7 ways to AMPLIFY your brand

Congrats!

You know your unique positioning. You’ve created compelling content to reach your target audience. You've written an article you’re proud of, enhanced perhaps by chatGPT or Jasper.?Or you've come up with a talk. Or maybe you're almost ready to publish a book.

Now what?

For some, this is where the real work begins. It's time to strengthen and AMPLIFY your content to reach as much of your intended audience as you can.

For many of us, this feels uncomfortable and self-promotional.

A fresh way to think about it, according to author and organizational psychologist Adam Grant, is “idea promotion." As he says, "If you don't put that out in the world, you're depriving people of benefiting from what you poured your heart into. And that to me seems like a mistake."

Agreed. Don't make that mistake.

Now you could always hire an individual or agency to do some of this marketing strategy and execution for you. But it's always good to know the lay of the land, regardless of which tools or platforms are in use.

Speaking of tools, Twitter, for many years, was an excellent way to find your tribes, meet fascinating people, and learn witty and sometimes useful information. I wrote a book: Tweet This! How to Amplify Your Brand on Twitter.? While the blue bird has flown the coop, some of the key concepts about leveraging social media still apply.

Here are PR and social media basics so that your work is "seen." Do these things and when someone searches your name or your company’s name they will find credible evidence that you have expertise in the area you’re talking about. (And your name might even show up in ChatGPT as an authority.)

7 easy(ish) ways to amplify your work

1)??Decide to be consistent.

While Emerson coined the delicious quote that "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," consistency (alas) is, as athletes tell us, crucial. So be consistent if you want to be known as an expert.

2) Do what you’re best at.

If you love video, go for it. Start recording clips and reels to promote your content. If you hate writing, don't start a newsletter — unless you have someone to guide you.

3) Team up and tap your network, particularly when it's mutually beneficial.

Find people who want to share each other's successes. Venture builder and investor Connie Kwan launched an invitation-only group of professional women to uplift one another and be seen. It's called AmplifyHer Network. The ethos: amplify the voices of five other members for each post of one's own.

Likewise, if you interview people, whether it's for an article, panel discussion or book, it's in their interest, too, to promote your content when it's ready to share. (Savvy podcasts excel at leveraging their networks and at #5, making it easy for guests to share highlights, links and social.)

4) Zero in on your most crucial ask.

Innovation and sales expert and keynote speaker Diana Kander decided to shoot for 100 Amazon book reviews in the first 10 days after the publication of her third book, Go Big or Go Home. ?She turned to her network with a very focused pitch. As she notes, if you ask people to do many things to promote your work, it’s easy for them to ignore it, but a clear, personalized request is harder to dismiss. Read Kander's recap for details.

5)??Make it easy.

Create suggested social media posts about your content. (Some recipients will edit them and do their own! Most will not; they'll use the bite-sized drafts that you've created).?Brian Piper and Joe Pulizzi were tireless recently in launching the new edition of Epic Content Marketing and had an epic launch by making it easy for their sizable launch team to assist.

6)?Leverage the good freebies.

Before you even think of investing in paid advertising, where the costs can add up quickly, ask yourself if you’ve already taken advantage of all the basics. Are you leveraging the freebies, such as using the big bold header image space on your LinkedIn profile, taking advantage and selecting the best content to "feature," filling in the descriptions and bio info on all your social media spaces? These may seem like little things but it's a missed opportunity if you don't leverage the good freebies. (It can seem never-ending as platforms compete to add bells and whistles.)

Of course, not everything "free" is high quality (such as those "free" press release services). Use your judgment.

7)??Reach a little higher.

You no doubt know that landing major media coverage can take some work (it's why the major PR agencies charge hefty fees). Surprisingly, sometimes the low-hanging fruit isn’t as low as you would expect. You may have to stretch to reach it. (I thought my hometown newspaper would be easy to get into and it wasn't. I was persistent and just arranged an interview for a client who also grew up in that hometown.)

Your own social media can be low-hanging fruit — it's in your control; you're not waiting for an editor or producer to say yes.

What are some of your favorite ways to amplify your content and brand?

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Next issue: The B: How to BUILD your network and keep building it

Last issue: The C: How to CREATE COMPELLING CONTENT

Laurie Kretchmar is a communications strategist and writer, helping tech execs and leaders get higher visibility and recognition for their ideas — without them having to spend hours writing. She gathers C-suite level people for invitation-only discussions on thought leadership, content and her "C-A-B" framework to bridge to where they want to be.

DM for info on an upcoming writing and brainstorming group.

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