Personal Branding Blog – Dan Schawbel

What if there were hundreds of people around the world that all spoke your language and were willing to communicate your message to others you may not be able to reach? An evangelist is an individual who serves as the outside voice of your company. Evangelists are created through mutual interest on a given subject and are of high value to any corporate brand or Personal Brand. As you decide which niche you have a passion for, you should keep in mind who else has preached on that subject, through blogging or articles you read. In order to be more knowledgeable in your current position, you should seek the combined knowledge of those that surround you and bring them into your community. A blog is a great starting point for accomplishing this and when you build a community around your blog, you must strategize on how you will keep that network stable. You are one person and can only accomplish so much in a given day, which is why your community of evangelists will help virally penetrate the internet to communicate your brand message. In terms of a corporation, as a business grows, more assets must be hired to offset the accumulating workload. By branding yourself, developing content and gathering evangelists through networking, you are taking a crucial step in your career. That step is communicating your accomplishments and positioning yourself as a leader in not just your network, but to the larger population.

Take my magazine for example. Personal Branding Magazine is about the Personal Brands that write columns or send relevant material to be included in an issue. These contributors (you know who you are!) are evangelists to the concept of Personal Branding and receive recognition for their efforts. They are also aiding in the marketing effort by promoting it on their blogs. So not only are they sharing their valuable knowledge through the articles they write, but they are letting others know it exists.
Lesson: As you grow your network, you should discover new ways to collaborate with them and turn them from regular members of your network to evangelists.

Another great example of this concept is what William Arruda has done with his Certified Personal Branding Strategists. I’ve been blogging for quite some time and have great knowledge of Personal Branding, as well as those that share the same interest. William took his own position on Personal Branding and developed Reach (his business), where people who wanted to learn skills associated with the subject and take an assessment and become a consultant. What’s genius about what he’s done is that he is able to do more with less, by leveraging the combined knowledge, enthusiasm and reach of these individuals that pass the test. They are evangelists to William because they promote his knowledge through their websites and position him for success. He has even recruited them to take part in a special project, known as the 2007 Personal Branding Global Telesummit, which takes well known authors and speakers and brings them together, under the umbrella of Personal Branding. I’ve been leading the sponsorship team for this even and look forward to the results.

Here are some of Williams Evangelists:

• Wendy Terwelp
• Paul Copcott
• Krishna De
• Deb Dib
• Susan Guarneri
• Cindy Kraft
• Bonnie Kurka
• Dorothea Stuart
• Jason Alba
• Walter Akana

There are over 200 evangelists, so I listed the ones I’m familiar with and are in my network. Through creativity and shared interests, you can create a valuable network of evangelists that appreciate and respect your work and are willing to tell others about it.

Final Note: Be the one that creates opportunities by bringing others together for a shared goal.