Tag Archives: personal brand

Personal Branding – How-to Avoid Brand Name Confusion

Posted on January 26, 2012 | 5 Comments

Personal Branding is all about earning your brand the attention it deserves; but what if your brand shares the spotlight with someone else? In other words, what if you have a common name?

If the next employer, or client, or contact googles your name up to learn more about you after that brief encounter at the business cocktail you attended last week, will they find you, or someone else with your name. What if that person they found has digital dirt, how does that affect the future of your relationship? You might lose the job, or the business, or that opportunity …

Let’s take an example … two of my students introduced themselves as Ahmed Kamal. I found 447 results on LinkedIn called Ahmed Kamal! Now what are the odds of anyone finding you amongst that list? Let’s just be optimistic and say VERY SLIM!

John Antonios - How-to Avoid Brand Confusion Image

John Antonios - Brand Confusion - (Photographer: Astrid Challita)

You need to make sure your brand name is not confused with someone else’s and here’s how you go about doing that:

Change THE NAME

Chances are Ahmed Kamal won’t go to the official register and change his name … so that’s not the change I’m talking about here. I’m talking about adding uniqueness to your name. Here are some options:

  1. Add a key identifying factor: Associate your name with a title, an adjective, a profession; for example: Ahmed Kamal, MD or Ahmed Kamal, The Painter or The Great Ahmed Kamal … ok maybe you shouldn’t consider that last option, it might be attributed to a narcissistic tendency, unless that’s how you’d like to brand yourself, then by all means, go ahead!
  2. Nicknames: I never understood why everyone in Egypt had a nickname, but then I realized that this is the only way people can identify who they were referring to, since they all share very common first and last names. A tip on using a nickname though, make sure it’s not offensive in any circle. I have a friend that I’ve always known as Moë Ash – I recently tried to add him to my LinkedIn professional network, and I couldn’t find him. Then I discovered that his real name is Mohammed Reda … so when I conducted the search on that name on LinkedIn, as expected, I found one too many results. So my advice to him was to add his nickname to his real name, and introduce himself in any network as Mohammed Reda better known (or also known) as Moë Ash.
  3. Mix it up with initials: Sometimes all you need to do is use initials – A great example on that front is my friend Christine L Bowen, who uses CLB as an acronym for her name and she also translates that into her brand attribute (Create, Live, Be).

COMMUNIcate the same brand name

Regardless of the option you end up choosing for making your brand unique, make sure you communicate that same brand name across all platforms, online and offline.

  1. Own the name – or what I like to refer to as e-real-estate. Purchase your brand name url … www.yourbrandname.com 
  2. Social Networks synergy - use the same brand name on all your social networks – have a look at this free tool www.namechk.com – it allows you to check the dominance of your chosen brand name (which should be your username) on multiple networks.
  3. Offline Material – be it your business card, your CV, or your signature, or any other kind of introduction (even an oral one) … make sure you communicate your brand name as you would like the receiver to remember it and search for it (for further reference)

drown the competition

You can never delete a search result from Google, but you can certainly drown it. In other words, you can make sure that result, which you want to hide, does not show up in the first three pages of Google. That can be achieved by owning your online brand name, as explained in the above section, and by being active in the different platforms and adding valuable content.

Here are some ways you can do that:

  1. Blog & Share: if you want to get noticed by your next employer or client, you need to make you are share you knowledge, thoughts, reviews about the industry (brand or product) on your blog. You need to make sure that the keywords you wanted to be associated with are frequently used on your blog.
    Needless to say, I’m talking about blogging, as a certain prerequisite to any online brand. Think of the blog as your main brand communication hub, which can be reached at www.yourbrandname.com
  2. Commenting on high traffic blogs: A great way to get noticed in the online community is to leave smart comments on high traffic  blogs. Notice, I said “smart” comments … you want to make sure the comments you leave behind arouse the interest of the reader enough from him or her to link back to you and check your profile, or blog … technically, you rank higher in Google when you have more incoming links. All comments will be signed off with your brand name
  3. Brand it: sign everything you share online with your brand name. If you upload a picture or an infographic that you created, make sure your brand name is there on the image, and in the name of the file you upload.

