Monday, August 07, 2006
10 PR commandments and how to use it for Personal Branding (4-6)
4) Thou shall not be fake - Keep it real; don't hide behind characters and phony IDs.This should be obvious, but many persons try to be something that they are not. A strong brand consists of honesty and trustworthiness, none of which will improve if you do try to be someone else and do not walk the talk.
5) Covet thy customers - Don't sue your fans. You will alienate them.
A basic rule is that if you help people, something good will come back to you. Some call it karma, some networking. For me it is just common sense. The customers in the commandment represent the people around you, so be honest and friendly with the people around you. No one likes a grump.
Just remember, it is not wrong to stand up for your self, but there are good and bad ways to make your point.
6) Thou shall be open and engaging - Involve your customers in the PR process. Invite them to help you develop winning ideas and become your spokespeople.
This is also common sense, but as someone said "common sense is not that common". Jesus had his apostles to spread his word and build his brand. Was he successful in this strategy? Did he come up with all the answers himself and told people what to think, or did he leave the thinking to the people so that they could draw their own conclusions?
Basically, do not be a know-it-all, be humble to others convictions, that's the only way to win their trust and in the end letting them convince themselves.
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Ola
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13:21
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Thursday, August 03, 2006
10 PR commandments and how to use it for Personal Branding (1-3)
Steve Rubel has come up with 10 commandments for public relations professionals. I was thinking of how to use those commandments in the work of personal branding, so I have written some comments to each of the commandments. Here are comments on the first three commandments.
1) Thou shall listen - Utilize every avenue available to you to listen actively to what your publics have to say and feed it back to the right parties.
How do you handle the feedback you get from people around you? For starters, begin with writing down the positive and negative feedback you get. Then look at it and see how it matches the way you want to be seen. Maybe the negative feedback is in line with what you want to communicate and maybe you are getting positive feedback that communicates something you don't want to be associated with.
When people starts talking about you in a way that matches the personal brand you want to achieve you have laid the foundation of your personal brand.
2) Remember that all creatures great and small are holy - It doesn't matter if it's the New York Times calling on you or an individual blogger, both have power. Take them all seriously.
Word of mouth is a powerful tool, and works in both directions. With the right approach you can build your brand by stating your principle to people that does not agree with you, no matter if it is your neighbourhood or the head of the company you want to work at. With the wrong approach however, even upsetting your neighbour can have devastating consequences if he/she talks about you to the wrong person.
3) Honour thy customer - Create programs that celebrate customers and they will celebrate you.
This does not only apply to your customer, it applies to all things in life. I have covered one aspect of this in the earlier post about brokeback entrepreneurs, simply meaning that if you get help from others, be generous and repay the favour. This way you will build you brand and the respect for your person. There are many ways of creating win-win situation with your customers/friends/colleagues, be creative and find the ways that suites the situation.
posted by
Ola
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11:32
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