Being Buff: Marketing the social economy

Well, my first shot at organizing, and attending, a geek dinner was a great time. About 15 Ottawa social media types joined Mitch Joel at a local watering hole to eat, drink and be merry. And organizing the dinner wasn’t the only first for me for the night: I also recorded the first episode of my new podcast, The Conscious Images Podcast, featuring an interview with Mitch!! 

So now, more on Mitch’s keynote speech on personal branding that he gave to the Government Communicators Conference this morning.

Mitch said that successful personal branding requires getting good at three types of conversation:

1) Internal   2) One-to-one   3) One-to-many

The internal conversation requires finding the real you and that part of the reason that motivational/sales tips and techniques often fail is that they ask people to be something they aren’t.  The best way to start the internal conversation is to:

i) write down your personal story including the challenges you’ve faced and how you overcame them

ii) find your unique abilities

iii) surround yourself with others who complement your strengths and, more importantly, your weakness (Mitch gave the example of him and his three Twist Image business partners, saying they work well together because they all hate what each other does)

One-to-one was all about the elevator pitch: being able to summarize what you do to someone in 30 seconds or less. Mitch said this pitch had to be clear, short, memorable and roll off the tongue. He also said that when someone asked you what you do, always answer in the format: You know when…what I do.

So, for example, for me it would be: "You know when you’re trying to find out who your customers are and where they are, well, I help companies figure that out."

Mitch said to ignore what our parents’ told them and to speak to strangers – and to listen carefully when we do. He said that one test of how well you’re doing with your personal branding is to ask yourself the question: would you like to sit next to you at dinner?

He said networking is about one-to-one conversations and that one-to-one is about giver’s gain: the more you give the more you get back. Mitch cited the community work he does

One-to-many conversations are easier now than ever and people have to be connected and learn to manage that info overload that comes with it. Mitch said the web sucks if you can’t create.

He ended with Six Points of Separation on building your personal brand:

1) Establish yourself as an expert

2) Be known as a leader

3) Be known as an innovator

4) Separate  yourself from the competition

5) Gain professional stature

6) Build your image

Pics below….

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