Now go on, google your name? are you happy with the results? how many you’s are there? Does your name appear in the first 3 results? How many time does  your brand name recur on the first 3 pages? now be honest, if you didn’t know you, could you tell which you is YOU? Confusing, I know, this is exactly how those seeking you out feel! Think About It! 

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KLOUT – Measuring Your Personal Branding Influence & Style

Posted on January 15, 2012 | Leave a comment

There are thousands of Social Media monitoring tools out there that should certainly be used to measure the effectiveness of your branding activities. This here is the first in a series of posts that will be introducing how to make the best use of these tools. In today’s post, I’ll be talking about the benefits of Klout and why I believe it’s an indispensable personal branding monitoring tool.

PS. Before you go on with this post, make sure you signup for Klout using your twitter account, and have it open in a separate window, as I will be reverting to it several times during the course of this post.

What is Klout?

In short, Klout is tool used to measure and leverage your online influence based on your use of social media communication tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and Google+. Wherever you have an online presence, you have the opportunity to influence people by creating or sharing content that inspires actions such as likes, retweets, shares, comments and more. The more engagement your posts receive, the more influential you are. Tracking this influence overtime, allows you to understand your brand resonance further, and basically, highlights what you should continue you doing, and what you should refrain from exploring.

What does you Klout score measure?

John Antonios - Understanding Klout - Score

Figure 1 - Klout Score

Klout gives your influence a score from 1 to 100. This score is calculated based the level of your social media engagement, so make sure you connect all your social networks and use them properly to score higher. Here are some attributes that go into the calculation of your score:

  • Facebook – likes, comments
  • Twitter – retweets, mentions
  • LinkedIn – comments, likes
  • Foursquare – tips, to-dos, done
  • Google+ – comments, re-shares, +1

It’s also important to mention that the average Klout score is 20 (not 50). The higher you score, the more difficult it becomes to add points to your score.

The score itself is not as important as the trend presented by the historical data. In Figure 1, you’ll notice that my current Klout score is approximately 56. The drops showcased in the graph highlight my period of extended inactivity. Note that this score is updated on a daily basis based on your activity. You should aim at having a positive sloped graph.

Having a large number of followers or likes or whatnot is not what counts towards your Klout score – it’s the level of engagement with your audience that matters. So basically, it’s not the size of your network, but how you use it to inflict action!

What are you influential about?

This feature of Klout is of utmost importance.

According to William Arruda, the 3Cs of Personal Branding are Clarity, Consistency, and Constancy. Being a Jack-of-all-trades is not exactly the best approach to personal branding – in fact, I’d highly advise against being one. Your aim is to be known for something not everything. Gone are the days where a generic approach is plausible; you should aim at developing a certain level of expertise, and target a specific audience!

Klout monitors your social media activity and analyzes what topics you’re most influential about. In Figure 2 – you’ll notice that I’m personally influential about Personal Branding and Social Media – this is perfectly aligned with Personal Brand objectives.

John Antonios - Understanding Klout - Influential Topics

Figure 2 - Klout - Influential Topics

Have a look at your influential topics, are the top 5 topics analyzed by Klout representative of your brand? If the answer is “No”, then you might want to reconsider what you’re putting out there!

What is your Klout Style?

This is by far my favorite Klout feature!

Klout has developed a great matrix to help you understand your social networking style. This complex matrix measures your style of engagement (Listening, Participating, Sharing, and Creating) and your content (Broad, Focused, Consistent, and Casual). This in turn forms 16 different styles as depicted in Figure 3. For further description about each style, make sure you look at this interactive graph (just hover the different section of the matrix and learn about each style).

