Personal Branding Blog – Dan Schawbel

So you’ve run into the problem that your blog doesn’t have enough traffic and you have a lack of visibility. You have also decided that your theory of “if I build it they will come” is just a myth. You consider shouting, but no one hears you. Believe it or not, the majority of people trying to develop their eBrand face this same situation and few understand how to self-promote online. I recently read a combined 5 blog posts on the topic of promoting your blog via ProBlogger.net. He lists: guest posting, networking, advertising, social media and viral content. Does promoting your blog mean promoting your personal brand? Your eBrand is the virtual representation of your brand, therefore wherever your brand is listed online is what people are seeing. If you only have a blog, then they can only judge you by your blog, etc. Once you expand into social networks, then they have more of your brand at their finger tips.

The main purpose of promotion is to show THE RIGHT people you exist. First, it’s about creating awareness for your brand , especially if it’s “brand new” (no pun intended). The customer purchase process is: awareness, research, evaluation and
purchase. This can be applied to the individual. First, people have to know you exist (awareness), then they have to research your profile page to see if you are worthy of evaluation (does he or she have the credibility) and finally they will purchase your brand if it matches their need. When I say purchase, I mean either hire you for a job or at least display some type of attention, such as subscribe to your blog feed or contact you for consulting.

There are two main routes to gaining maximum exposure for your eBrand. An artificial brand promotion is paid advertising in magazines, search engines, blogs, newspapers, radio, television and other untraditional mediums like subways. When people say the word “artificial” they tend to mean something that is produced rather than natural. What I mean here is that its forced on a given audience by a company or individual that wants to purchase their attention. By using artificial brand promotion you can control the advertisement, but not the commentary following the advertisement. You may be able to get your brand on the front page of Google, but people know that the most trusted websites fall under the natural brand category. We all know by now that search engines are how people find information online and because of this, if you aren’t in the top 10 on natural search, you really should consider the AdWords program, regardless if you’re a company or individual. Just like AdWords, using a targeted approach is essential to spreading the word to the right audience, who may in fact purchase your brand.

Note: If you don’t have a good personal product, it won’t spread virally, regardless of how much you invest in paid advertising. Nail the product first and then promote it.

Natural brand promotion can be paid for sometimes, but it tends to be a 3rd parties point of view on you or your product. Most of natural brand promotion flocks under public relations. Sometimes people pay PR firms to get publicity, which almost turns into an advertising attempt, but it’s not. The main difference here is that you may be quoted or interviewed by the media or your byline article may be accepted for publication, which positions you as the expert and as someone who is a trusted resource. This usually occurs when the brand deserves recognition and the media picks up on it. Natural brand promotion requires a lot more energy and luck. There is no guarantee that a journalist will write about you or that you will be on the front cover of Forbes Magazine.

What counts more, you promoting yourself or someone else promoting you?

This is a really hard question. Let’s examine this for a second. You are the best marketer for the brand called YOU, which means the best person to sell yourself and your abilities is you yourself. On the other hand, people know this, therefore they are always looking for someone else to agree with your promotion. When you go in for an interview, the employer will ask for a list of references of people who can back up your resume/interview. When you’re in sales and are trying to get referrals, you rely on others to spread positive word-of-mouth about your personal brand. Even when you’re on LinkedIn.com, there is a place for endorsements from supervisors and co-workers. Think about it this way; if you write that you are the greatest person alive on your blog, how reliable of a source are you if you can’t live up to it, BUT what if all 100 million other blogs write a post confirming this? Yes, when others promote you, it comes off better than “shameless self-promotion.” Therefore, your goal is to be the chief word-of-mouth marketer for the brand called you.

Successful people and companies allocate their budgets and time to both artificial and natural brand promotions.