It’s becoming more apparent every day that we need to treat ourselves like our own business. And, to be our own business, we to stand out from the crowd. We need to market our skills and talents as though we were selling a product for any business. When so many people are graduating with the same degrees, and, there are only so many positions in the marketplace for the same skills, how do we make ourselves stand out from the crowd?
I’m not sure if I’ve always been aware of it subconsciously or what, but when I started reading Seth Godin is when it came to the front of my mind. We need to treat ourselves like a business and brand our business accordingly. Now, many people are starting to take this position, but Gary V is probably the most outspoken about it. Your brand will be your leverage in the new economy.
Put aside the notion that you are just another cog in the wheel and put effort into becoming a linchpin. Read Seth Godin’s book by that title if you need any clarification into what a Linchpin means to the world. So, here goes. Let’s get some tips on what you can do to build a powerful brand.
Branding Ideas #1; Take a strong position of opposition in your niche and back it up with facts.
Taking a strong position of opposition should be one of your first steps toward building your brand. If you can back them up with reliable facts about why you oppose them, you can gain almost instant notoriety in your marketplace. The stronger and more convincing your argument, the more the general public will notice you are well-researched and different from most. Just caring enough to do extensive research to come up with an opposing viewpoint will put you ahead of most.
Too many getting out of college hang their hat on the degree and think that is enough to get them into a great job. The fact is, there are many markets now where someone without a degree, but who has dug deep into their field will pass by those with just a simple degree. The emphasis now is on experience.
Why? Because experience usually comes with a significant amount of extra insight into a particular field of study. Doing the study without the degree could get you into a position. Researching with a degree gets you in. Doing the study with a degree and having the insight to come up with opposition to the norm, puts you at the top of the heap.
Branding Ideas #2; Come up with a new concept to take your industry in a different direction.
The idea is to revolutionize an aspect of your industry. If you are a designer, do something no one has ever seen before. If you are a web developer, do something no one has thought of before. If you are a marketer, come up with a campaign idea that starts a new marketing trend. The idea is to create something completely different, and then tell the world about it.
Create it, make sure it works, and then tell everyone you can. Publish links to your idea on Facebook. Make a video and publish it on YouTube describing how it works. If you don’t take immediate credit for it, rest assured, someone else will. It all begins with the big idea and the hard work it will take to put it together and figure it out. This will be the hard part. If you do create something entirely fresh in your industry, the payoff will be worth it.
Branding Ideas #3; Use as many channels as you can to get your message heard by as many people as possible.
Getting your message out goes right along with the above tip of revolutionizing the industry. If people in your market are on Facebook, find them and start interacting. Put up a personal branding page and begin publishing content and telling people your ideas. Get in groups related to your industry and start being helpful. Interact and be beneficial. If you stand out enough without being brash or cocky, people will begin to search you out.
Get a Twitter account and post business-related content. Syndicate your content to as many platforms as you can across the web. Writing one good article can get stretched across several different platforms. You don’t need to write or create different content to go everywhere. Write an article for your blog. Send out a Tweet about it. Post it on your Facebook page. Build an infographic for it and get it on Instagram. Make a pin for Pinterest about it. Post that same article to your LinkedIn feed. Anywhere your audience roams, you need to be there.
Branding Ideas #4; Get national media attention or get interviewed by mainstream media.
Have you ever heard of HARO? It stands for Help A Reporter Out. Reporters, bloggers, and other media professionals use this service to find knowledgeable people in particular industries to interview for different stories or content. They charge the reporters a fee, but it is free to get the emails for the interviewee. I think they come twice a day. If you find something in your niche that seems to be a good fit, send them an email to let them know your credentials and that you would be interested in being interviewed.
Reporters are hungry for content. They need to keep writing stories to get paid. If you are an authority and you can get your name published in a major media publication, it could keep opening doors to bigger and better things. Much of this stuff is a snowball effect. Once you get your name in circulation, you might keep getting offers for more interviews well into the future.
Branding Ideas #5; Start a blog and keep pounding out the content.
I mentioned having a blog in one of the previous sections. A blog or personally branded website should be your home base. All your best content gets posted to your blog first. A blog will be your platform, your portfolio, your magazine about you, and your resume if you decide you want to apply for a job. This is the best way to get your ideas into the world. Many people are building huge numbers of followers on these social media sites they don’t own. Those companies can flip a switch and shut them off at any time, leaving them out in the cold.
It happens all too often to too many people. Don’t let this happen to you. Start a blog to build your brand as your home base. To position yourself in a particular market you will need to build your brand. Whether you are going to continue to work for other people or get out of the nine to five altogether, your brand will be your most powerful asset. There is no room for the mediocre anymore in a freelance marketplace. The average will be stuck with low-paying jobs. And, there are plenty of those.
Unfortunately, there will be no place to hide in the corporate landscape anymore. The internet moves too fast for me to keep updating old posts with new information. So, the best way for me to do it is on my email list. If you’d like to sign up for my email list, I have several places on the site to make that happen.
Be safe,
Kevin