Klout Style Matrix

Figure 3 - Klout Style Matrix

You want to completely avoid being in the lower left quadrant! If your personal brand lies in that corner of the Klout matrix, you should start engaging with your social network and be more active. Depending on your brand attributes, you might choose to go towards the right of this graph by being more focused in terms of topics discussed, and consistent in delivering it. Or you may choose to move vertically up if you are more in the spirit of sharing information you come across with your followers. Finally, you may choose to move diagonally upwards, which more often than not requires of you to have an pre-existing imposing brand (like a celebrity would). People like Lady Gaga & Barak Obama occupy the celebrity corner – basically, what this entails is an audience that hangs on every word and probably retweets the hell out of anything they post, but they (Gaga & Obama) rarely (more like never) make it a two-way conversation.

However, I strongly recommend you focus on having your personal brand in the lower right quadrant of the Klout matrix. Being a specialist means that within  your area of expertise your opinion is second to none. Your provide focused content around a specific topic or industry and share it with a highly engaged audience. This is the kind of fame you need to attract towards your brand – “earned fame” not a bought one!

Additional klout features

Aside from all the great features discussed above, Klout scores your:

  • Amplification – how much you influence people
  • True Reach – the number of people you influence, both within your immediate network, and across their extended networks.
  • Network – how influential is your network

Klout also allows you to compare your different scores – this feature allows you to benchmark your social media engagement against your competition and therefore enhance your online performance.

This brings us to the end of our Klout discussion for this post. Whatever you are doing to communicate your brand, make sure you are measuring your progress and setting goals, otherwise, your efforts might go unnoticed, and that would be a shame. Think About It!

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I will be publishing a series of articles to help you better manage your personal brand – so make sure you subscribe to my blog or to my RSS feed (http://johnantonios.com/feed) to your favorite reader (eg. Google Reader)

Do you use other tools to monitor your personal brand? If so, why don’t you share them in the comment section below …

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Personal Branding – GEMANALOGY – A Diamond in Rough

Posted on December 31, 2011 | 6 Comments

You are a “Diamond in the rough” – first time I had heard this expression was in one of Disney’s great classics, Aladdin (1992).  I was only 12 then, but the context of the expression really inspired me to inquire more … here’s what the merchant trying to sell Aladdin the magic lamp told him …

Do not be fooled by its commonplace appearance. Like so many things, it is not what outside, but what is inside that counts. This is no ordinary lamp. It once changed the course of a young man’s life. A young man, who, like this lamp, was more than what he seemed. A diamond in the rough.

The phrase is metaphorical and relates to the fact that naturally occurring diamonds are quite ordinary at first glance, and that their true beauty as jewels is only realized through the cutting and polishing process (Urban Dictionary).

The process of Personal Branding is very similar to the different phases that a gem goes through before becoming the jaw dropping stone we have to be dragged away from before we start drooling … This analogy was first introduced by William Arruda, President of Reach, and coauthor of Career Distinction, one of my all-time favorite Personal Branding books. However, I took the liberty of coining the term GEMANALOGY, not to be confused with gemology, which in our given analogy only serves as the first phase of our Personal Brand, where we get to learn more about our brand.

GEMANALOGY has three 3 interdependent phases: Extract, Express, Exude … noticeably the three words commence with EX, referring the importance of the External perception of our gem!

GEMANALOGY by John Antonios

Phase 1 – Extract

Just like any gem, our brand needs to be discovered – extracted from the ground, carved out of the rocks … this requires dedication and patience! This where you get to know yourself … your vision, purpose, goals, passion, values, brand attributes and skills, and much more … I won’t be addressing how to go about discovering all of those in this post, but I’ll address the topic of Passion …

So what is passion? and how can you really find out what you’re passionate about? I’ll tell you one thing, it’s not easy, nor can it happen over night … here’s a helping hand though:

What fascinates you?
What excites you?
What turns you on?
What gives you a rush?
What could you go on talking about for hours?
What would make you get out of bed at 6:00 am?
What would keep you up all night?

These question should help steer you in the right direction. However, since we’re talking about cashing in on your passion, the aim is to do just that … therefore, I want you to think of your passion under that pretext. What would you do if you had all the money in the world? The format of this question, eliminates money from being an obstacle, and allows you to to truly think of aforementioned questions without bias.

If you’re keen on understanding your brand in depth, I would highly recommend you take the 360°Reach™ FREE Personal Brand Assessment. Let me know if you’d like to move beyond the free version!

