Kelly response to Yana - Week 7
Yana
As Patel mentions, “a brand is anything – a symbol,
design, name, sound, reputation, emotion, employees, tone, and much more – that
separates one thing from another.”
This week’s topic of personal branding is a hot topic
for sure. Although for me I am more concerned with branding in relation to the
company I work, and not focused on my personal brand. However, the fact that I personally
use social media sites I still have to consider the image I am projecting. “Branding
on a business-level is common, but today branding is becoming just as important
on a personal level. After all, you might work for business that works with
other businesses, but its people working with people and that’s what makes business
relationships valuable” (Patel, The
Complete Guide to Building Your Personal Brand.) As you mentioned future
employers etc. can use this as a way to find out more about a potential hire,
therefore it is something I still need to be mindful of. People today are very
concerned with their online persona, even if just posting for fun, the celebrity
image we have discussed over the last few weeks has people believing in their
own online brand.
I can also agree with this week’s readings from
personal experience on the importance of the statistics and knowing the return
on investment with social media. Knowing how to track your success and
measuring these numbers allows for the development of future strategic plans,
helps with cost effectiveness, and ensures the brand message being presented is
effective and enforced. 60 second marketer asks, “Do you know how to calculate
the return-on-investment (ROI) of your social media campaigns? Here’s another
question — if your CEO or CFO walked into your office tomorrow and asked if
your investment in social media was paying for itself, would you be able to
provide the answer?” Since taking over
my company’s social media this has happened to me several times, and also a
topic of discussion during many presentations and meetings. It is an aspect I
am still learning, but being able to track the correlation between my social
media campaigns and our website sales is very beneficial. This week’s readings
have been very relatable for me, and I will be able to use them in my real life
situation. I especially like the idea of the Like Alyzer app, I will definitely
look into that.
Kelly Apfel
References
Patel, Neil. Quick Sprout: The Complete Guide to Building Your Personal Brand
An
In-Depth Guide on How to Calculate the ROI of a Social Media Campaign
Kelly, great post. You really hit the nail on the head with one comment.
ReplyDeleteEven though most individuals consider their company's brand over their own, the two are not necessarily interchangeable. A LinkedIn profile is not only a resume of your accomplishments, it also represents the company or companies that you have worked for. Therefore, it is very important to consider your company when posting your bio description, profile picture, and articles that you share, as this could all be a reflection of your organization. This is true for most media sites.
As we have read, search engine marketing is a very powerful tool that we all should be cognizant of. Even if you don't record where you work on Facebook or Twitter, it is still very easy for others to determine what organization you are associated with.
Considering this, do you have any suggestions for individuals who are engaged on both professional and personal social sites? How can we align all of these sites, while still keeping our own unique personal brand?
Catherine,
ReplyDeleteI think its important to consider what tools are used for what goals. Each social media sites as its own main intention. Considering first of all, do you need to use all of them, or choose specific ones that will be beneficial to your personal brand or company networking. I would say choose the most appropriate and focus on using them appropriately. I would suggest keeping personal and professional areas are separate as possible if they don;t need to be connected, especially taking care to keep the personal ones private, using all privacy settings available. However, having said that, we always need to remember that everything we posted online isn't really 100% private or erasable.
Kelly Apfel
Great ideas, Kelly. Thanks for sharing. I think it is important to at least understand why you are engaging online, as well as the potential risks, if you don't have outright goals/objectives. Thanks!
DeleteKelly,
ReplyDeleteI hear you that even though your online social media focus is more focused on your company and not on your personal brand, you are still paying attention to your personal brand online.
Our personal brand even goes so far as to include those other people whom we associate with online. Given that “LinkedIn requires that people have mutual consent to connect with one another” (Schaefer, 2012, p. 187) whoever you are connected with are also a reflection of who you are. It is another way of saying “you are who you hang out with.” “For example, people relate to each other differently on YouTube than they do on Facebook or on Twitter versus LinkedIn” (Schaefer, 2012, p. 156).
In the beginning, as we all struggled to understand and embrace social media to the best of our abilities – it was about quantity. The number of LinkedIn connections or the number of Facebook or Twitter followers reigned supreme. Now, quality prevails. “As you consider a strategy to get yourself out there and onto a social networking site for marketing and PR purposes, just remember that authenticity and transparency are critical” (Scott, 2013, p. 256).
Kim
Reference
Schaefer. (2012). Igniting Epidemics and Appendix A. In Return On Influence (1st ed.,
p. 156 & 187). McGraw-Hill.
Scott, D. (2013). Social Networking Sites and Marketing. In The New Rules of Marketing and PR (4th ed., p. 256). New York: McGraw-Hill.
I completely agree, Kim! Quality over quantity - always! Far better to reach you true target audience or brand persona, rather than a broad, mass approach to all users. As the saying goes, you can't be everything, to everyone!
Delete