On January 25th, I started a new religion, the Social Media Religion and I preached about the 10 Commandment of Twitter. This is the second post in that series where I sermonize about the Personal Branding and the lessons I learned while building my own.
Thou shalt be true to thyself
Being true to oneself in short means to act, speak, preach in accordance with who you are and what you believe in. If you are not true to yourself you cannot be true to others. Have the courage to accept who you REALLY are and love that person. Do not pretend to be someone else for the sake of gaining acceptance. Dare to be different, dare to stand for you believe in (yet be tolerant to what others believe in as well). You are unique, don’t plagiarize your identity and be a number.
Thou shalt be true to others
When someone seeks your advice, don’t patronize them and tell them what they want to hear – be true to them, they might not like it at first, but they will respect you and in turn will always trust you to tell the truth. Some say the truth hurts, but not as much as lying does! Be true to others and they will reciprocate such sincerity. Recently, I got a tweet about Gary Vaynerchuk receiving a prank call at 5am in the morning – the way he handled that call was incredible and so true to his brand and the people that believe in his work. His offline brand was as authentic as his online brand!
Thou shalt not make for thine self an idol
Personal Branding is not about YOU – it is how people perceive you to be. Just like any other brand! You can claim to be many different things, an expert, a specialist, a guru, etc … but at the end it’s what people think of you “as a brand” that matters! Yes you are unique, but no you are not irreplaceable. I am one of millions of Marketing consultants, but the only thing separating me from everyone else is the perception of my personal brand. Don’t fall into a narcissistic spiral – I ask you to love yourself, not fall in love with yourself; let others do so!
Thou shalt not stop learning
Socrates, credited for being one of the founders of Western Philosophy, said “I know that I know nothing”. Think about that for a second … he can’t be serious, if he doesn’t know anything, what the hell do I know? What I personally think Socrates meant by his self-referential paradox is that as much as you claim to know, there’s always more to learn. Whatever you are passionate about, be it cooking, dancing, singing, social media, marketing, anything … don’t stop learning about it. There’s always something new to learn. Think of learning as your daily dose of vitamins for your personal brand.
Thou shalt not stop giving
Personal Branding is all about the art of giving. After seeing the posts on blog, some of my friends ask me “how do you expect to make any money as a marketing consultant if you keep giving all these advices for free. Businesses can just take that advice and run with it” – to those skeptics I say that argument applies to any book out there. Personal Branding is about dedicating your effort, focus, and time on enriching people. Nowadays, information is freer than ever before – I’m not reinventing the wheel in my posts, I’m just personalizing it with my beliefs and thoughts.
Thou shalt build a community of Trust Agents
Trust – I think I’ve spoken about that in almost every post I wrote. I hold that word close to my heart, maybe this is why people find me approachable. Build a community of people you trust is important for your Personal Brand – this group of people is not necessarily made up of like-minded individuals, but they certainly have one thing in common – a greater good. Their advice is usually unsolicited and free – they allow you to grow, because as you grow, they grow with you. I have built my online circle of trust and I would recommend you do the same.
Thou shalt engage with others
If a brand sits on the shelf, there’s not much use for it – the same applies to your personal brand. You have to put yourself out there. You have to go viral – but please don’t just follow people and act like a bot. Don’t be a spammer – the commandment clearly talks about engagement – that’s a back and forth conversation that adds value to all parties involved. Online is very similar to offline – you wouldn’t walk on the streets just yelling things out (they’d call you crazy). You should be talking to people. So if you’re on twitter, join chats about subjects you’re passionate about. Listen to what others have to say – but do so actively.
Thou shalt stand bare
Yes, I am asking you to stand naked – well not literally so, but still naked. Personal Branding is all about transparency. For trust to grow, secrets have to die. One of the most daring posts was one written by Amber Naslund who talks about brand elevation through Social Media in her post entitled My Dirty Little College Secret where she revealed that she has no college degree. We are talking about a person that has more than 27 thousand followers on twitter and virally interact with more than that on a daily basis! That is the nakedness I’m talking about. Do you think she lost her credibility by declaring such a “dirty little” secret – to the contrary; people are fed up with fake persona, they want people who are real, who are human, who make mistakes, who dare to stand naked and take the criticism.
Thou shalt be a great storyteller
Eric, my latest friend in my circle of trust, spoke about this commandment so eloquently in one of his posts. Every one of us likes a good story, because as humans we can always relate. Think of why you buy certain brands. With so many brands to choose from, you find yourself drawn towards a brand you can relate to. It represents your values, what you believe in, how you’d like to be perceived as, unconsciously you are thinking of the story behind the brand! It’s the same thing when it comes to your personal brand; people connect with each other based on commonalities. So the next time you’re out there doing your elevator pitch, think of a story, instead of simply laying out your resume in 15 seconds.
