Five Ways to Accelerate Your Personal and Business Brand in the IT Channel

The way we consume information has changed. The world has been conditioned to think in 142 characters (thanks, Twitter), or 30-second Tik Tok videos. And whether or not you love cute dog videos or following the latest dance craze, the online platforms where so many of us interact have become noisy.

On Facebook and LinkedIn, for example, you may be connected to everyone from doctors to lawyers to family to people you work with to old friends to others in your industry, and on and on. Out of the more than 8,000 connections I have on LinkedIn, there are many that I’ve never met or personally interacted with. For every one connection I do send or accept, I decline four or five because what they do is just not relevant. For me, it’s always quality over quantity.

And that’s the main reason why we’ve launched?Channel Explorer. Think of it as YouTube meets LinkedIn, but better. Log on, create a profile, and gain access to content and connections specific to our industry and business interests. Say goodbye to content that isn’t relevant to you. Explorer is purpose-built to always be relevant to the IT industry. I seriously wish it was around during the early days of building out ID Agent’s channel program. It would have made scaling in the IT channel much more efficient.

For vendors, especially upstarts, Channel Explorer is indispensable to growing your brand. If you’re just starting out, and you try to promote yourself on LinkedIn, good luck! It’s not impossible, but it’s definitely an uphill climb. It’s you versus 810 million other users.

Wayne Gretzky famously said “skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” I say, go to where your potential audience is. And guess what? As a vendor, your audience is on Explorer, too. Imagine a platform where you can get in front of channel partners (MSPs, VARs, Consultants and SIs) every single time you log on. Everything is all in one place – tools, community, thought leaders, and more.

It eliminates friction, consolidates the industry, and drives conversation between vendors and MSPs. It’s an open ecosystem where everyone in the technology industry can flourish.

But Explorer isn’t just a place for community-building. It’s also a new way to build your brand–especially if you’re a vendor. (More about how MSPs can take advantage of all Explorer has to offer in a future post!) Here’s how.

Five ways Explorer can help vendors build their brand:

1. Channel chiefs can build goodwill in the community.?Explorer is tailor-made for offering information and answering questions, and if you’re willing to share and chat, people start talking about you – in a good way. You’ll be known as someone who can be counted on and is willing to take the time to help. Goodwill like that goes a long way, both personally and for your business.
2. CEOs can interact and engage with other vendors and MSPs.?Matt?(Solomon, my co-founder at?Channel Program) has always been the face of the company (we’ve worked together before). He was the one wining and dining at Channel events, making small talk wherever he could, and reaching out to potential partners. And he’s crazy good at it. But if we were at an event and I actually showed my face, I was like the Wizard of Oz! It seemed everyone wanted to talk to me. CEOs are often so focused on running the company–attending investor meetings, working on plans and strategy, etc.–that they forget how important it is to get out into the community. Explorer is an easy way to humanize the CEO, and that creates more goodwill and more connections, which can often lead to new partnerships and new possibilities.
3. Anyone can share their subject matter expertise.?Vendors (particularly technicians/developers) have tons of know-how and mad skills when it comes to the “how-tos” behind their product or service. Tell us about it! Did you solve a problem? Tackle something in a unique way? Finally make a breakthrough? Share it! Explorer gets your knowledge and know-how in front of the right people. And that can spell growth in the long run.
4. It’s a sales tool.?Chat up whatever you’re selling! Since Explorer is a platform built for the IT channel community, you have a built-in audience. Instead of cold-calling, events and meetings, you can leverage your visibility online, knowing that the right people have a high chance of seeing it.
5. Leverage your position to attract potential partners.?This is huge. Compared to a big event, where you may never get a face-to-face with the MSP of your dreams, on Explorer, you can take all that goodwill, promotion, and knowledge from above, and use it to get the attention of your dream partner. A potential partner can simply visit your profile, find out what they need to know, and then get in touch. All your effort can now really pay off.

Spending time on LinkedIn or other platforms is fine for broad strokes; but in Explorer, you’ll see content relevant to your business and brand, and the content you create will actually make it to the eyes of those who actually need to see it.

You’ll make new connections, meet potential partners, share your knowledge, and drive sales. As I said, I wish Explorer existed five or 10 years ago when I was building ID Agent. Instead of hustling extra hard with countless phone calls, too many in-person meetings, and endless emails, I could have made things happen so much faster and easier.

(And you can even connect directly with Matt and myself, as well as our Chief Marketing Officer, Amy Roman. Create an account, log in and reach out!)

Let’s do this.

Kevin