A strong digital brand is fast becoming your most important marketing tool. Our changing culture, business practices and career paths have mean that strong personal and company digital brands are essential to help you be perceived as a leader in your market.

Who needs a digital brand?

• Professionals
• Business owners
• Executives
• Creatives
• Politicians
• Change Advocates
• Sole Traders
• Entrepreneurs
• Small Businesses
• Companies
• Anyone who wants to make a difference or become leaders in their field or organisation
• People and companies who are already influential and want to maintain, consolidate or focus their authority, market share and profitability

Does that sound like you? You bet it does!

What’s going on out there?

In the business world, everything has changed. Every profession and industry has been impacted by widely available technology, more rapid communication and changing consumer expectations.

For the last few hundred years businesses succeeded and grew by being faster, more efficient or cheaper than their competitors – and the result has been an endless array of cheap, mass-produced goods. But geographical, language and cultural barriers are falling away in the face of unrestricted information flow, viral sharing and the universal appeal of visual media. Customers suddenly have unlimited capability to search until they find exactly what they want. And nobody’s going to settle for less.

Big businesses are trying to respond by offering personal service and customised product bundles, but are hindered by the very standardisation and production economies which allow them to perform efficiently on a large scale. They simply can’t afford to specialise enough to meet the diverse needs of all their potential customers.

Chaos=Opportunity: how to benefit from market disruption

This leaves the door wide open for small businesses and entrepreneurs to capture and delight those customers. A whole new business ideology has developed around these amazing opportunities within the digital arena to identify a niche market – and establish a position as a leader, a trusted expert, within that market. With the right tools, strategy and mindset you can identify a profitable sphere and become influential within it.
So how does this impact you and your business?

But I’m a professional with a great career, this doesn’t impact me!

Don’t be a statistic – you are not immune to the massive changes which are already starting.

Many professionals and business owners fail to grasp the potential disruption to their expertise, employability and business model. Advances in computing and communication mean that many jobs which once needed an expert – a highly trained and paid professional – can now be done better and faster by a computer.

Even if not, chances are someone in India or Singapore (or even Europe or America) can be trained to do the same work for a fraction of the price. Australia is especially vulnerable to job loss, reduced pay and business failure, because we remain one of the few economies where most people are employed in high paying (in world terms) positions.

Obviously ignoring the threat is a recipe for disaster – but it’s also a mistake to give up. The key is to position yourself as someone able to utilise new tools and opportunities, and navigate the changing landscape of your profession.

10 years ago: your expertise was worth $100 per hour. Today – it is free on Google

In today’s online economy information, which was once the exclusive domain of professionals and experts, is now instantly accessible through Google. But more information doesn’t always lead to better decisions. Without guidance it can be almost impossible to distinguish truth from speculation. Today, more than ever, specialised, personal knowledge is a precious commodity.

The key to success here is keeping up with the latest news and developments in your industry, listening to the needs of your customers and market, and becoming well recognised as an authority in your industry. You need to be the one who knows what is coming before anyone else does, and ready to provide expert insight to those who need it and will pay a premium for it.

Social media makes all this possible, affordable and easy, but if you ignore it too long you may find yourself, or your business, a casualty of outsourcing, cost-cutting or technical change.

What does this mean for me?

What all this means is that if you have an amazing idea or product, or some unique, valuable knowledge to share on a subject, there is a tangible opportunity for you or your business to become highly sought-after. Provided, that is, that you are prepared to put some real effort into it.

The key to success in this social marketplace is authenticity; which means building your expertise around something you really care about, then promoting it with a brand which appeals to other people who share your passion.

• By drawing on your genuine knowledge, passion and enthusiasm as you reach out to people who feel the same way about the same thing; you will explore and expand your networks until you find the ideal audience for your idea, service or product.
• By thinking about the specific needs of that audience, letting them tell you what they actually want and making a genuine effort to provide something which meets those needs (rather than using tricks to sell them something they don’t need) you will attract people to your brand – people who value what you do and want to share it with their friends and colleagues who will also benefit from it.
• By contributing something new and useful, and by building a name for yourself as others begin to notice and talk about that contribution, you will gain reputation and influence within your niche.
• By repeatedly meeting their needs and working with customers in your niche, you will develop truly specialised expertise, and a toolbox of useful strategies and systems so you will work more efficiently, deliver better results and stand out as one of the top providers in your field.

Become influential

As a person or business of with a strong digital brand, you have significant online influence, you are someone whose opinion and knowledge people respect. This means you become someone whose advice, service or products people actively seek out.

This is the goal. So, how do you get there?

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To survive and thrive as a business in the new digital economy you need to do far more than just put out digital equivalents of your TV and print advertising.

There is an argument that if businesses aren’t ruthless, self-serving and deliberately ignorant of the needs of others they will go broke, and this has certainly been the strategy of some of the most successful businesses over the past decades. However business leaders are increasingly adopting a new approach that combines the benefits of capitalism with respect for society and others – an approach in which businesses behave as responsible members of society.

And the approach is working. This growing community of “social businesses” is proving that it is possible to excel in the business area by operating with logical self-interest, but also building concern for customers, society and the planet into their corporate makeup. As ethical and fair trade practices become more widespread, businesses which persist with antisocial practices are beginning to be penalised.

