen to You.  Here are links to other blogs or content highlighting my personal brand and/or citing my personal blog.  My blog posts or other networking activities created these personal branding opportunities: 

Start blogging.  Start writing.  Start creating.  And, Don’t Look Back.

 

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Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist.  He thinks and writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy in his personal blog, Social Media ReInventionFollow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+.

 

 

Photo Credit: by ViteVu via Flickr