#PRChickWeekly Round Up: June 15

I’ve decided to do a #PRChickWeekly Round Up every Monday that will highlight some of the trending #personalbranding topics or issues being discussed by Personal Branding professionals that I follow as well as some of my own insights.

Last week I checked in to #JustAskCher and Better With Paul Live on LinkedIn - the awesome thing about this week’s Better With Paul Live is that it included 4 personal branding experts - so we have a lot of insights on an array of personal branding topics.

Here’s the #PRChickWeekly Round Up for Week ending June 14th:

#JustAskCher with Cher Jones - “Having Trouble Choosing A Niche For Your Personal Brand?” - that was the topic of the week on #JustAskCher on how to niche down your brand and to be known for something specific. Here are her 6 key takeaways when choosing your niche:

1. What gives “you life”
2. Is there a market
3. Leverage “I also ..” - to elevate the niche
4. Guest on niche shows
5. Ease in to it w/content
6. More experience required

You can catch #JustAskCher every Tuesday at 8 p.m. EST on LinkedIn

Better With Paul Live with Paul Brunson - “How To Manage Your Professional Brand In A New World of Anti-Racism, COVID-19 and Digital Everything” - how do we navigate this new world that we are in as we try to build our brands? 

For this jam-packed episode he included some of my favourite personal brand professionals: Nick F. Nelson, Marielle Legair, Carla Parris and Bobby Umar - so we have A LOT of great content to dive into here:-

Key Takeaways:-

• Is what you are doing right now how you want to be seen. Get clear on what you want to be known for. 
• How are you leveraging your online platforms and is it aligned to your overall brand values?
• We all need to do strategic networking and building strong relationships
• Does your brand have a registered trademark - this becomes a piece of property that you own. Check your local intellectual property office!
• Pivot or Perish - Its time to invest in your brand and invest in your values, so that you can talk about your brand niche that’s aligned with who you are and what you believe.
• Connect & Commit to discovering your personal brand
• Start conversations 
• Think about how to build your online brand
• You are and experience - how are you showing up online? Now you need to show your “insights” as you compete for thought leadership in the online space - talk about what you know.

Understand who is the audience that you are talking to and what problem you are solving, and then articulate the one thing that makes you different and do it consistently.

• Open up your ‘Brand’ mouth
• It’s 80% insights and 20% feelings - but that 20% is what will really connect with your audience
• Take ownership of your brand - show your experience through visible credibility - stop being so “brand humble” - there is nothing wrong with showing how great you are, and telling people what you know - open up your mouth and talk about how great you are!
• Build your social media muscle - build into it and say it consistently

The Personal Brand and Addressing Racism

• A part of being a brand is evoking an emotion - do not post about anything unless you are educated and be empathetic - only post about something if it is in alignment with who you are, your emotions and your values.
• If you are a company you have a responsible to communicate what you are doing to address systemic racism
• Its important as a brand to have a clarity on whatever your position is, articulating that very well
• There is understanding your Value and knowing your Values
• And if you do know about it, be honest and just acknowledge that you don’t know but you are willing and open to learn - it opens up a willingness and dialogue for conversation.

Be transparent

Is there a right strategy for Selling Right now?

• It goes back to your authenticity and speaking your truth
• It’s important not to appear as you are just tacking on to these topics and actual be authentic with the conversations

People buy into people, they don’t buy into brands. People are still “buying” your experience as an individual. Your personal brand lives forever - make sure you are sharing your story, so that your audience can resonate with you on a deeper level.

To what extent should we be trade marking at minimum?

• Register your brand as a trademark under your company
• Registering your company name is different from registering your trademark and includes your logo, slogan and other intangible elements

Your Online Brand Image

• Your headshot becomes your brand logo - it must have a consistent look and feel across platforms. 80% of what people think about you is based off of non-verbals. Your image must be appropriate for your audience.
• Show up, create great content, and share your thoughts 

Audience Building Techniques

• Engagement - “don’t post and ghost” - engage with them! Don’t be “brand selfish” online go and engage on other people’s content.
• Expand your core topic by bringing in other experts
• Offer tools that offer value

Be clear on your ideal client in a much deeper way - really talk to the pain points of your ideal clients in a really granular way

• Develop a clear understanding of what people consider to be valuable information 
• Delivering clear value points for FREE!
• Understand the technology - your profile is your prime real estate, online is keyword based, be very clear, what is the hashtag that your audience will be searching for
• Time of Day - have an understanding of when to post - engagement happens within the 1st 30 minutes

The Future of Personal Branding

• Voice is the next big thing and brands having specific tones - taking branding from a visual standpoint and it become auditory.
• Invest in understanding and leveraging the technology
• Look at intellectual property law for online events and activities - invest in legal expertise and digital strategists
• Leverage voice note facility on LinkedIn to build relationships quickly

#1 Personal Branding Mistakes

• People aren’t willing to commit or invest in doing it - Bobby
• Not registering their brands as trademarks - Carla
• People saying they need to let their work speak for themselves - you must proactively be promoting your work and not leaving it up to chance - Marielle
• They don’t know who they are! - you have to know what you want to be known for and how you want to make people feel - Choose one brand thing you want to be known for, then wrap everything else around that - Nick

Catch Better With Paul Live every Monday & Friday at 12:00 p.m. EST on LinkedIn

PR Chick Pop Up Topic: Finding Your Brand Voice In A Time of Crisis - I provided some tips to help you navigate how to use your brand voice, especially during a crisis.

Here are 7 things to consider:-

1. Go back to your CORE VALUES?

2. Have EMPATHY?

3. Get EDUCATED or Educate others in your community?

4. COMMUNICATE?

5. Have a CONSISTENT Brand Voice?

6. Understand the importance of TIME and PLACE?

?7. BE AUTHENTIC?

You can check out the video over at: @theprchick on Instagram or the recap slides right here on LinkedIn

PR Chick Tip of the Week: The Magic Lies Within - take the time to do some introspection on who you are at your core, identify the things that matter most to you, and connect with your driving force. This helps to set the tone for everything that you do and encounter and allows you to have more impact.

Your PR Chick - Naomi