Phase 2 – Express

After extracting your priceless stone, it’s time to cut it, polish it, and let it shine! This is the express phase of Personal Branding. In this stage of our GEMANALOGY, we should start developing our Personal Brand Marketing toolkit … your brand statement, bio, colors, CV (if you insist), elevator pitch and much more! Express is all about communicating your brand to the people that need to know about it.

Personal Branding is clearly communicating the unique promise of value that you offer. William Arruda

Communicating your brand is not a random act. It should be a comprehensive well developed plan that best serves the goals your laid out in the Extract phase.

Phase 3 – Exude

After unearthing your gem and giving it the cut and polish it deserves, it’s time to mount it onto the ring, the earring, the necklace … basically showcasing it to your intended audience. This phase is better known as Exude phase, where you abundantly exhibit your personal brand.

Be your brand in everything that you … remember Personal Branding is full-time lifetime job. Unless you suffer from MPD, there’s only one you – so make sure you remember that!

In our analogy, the ring, earring, or necklace are what we call the visual elements that support your brand … be it your logo, slogan, your physical appearance, your environment … yes, your environment … everything the you surround yourself with should reflect your brand and its attributes. For example, imagine you’re brand is all about fashion,  and you dress like rag … does that emit confidence to you? I don’t think so …

The number one secret of earning attention is giving it – it’s BRAND KARMA …

It’s a new year, a time for resolutions – make your legacy that of this year’s! Think About It!

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The Personal Branding – To-DON’T list!

Posted on October 26, 2011 | 11 Comments

Saturday, October 22, 2011 marked a milestone in my Personal Branding Coaching career. As part of my personal brand plan, one of my targets was to get my personal branding message across the TED platform. Thanks to TEDxTanta, I was able to share the Personal Branding – To DON’t List with a wonderful crowd. In that same spirit of sharing the knowledge, I’m laying out the 7-points list, in the hope that the readers take this list and convert it into an action list.

A while back, I spoke about the 10 Commandments of Personal Branding, which basically laid out the basics rules that should be followed as you build your brand. Serving that same purpose, I developed a more practical list addressing the basic To-DON’T when it comes to maximizing your potential that was inspired from my working with different students and listening to their concerns post graduation.

