Don't Make This Personal Branding Mistake

The below post first appeared on CBS MoneyWatch:

There are blog posts, articles, and even books dedicated to helping you create a personal brand, but personal branding expert Dan Schawbel warns against making a critical mistake that can decimate your brand overnight. I had the chance to interview Dan Schawbel about personal branding and his book, Me 2.0: 4 Steps for Richer Life. Go to Richer Life to listen to the full Dan Schawbel personal branding interview.

Robert: How specific should someone be when creating their personal brand? Let's say a few years ago my personal brand was "I'm the MySpace expert." And now all of the sudden MySpace is dead. So is there a fear with committing too much to a specific brand?

Dan: You don't want to commit to someone else's brand. By saying you're a LinkedIn Expert or a MySpace Expert, you're committing to someone else's brand, so you're placing a bet that their brand will grow and succeed and therefore your brand will grow and succeed, because there will be more of a demand for your services. But it's a fool's bet. It's not something that I would ever recommend. I've seen some people be successful doing that, but it's too risky and it's building someone else's brand and not as much building your own. So I think it's really important and it's part of the reason why I did personal branding-because it's something that was written about 10 years before social media. It was getting talked about and social networks were being created. So therefore, my belief is that it's something that will survive even if social media becomes something else later.

Robert: That little nugget right there is huge, because I think for a lot of people they do tie their personal brand with maybe another company or with a product. Let's say I've got a book coming out and I want to tie my personal brand to that book. Now, if the book doesn't do well or if I have four or five more books that I have in my head, there could be a problem if I say that's my brand and I've tied it specifically to a particular product.

Dan: Absolutely. You'll be irrelevant if that company or that social media tool does not exist anymore. You'll be completely irrelevant, and then in order to position yourself back in the marketplace and something else it'll be really tough. It'll be really tough because you've become known as the LinkedIn Specialist, but if there's no LinkedIn what are you going to be known as? And to create new brand perception is a lot of work, and it's tough, and it's going to take years, so it's definitely not something that I would recommend. I think you just have to create your own job title, be unique, and be committed to what you're going to do, because it takes a lot of work and you have to build it over time. I didn't, you know, it took me six months and then I was fortunate enough to get written about in Fast Company which expedited my success. But what if that didn't happen? Maybe it would have taken a year, two years. That's why you really have to love what you do and you have to be. When you love what you do and you really enjoy it and you gain confidence in it, you gain a positive attitude and you're committed to it. So the chances that you'll be successful (even if you aren't Donald Trump) are very high, because people are more apt to do business with people who love what they do. If you have hate what you do (as you know 80% of people or companies hate what they do), it's going to be hard for somebody to really, really want to work with you.

Robert Pagliarini

Go to Richer Life to listen to the full Dan Schawbel personal branding interview.

Robert Pagliarini is a CBS MoneyWatch columnist, bestselling author, professional life coach, and founder of Richer Life—a community for people who want to achieve more at work and in life. He has appeared as an expert on 20/20, Good Morning America, Dr. Phil, Dr. Drew's Lifechangers and many others. Sign-up for Richer Life Tips at RicherLife.com to get a daily email that provides inspiration and insight each morning.

QR Codes Demystified

QR codes (or quick response codes) are popping up all over marketing campaigns—and chances are, you’ve seen them on the packaging of your favorite foods in the grocery, on pages of the magazines you read or even on the back of a peer’s business card.

These simple codes may prove to be the next technological wave of marketing future.

The basis of a QR code is to capture the intended audience at the peak of interest. They are basically two-dimensional bar codes, similar to what you would find on a clothing tag at the department store.

QR codes can be scanned using a scanner or reader on your smartphone—and they instantly take you online (be it a Twitter page, YouTube video, website, profile, etc.—anything with a dotcom address.)

If you own a smartphone and haven’t yet downloaded an app to read QR codes, do so today! There are numerous free options; simply search for “qr code reader.”

So how can you use a QR code to market your small business? There are three basic concepts you will need to think about to use these codes effectively to connect and engage your audience.

1. Content. Where will the QR code take your audience? How will it be used? What is your customer call to action?
2. Position. Where will the QR code be placed? Where will it be used?
3. Share. Don’t just wait for people to stumble upon your code—find a way to share it! (Perhaps via email or social media.)

When it comes to actually creating your QR code(s), there are plenty of free options available online. Simply search “qr code creator” in your favorite search engine.

If you are looking for creative ways to use QR codes, check out this article by Fast Company.

Are you currently using QR codes in your marketing ventures? If yes, what ways have you found most effective? If you aren’t, how would you be able to incorporate a QR code in your marketing plan?

A new year, your new marketing plan

Here we are, January 14 and nearly two weeks into the New Year…now is the ideal time to locate and dust off last year’s marketing plan. Take some time today to freshen it up with new ideas and goals to reflect where you’re headed in 2011.

Don’t have a marketing plan currently in place? No problem! It is never too late to get your business organized. (Click here for the resources to help you put your marketing plan together from scratch.)

While we cannot hand you aspiration or carve out your individualized action items for the year, we can provide you with some data and metrics you can use to get your marketing plan down in writing.

As with any good marketing plan, you need to include a section on customer analysis. Or, in other words, you need to determine your target consumers and what it is that they want in a coach. The key question you need to answer here is “why does this group of people want coaching?”

And that’s where our data comes in: findings from the 2010 Global Consumer Awareness Study show us that more than two-fifths (or 42.6 percent) of respondents who had experienced coaching chose “optimize individual and/or team performance” as their top motivation for being coached. This piece of information can easily be included as part of your customer analysis. And that is only one finding from last year’s study! You can be sure that there is plenty more where that came from.

To make this data finding process a little easier (and more personalized to your corner of the world), we have recently released data tables by country. Each report outlines various findings from the awareness study—findings you can easily incorporate into your own marketing plan. Access your country’s data table here.

Need help with other aspects of your marketing plan? Download our Marketing Plan Basics document here. This document includes a basic outline and step-by-step instructions in creating your own marketing plan.

How do you flush out your marketing plan? Have you conducted your own market research? What are some new additions to your 2011 marketing plan?