Branding Yourself in a

Noisy WorldSandy Blanquera, Principal, Social Boomerang

Founder, Awesome Women in Business

Founder, TechLife

What is personal branding?– Who you are, what you do and how you do it– Self-packaged & self defined– Donald Trump has a well-defined personal

brand

• Why is it important?– Become an expert – Build your career– Build your network

A decade of personal branding

• From the blog of Dan Schwabel, branding expert

“For most branding campaigns, the first step is visibility. If you're General

Motors, that usually means a full flight of TV and print ads designed to get

billions of "impressions" of your brand in front of the consuming public. If you're brand You, you've got the

same need for visibility.” Tom Peters

Your brand visibility = many impressions

Accidental Branding…I will always cherish

the positive

initial misconceptions

I had about you.

The basic equation

Power of personal brand = Function of

(Social Capital,

Signal to noise ratio, Channel selection)

Don’t go Bowling Alone

Social Capital =

Community Strength +

Network Cohesiveness +

Intensity of Engagement +

Brand reputation

Community Strength +

•Actively network using social media•Actively network offline •Look for shared values/interests•2 way exchange•Hone networking skills•Use multiple connection strategies

Network Cohesiveness +

•Connect with same people on multiple sites•Have consistent contact•Add value; give more than you get•Connect resources to each other

• Intensity of Engagement +

•Connect often

•Look for reasons to connect

•Add energy to conversations immediately

•Ask questions – be interested

Brand reputation

•Have a targeted focus for brand

•Proliferate your brand

•Be distinctive

•Be transparent

•Get feedback and redefine

•Don’t get stuck on one negative event

•Manage issues openly and quickly

•Work with a mentor

What is your signal to noise ratio?

Signal-to-Noise Ratio The ratio of your signal’s power

to the noise power

corrupting and interrupting

your signal.

Social media inundates us with data. Your signal has to penetrate the noise•Create a targeted audience •Make your message something people will choose to listen to•Higher endorsements = greater success•Work the channels to find best demographics and speed to connect•Connect with your audience many ways = personal, business, shared cause or value•Repetitive messaging•Messaging at best times

Channel Characteristics• Twitter growth from 664% to 1,382%

• Population: – twitter 7 million– facebook 13.4 million– facebook 66 million

• Twitter has highest “immediacy”, then facebook, and linkedin lowest

Channel characteristics

% Growth vs. Immediacy vs. Unique audience size in

Millions

664, 3

1382, 7

145, 55

146, 12

228, 66

82, 13.4

-100

100

300

500

700

900

1100

1300

1500

1700

<-- less - immediacy - more -->

% g

row

th y

ear

ove

r ye

ar

Facebook - Dec 08 LinkedIn - Dec 08 Twitter - Dec 08

Facebook - Feb 09 Linkedin - Feb 09 Twitter - Feb 09

Channel considerations

• WWW Reach

• Size of population

• Demographics

• Growth and adoption rates

• Nature of interaction

In 1994 Time Magazine explained…

“The Internet will never go mainstream.”

Personal branding has been called a fad,

but 12 years later, personal branding is

growing stronger with the advent of social media.

Personal branding ismore important than ever.

Ben and Sandy Blanquera