John Antonios - Personal Branding To-DON'T List

Don’t Waste Time: to understand what I’m talking about, I want you to try to measure how much time you spend on the phone per day – be it answering calls, or text messages, or BBMs, etc … The problem is that every time you do so, it takes you an average of 25 minutes to regain absolute focus on what you were doing! If you do the math, you’d realize that it’s a great amount of time lost. This is only one example of how we waste time during in our daily routine. Recommendations Work in chunks of time at full throttle (like 90 min) and then take a break of 10 min to recover. Similarly, do so throughout your work week, and then take a full day of complete unwinding. Leave your emails, laptops, phones … and just use that day to reenergize! Read a book, spend time with your friends & family, go hiking …. whatever you do just make sure it’s a stress free day. Following this methodology, you’ll notice the ability to get more work done with less effort – this is working smart!
Don’t Blame Others: The easiest thing to do when something bad happens to us is to blame others. Ironically, we always attribute the good stuff to us, but NEVER the bad stuff – the latter is always someone else’s fault. Even as kids at school, when we fail an exam and we’re asked about it, we instantly say something along those lines “That B#$% gave me an F“, but when we score a high-grade, we proudly walk around flaunting our achievement saying “I got an A+” – when in fact, you were responsible for both results. Unfortunately, the latter situation is not limited to our high-school days, we do it on a daily basis. The jobs we’re in, the treatment at the office, the friends we have, the money we earn … if you don’t like them, you’re the only one to blame, there’s no one else! Recommendations Instead of wasting time blaming others for our current situation, why not try reflecting on it and learning from it. This will prune you for a better future!
Don’t Complain: this brings us to one of the worst possible habits that destroy our brand bit by bit. Some people blame their misfortunes on others, and others find nothing better to do than complain about it. “I have the worst luck in the world”, “I hate my job”, “I can’t stand my boss”, “They expect me to survive till the end of the month on that”, “I hate my major” … Complaining about it, is actually the easy way out (just like blaming others); but the problem is that it won’t make it any better. Recommendations why not do something about it. if you don’t like your job, why don’t you quit? trust me, you can waste the same amount of money doing nothing if you take opportunity cost into account. So stop complaining, and starting doing something about it!
Don’t Comply: “I am majoring in medicine because my parents wanted me to”, “I am veiled because society expects me to”, “I’m arriving to work at 8:00am because of company policy”, “I am going through 6 months training because its mandatory” … I see people all around me diluting their brand in order to fit in, and be accepted. Recommendations Stop trying to fit in, when you should be trying to stand out. Dare to be different! You can’t live your life trying to please others, and you can’t allow others to live their lives through you. You need to live your own life, the way you want to. Don’t be a number, just a face in the crowd … defy the norm, be crazy … trust me, it’s much better than being normal (at least you have your excuse)!
Don’t Be Afraid: ”What if I fail”, “What if she says no”, “What if there’s something really scary inside”, “What if I no body likes my work”, “What if they laugh at me” … we comply because we’re afraid. We’re always afraid because we seek recognition from the people around us. Recommendations Don’t allow yourself to live with the “What if” question … look back at the “What ifs” I had mentioned … now imagine the other side of that coin; you’ll notice that the worst case scenario does not stand a chance with a multiple possibilities that lie on the other end of that spectrum … Embrace your fear, welcome the unknown, accept the change! Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing something over and over again, and expecting a different result. If you want to reach great success, you have to be willing to go where no one else is willing to go – you have to remove the fear factor!
Don’t Pretend:  people are walking around in masks, and it’s very tiring to do so. The mask you were with your in-laws, the mask at the office, the mask with your friends … so many pretend roles, we forgot how to be ourselves. Recommendations Don’t plagiarize your identity, dare to be different. Remember Personal Branding is not a beauty pageant, you’re not trying to have everyone like you, in fact, a good indicator to a well positioned Personal Brand is when there are people that hate you. You’re not a mass product, your brand should serve a niche, and to that particular niche, all you need to do, is be YOU.
Don’t Compromise: When asked what salary Layla expected in the new job she was applying for, her answer was “uh … it doesn’t really matter, I’m more interested in the experience” – the HR manager heard “perfectly naive, I can underpay her and look good in front of management at the annual reviews”; so he said “OK, we’re offering 500 USD all-inclusive” – Layla said yes to the offer, even though she thinks her work is worth at least 1000 USD, but she compromised out of fear! Recommendations Never compromise – if you believe that you are worth what you’re asking for, than don’t settle for anything less … and make sure to ask for it! Remember what I always say, “YOU SHY, YOU DIE”
Hang on to that to-Don’t list – you can print out the picture and hang it on your desk – I’m daring you to try following the list for one month, and if it doesn’t work, you can spit in my face! Think About It!

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100 Indispensable Personal Branding Tips

Posted on November 16, 2010 | 6 Comments

Personal Branding Tips - John Antonios

Last month we brought you 100 Social Media tips that you need to carry with you to 2011; this month it’s all about Personal Branding. 50 of those are quotes and tips from branding experts and the rest are based on our experience. So without further adieu, let the countdown begin:

100. Don’t plagiarize your identity, dare to be different

99. You are immortal, Take control of your legacy

98. Define your Personal Brand DNA – it’s what makes you unique!

97. Communicate your brand – it’s all about engagement

96. Brand Identity is very different than Brand Perception – the closer they are, the stronger your brand position.

95. Vanity is certain suicide to any personal brand

94. What does your personal SWOT analysis look like?

93. Prepare you elevator pitch

92. Monitor what’s being said about your brand

91. If I google your name, would I find you? Where would you be – top 3 results, 1st page, 2nd or 3rd? What will I find?

90. Learn to listen

89. Learn to give

88. You’re role is not to blend in, but stand out

87. Stop whining and start fighting

86. The only person worth comparing yourself to is your previous self!

85. There’s no room for the shy!

84. Your online and offline brand are one and the same – they should reflect YOU

83. Don’t stop learning

82. Online you have nowhere to hide, so you should have nothing to hide! Transparency is the new currency.

81. You can’t take a break from being the real YOU

80. Personal Branding is for everyone – the CEO, the student, the mother, the sitter, the chef, the writer, the celebrity, the geek, the priest … EVERYONE had a brand – it’s time you put it out there!

