Building Your Brand
January 26th 2007
Managing the Gray #27 answers the question of “how do I build my brand?” It was asked from a personal branding point of view, but honestly I think the advice could work for the largest of companies as well. This was all generated from a question from David Jacobs and a lot of thinking about this lately on my part. Thanks again to Lee Hopkins for the station ID.
Links that I mentioned in the show or that I think will be helpful include:
[…] Full show notes […]
You forgot a URL…
http://www.HelpingTheCause.com
Hey C.C.,
I just wanted to offer one guy’s opinions and experience with this. I’ve been experimenting with a lot of things lately, too: a day job, some photography, a collection of loosely-related Web projects, and my personal presence on the web. To make the situation even more complicated, I’ll soon be doing some writing for a local paper, starting my own podcast, and who knows what else.
So earlier this month I decided to bring everything under one umbrella. The catch is that I personally don’t mind if the main entities are separate; I was looking for one central place that I could use as a gateway to all of the other projects I was doing. I chose to redesign my personal Web site at justinrussell.com and turn it into an entryway into the four facets of what I have going: my day job (by linking to my employer), my Web experimentations (by linking to the collections of projects I have at semsym.com), my photography (by a link to my gallery site at pinetreephotography.com). I also provided a link to a page I programmed to read in all of the stuff I’d written and noticed around the web: my Flickr shots, my del.icio.us favorites, my blog posts, my YouTube videos, and more.
I can’t really say yet if it’s working out the way I’d like, but my focus was to tie all of my projects together in at least one place. It’s not as important to me if the Semsym people know that I do photography, too, as it is to have people interested in me as a person know the individual projects I’ve worked on.
Hope that’s helpful, and good luck to anyone who’s trying to make their own personal branding work!
Justin
Really loved this one. C.C. gives valuable guidance.
It reminded me of Anji Bee. She’s got 3 podcasts and has amalgamated them into a single blog page (www.anjibee.com). It really works to channel everything through this. She has successfully branded herself based on herself as a person.
Thanks CC, great insights as usual. I’ve thought it over and I’m going to brand on my name. The new company is cool and all but who knows what the future is there. What is forever no matter what is my name. Whatever twists and turns life has for me, I will always be David Jacobs. I am already using davidajacobs@gmail.com as my primary email and now I guess I have to get my www.davidalanjacobs.com up and going. Did I mention I already have a day job? Get the coffee going!
[…] I did get a chance to listen to C.C.’s latest Managing The Gray podcast yesterday, and he made some great points about establishing your personal brand and being consistent. I have been struggling with this myself lately. I’ve had myself spread out all over the place and really not consistent with how I sign up for things or reply on blogs. Time for me to spend some time setting things back up under one common identity. […]
Hi, C.C.
I came at this problem from the opposite direction: I was trying to do too many different things under one brand, The FileSlinger. In order to build my writing business, I created a new identity and website as The Author-izer. This worked wonders, and I’ve cut way back on the FileSlinger site (which is about halfway through its remodel) and on the services I offer. And then there’s the Podcast Asylum, because podcast-related services don’t really fit under the Author-izer umbrella.
The thing that connects all these things is me, but I tend to be somewhat selective about which persona dominates in which environment. If I’m speaking to a group about podcasting, it’s the Podcast Asylum. If I’m seeking writing clients, it’s the Author-izer. When I’m writing my Backup Reminder e-zine and blog, it’s the FileSlinger.
I’ve bought the domains salliegoetsch.com and rhymeswithsketch.com but not done anything with them yet, but I think the personal-name site as umbrella/portal is a good idea. It’s working pretty well so far for my fiance, Stefan Didak, over at stefandidak.com. Of course, he’s got this amazing 7-monitor setup that attracts thousands of visitors a day…
This is really interesting stuff. Personal Branding is a major category for me, and it always feels like I’m flying without a net. It’s really shotgun approach for me, so it’s great to hear other perspectives.
My iTunes must be wonky because for some reason, this came up as your most recent show! I’ll check that later but for now I wanted to leave a comment to say that I learned a lot in this show. I, too, am a jack-of-all-trades who is trying to figure out the best way to brand himself. I’ll definitely try the myspace tip you mentioned. I look forward to future (and past) shows.
[…] last too long over at www.notm.org and www.noneofthismatters.com. But I’m working on “Personal Branding” as inspired by CC Chapman over at Managing The Gray, this year and so thought it best to […]