Branding your cash cow: It only hurts for a second

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by Mallory Dash

Chris Brogan has an excellent post on his blog today listing his top 100 personal branding tactics. While it won’t be necessary to go through each and every one here (although I recommend you do on your own time) there are a few that are particularly pertinent to successfully marketing not only yourself, but your business as well.

From Chris’ list (His points are italicized, followed by some of my own added thoughts on each):

• Comment frequently (and meaningfully) on blogs that write about you and your posts. This should be a no-brainer by now. Spew crap, and crap will cometh unto you. If you can provide great commentary on the blogs that influence you and your audience, then you can expect some credibility (and maybe some customers) in return.
• Don’t forget the conversations hiding in Twitter (use Summize.com) and Friendfeed. Be sure to stay aware of those. We’ve talked about Summize before, and we all know how I feel about Twitter. Marketers need to stay on top of the buzz, and not just in the traditional media and blogosphere.
• Listen to others in your area of expertise. Learn from them. There’s no better way to understand your market than to listen to your competitors and see how THEY are attracting (or repelling) customers. The same goes for those you are trying to target in the first place: There’s no point in talking at a crowd if you aren’t listening to their needs.
• Home base is your blog/website. Not everyone needs a blog. But most people who want to develop a personal brand do. If you don’t have a site for your company yet, for shame. As for a blog, we’ve written on this in the past. But if you’re reading our blog, chances are you already have one. Moving on.
• Twitter.com is a must if you have a social media audience. It also connects you to other practitioners. I know, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- if you’re ready to bring your business to the social media realm, you must-must-must employ Twitter. It’s a great resource for honest feedback on announcements, points of view, and other random thoughts.
• Create new content regularly. If not daily, then at least three times a week. As this is something we here at DB need to get a handle on as well, I’ll refrain from calling the kettle black. But your message/impact/worth to society can become irrelevant if you don’t put the time in to update.
• Brevity rules. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Enough said.
• Remember that community and marketplace are two different things. The idea behind using social media to build a brand is to place yourself in a thought leadership role. The more credible and unique your thoughts on the industry are, the more credible your business will be. The sales will come when people can trust the core of your business.
• Be human. Always. It’s true- no one likes talking to a machine, unless you’re in 2001: Space Odyssey (then you just HATE it). Companies should use blogs to put a personal touch on corporate messaging.
• And my personal favorite, albeit a little too L’Oreal for me: Never doubt that you are worth it. Chris gets a little mushy here- but I think the point is important. If you have a story worth telling, a little hard work is all you’ll need to get social media to work for you.

And in another bit of Brogan-related goss- he’s got the first-ever Twebinar going on June 26 titled “Game Changing Moves - Doing Business with Social Media.” I’ll be listening, and so should you.

If you’ve had success using social media for marketing purposes, personal or otherwise, what methods have you used? What has worked, what hasn’t?