79. Stop being afraid – YES YOU CAN!

78. Learn to tell a great story

77. Don’t beg, bug, or buy attention – EARN IT

76. Think of yourself as a brand; are all the marketing elements in play?

75. “Be the real you because everyone else is taken and replicas don’t sell for as much” @DanSchawbel

74. “I get to play golf for a living. What more can you ask for – getting paid for doing what you love.” @TigerWoods

73. “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head; if you talk to him in his language that goes to his heart.” Nelson Mandela

72. “It’s loyalty to peers in your industry and not to a hierarchy. You have to develop a Rolodex obsession, building and deliberately managing an ever-growing network of professional contacts.” Tom Peters

71. “Your personal brand is a promise to your clients… a promise of quality, consistency, competency, and reliability.” Jason Hartman

70. “In the end, it’s about being smart.  Present a good face, but know that your reputation will ultimately be decided by the actions you bring to bear, not the consistency of your presentation. At best, the presentation will only get you a shot to be on the stage. Your performance is the ultimate barometer.” Geoff Livingston

69. “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” Gandhi

68. “Know what you want. Great minds have purposes; others have wishes.” Washington Irving

67. “You are your own 24/7 billboard and interactive ad campaign. Every day, in everything you do, you tell the world about yourself, your values your goals, and your skills.” @WilliamArruda

66. “Patience and passion are personal branding virtues.” Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee)

65. “Find out what you want to do every day for the rest of your life and do that – you can find a way to monetize it.” Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee)

64. “It’s your life, Own I” @WalterAkana

63. “Personal branding is not about being all things to all people or trying to please all of the people all of time; it’s about taking a stand and being comfortable knowing that some will not agree with your point of view. Of course, this does not mean being contrary for the sake of it, either. You must be clear about what you believe and willing to express those beliefs.” @WilliamArruda

62. “Commenting on other people’s blogs builds awareness fast.” @ChrisBrogan

61. “Your digital identity defines who you are and in this genre of Web-savvy content creators and purveyors, your online reputation does indeed precede you.” @BrianSolis

60. “Visibility creates opportunities.” @DanSchawbel

59. “Companies have to connect with their audience as individuals and individuals have to behave as companies.” @DanSchawbel

58. “Your personal brand separates you from the nameless masses” James Adam

57. “Whether you’re a student, currently employed, seeking a new job, a brand ambassador or the official community manager of a company’s social media strategy, your activities online contribute to and ultimately shape your identity and lay the foundation for your reputation.” @BrianSolis

56. “While building your personal brand, allocate 85% of your time to behind-the-scenes work and allow 15% for public-facing activities.” @RyanRancatore

55. “More than anything else, I think prospects, customers and citizens watch what you do more than they listen to what you say.” @SethGodin

54. “Branding is no longer for Fortune 500 companies and Madison Avenue agencies with excessive budgets and inadequate tracking. Personal branding is about managing your name — even if you don’t own a business — in a world of misinformation, disinformation, and semi-permanent Google records …” Tim Ferriss (@tferriss)

53. “I have learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”  Henry David Thoreau

52. “STOP asking what’s in it for you and start giving gifts that change people. Then, and only then, will you have achieved your potential.”@SethGodin

51. “As a personal brand you engage your community, perspective employers, customers, and future business partners through a series of brand impressions that can be leveraged through your online community.” @HajjFlemings

I know you’re expecting 50 more, but @Maltaee stole them from me … don’t worry, I got you the link, but please don’t tell him I gave it to you! It’s our little secret!

I’m certain Mohammed will claim that I was the whole the remaining 50 from him, but who are you going to believe … Think About It!

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