Thou shalt not bug, beg, or buy attention, thou shalt earn it
Not only is this the essence of social media, it is the core of personal branding. We are bombarded on a daily bases with people trying to sell us something – don’t be one of those! Follow the commandments laid before you and you will earn that attention you seek. But building a personal brand requires a lot of patience and certainly a lot of dedication. Gary Vaynerchuk transformed his father’s liquor store from a $4 million business to a $60 million by earning the attention of customers in his unsolicited and unorthodox video blogs. He didn’t try to sell you any particular brand, he just chose a bottle of wine and talked about freely – he even spoke about brands he didn’t have in his store!
If you follow those commandments religiously, I can assure you that your Personal Brand will soar and the limitation is only your imagination. Think About It!
John, good post and creative idea. People need to be true to themselves, stand for something, and not take themselves too seriously.
The vanity part of Personal Branding is the ultimate sin! I actually read an interview for you in one of the posts, where you commented on crossing that thin line in Personal Branding – it resonated and that’s why I spoke about it. Thanks for sharing your thought on this Dan (PS. I love the Me 2.0 book)
I think all your points are excellent. The one that stands out to me is one I don’t hear enough people talking about. “Thou shalt not bug, beg, or buy attention, thou shalt earn it” is an extremely important commandment that I think is worthy of repeating. If you put out quality content that engages and informs, you will garner attention of others of value. Value is the word to pay attention to. If it’s not of value, why are you doing it? Thanks again for words to think about!
As you said Kerry, value is the key word here. In a world where information has become so readily available and free, the only thing that stands out is the value added, this in turn defines your Personal Brand and earns the attention of your intended audience!
What’s really cool is when you produce quality content and are being selfless, you get attention from great people you never even thought of! It broadens your horizons, usually in unexpected ways.
Hey John, Thanks for reaching out via Twitter and linking me to your post. As a former Rev. , using the 10 Commandments analogy was quite intriguing. And, I suspect will resonate with many others as well. See – I shared a little secret hardly anyone knows about me. Thanks for pulling that out Bro.
I’m so glad you liked the post Greg. As for your secret, that is one to be very proud of! The correlation between Social Media in general and religion (as a belief rather than a doctrine) is quite strong. As I mentioned in a previous post, the word followers used for Twitter fans is what initially triggered the idea. In terms of followers, had Social Media been a religion, it would be the 3rd largest in the world!
Nice list. I think the one that everyone talks about the most is “Thou Shalt Not Stop Giving.” It is also one of the hardest to actually embrace. The problem I generally see is that the people I’d want something from don’t seem to need anything I could give them. Then I realize that sometimes people want something nonmaterial, like a friend, relationship advice, or even just an ear. This goes right up there with the Commandement Kerry spoke of. Value comes in many shapes and sizes. You can earn your “fans” (not FB Fans here, just social “fans”) by being a good friend and relateable.
Great post.
very creative ideas, brave man.
Love this article. There are too many people who can’t seem to get out of their own way/egos to realize how they are portraying themselves. Or maybe they just don’t care? Your distinction between how you think you are being perceived and how you are perceived is so important. Our intentions are only as good as the perceptions others have of us. In any event, these people will in the end – lose. Those of us who are true to ourselves and helpful and valuable to others will prevail – at least I hope so 🙂
Thanks for sharing your insights that I will definitely be re-sharing!
The essence of what you put in 10 commandments, Jason Hartman summarized in his quote saying that “Your personal brand is a promise to your clients… a promise of quality, consistency, competency, and reliability.”
I think what he is saying is that your reputation is everything in business. Everyone you meet will form an opinion about you, regardless of whether they are your clients or not. Personal Branding is a major tool in managing your reputation.
You talk about the added value, and I agree. If I were looking for a marketing consultant, I would be so confused by all the options available. So why choose you? What differentiates you from all of them?
The criteria in choosing would be the promise you (as a brand)can make to me.
For one, Consistency. Everytime I choose you,I’m choosing the same experience, dedication and creativeness.When we go to McDonalds, we’re going because we expect the same Big Mac, the same taste, service, quality and loyalty. Same goes for personal branding.
The second criteria would be to look at the relationships you have with your clients. This is what you were saying in Thou shalt engage with others. The more you put yourself out there and engage with people, the more likely they are to refer you to others, thus creating more business for you.
The third thing to look for is loyalty. If you are true to yourself then you are true to what you believe in therefore you will be true to me as a client. By being a loyal brand, you will turn me into a loyal customer.
If you are succesfull at branding yourself, then you will stand the test of time. We are lucky to live in a world where information can spread in “real time”, so we should take advantage of that.
Building a strong personal brand allows you to have equity, which in turn will give you sustainable competitive advantage.
Your commandments are very interesting and key to positionning yourself as a leading brand in the minds of your customers. This will bring business to you, and you can then avoid bugging, begging or buying attention but can rather earn it(very well said by the way).
It is always good to come back and reread this post
Hi John, I have just discovered your blog and have read a few of your 10 top articles. All very relative to myself at this time, also very valuable information. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and assisting me with my journey.
Cheers, Margo Carlon