People are becoming ever more concerned about the ethics and behaviour of the companies they buy from – and the transparency offered by social media places companies under constant public scrutiny.

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The keystone of building your brand is telling your story. The greatest successes and creations in human history owe their existence to a powerful story, and the greatest idea or product is almost worthless without one.

“As humans we are the product of the stories we tell ourselves – we are fundamentally narrative beings” – Dallas McMillan

Creating the right narrative for your brand is essential – in fact focusing on the story with everything you do is critical. What people care about is people – what happens to them, what motivates them and why they do what they do.

They want to know why you started that company, chose that design, decided offer that service. They want to know how you found your way to where you are and why you believe in what you are telling them. Above all they want to know why other people buy or use your product or listen to what you have to say. A compelling narrative is far more effective at attracting a passionate audience than a list of benefits or a sales pitch can ever be.

Brands as archetypes

The best brands tie into deep human archetypes – a great way to think of this is in the recurring themes across cultures and history.

A familiar example is the hero myth – familiar to many of us via the Star Wars movie franchise.

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Brands are becoming more personalised (to the consumer) and also becoming more personable (having more characteristics of a person). At the same time, our personal brands (in many cases largely comprising our consumer brand choices) are becoming stronger and more prominent.

This is eroding the barriers between brands and people. Let’s examine this further, looking firstly at successful personal brands, and then at company brands which have created a value proposition by what buying them says about our personality, and finally by looking at companies which are succeeding in creating personable brands.

Personality that shines through

Let’s start by taking a look at well known people who have developed a strong personal brand (I’m Australian, so my list will reflect this). These people are all famous for some reason, but they’ve gone beyond that by branding themselves in a way which makes them more memorable, meaningful and appealing.

OK, so most of these people are influential within their sphere. They have money, fame, and/or power. But the reason they are most recognisable is that they have a strong personal brand. Their personality shines through. We can imagine them dressed in their particular style. We know what they like doing, what they stand for and where they hang out. There is a certain way we expect them to behave and it bothers us when they don’t.

Brands Create Value

A strong brand creates premium value. To some degree, a brand is value. Some top athletes make zero money unless they attract a major brand sponsorship. Being good is just not enough – both athlete and brand rely on each other to maintain the strength and value of the brand.

The value of a brand relies on strong positive associations – included in our list of strong personal brands are a few which have eroded their value by behaving in a way which is not consistent with their brand.

“The top people in an industry have become brands, The top brands are trying to become more personal” – Dallas McMillan

Companies with personality

Now let’s take a look at a few companies which have developed a striking, powerful brand.

Now these companies have become successful by creating high quality products. But even when there’s a rival product that’s technically superior, these companies garner more loyal followers, command a higher price, and have extra clout in the marketplace.

So what do these brands stand for?

In each case they are mass-producing a product, whether it be cars, watches, furniture or books. They are one of many players in the market, yet they’ve positioned themselves as being superior in value, or quality, or other positive association, and can thus command a higher price in their marketplace.

Does Nike’s brand say ‘sportswear’? Does BMW say ‘car’? Not really! In each case, the brand represents something about the people who buy it, rather than the product itself – maybe that they are ‘cool’, ‘successful’, ‘affluent’ or ‘adventurous’.

The people who choose these brands may tell themselves they want the best quality, or need specific features, but they are really choosing the brand because of what it says about them.

Our consumer decisions are part of our personal brand

Social media like Facebook and especially MySpace (yes, it’s back!) are built around the human desire to facilitate and share these overt displays of taste or affluence.
This tendency to self-publicise looks set to continue as young people grow up in a world immersed in branding and marketing. These digital natives are often acutely sensitive to the nuanced meanings associated with brands in their life. Narcissistic? Yes, but no more so than other generations with their fixations on BMWs, power suits and designer sunglasses. The inclination to define and broadcast our personality through what we buy, use, wear or drive hasn’t changed; it’s just become easier to achieve.

You cannot escape your brand

What this means is that as a business you can’t neglect your brand, and you can’t afford to get it wrong. A weak brand will limit your business success anyway, but with the intense focus and amplification of online marketing and social media, a strong brand can generate enormous value, while digital faux-pas can seriously damage your image.

Great brands make things personal

Great brands succeed because they make it personal. They offer unique value which is only available to their customers – like an exclusive club you canonly be a part of if you buy the product. Brands often achieve this by marketing themselves through brand advocates, people whose opinion customers will trust. Nike pays millions for celebrity sports stars (with a strong personal brand, naturally), always looking for a good match between the person and the brand.

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Our world has changed dramatically in the last few years with the rise of the internet, social media, mobile computing and other technological developments. This online evolution is transforming business, careers, marketing, socialising, learning and practically every other aspect of life.

Democratization of media and publishing means that marketing yourself or your business has changed for ever.

Suddenly anyone, anywhere in the world has access to communication tools which are powerful, instant and free – and there are no limits on what they can achieve.

• Small up-and-coming brands can trump established major players simply by engaging with customers online (for free).
• Online merchants can set up shops which offer cheap, highly targeted products for a specific niche. Their low capital expenses mean they can make a profit on margins a bricks and mortar store couldn’t dream of.
• If a customer is happy – or unhappy – with a product or service they can tell 100’s of people about it at the press of a button.
• Celebrities, sports stars and politicians, and companies of all sizes are far more visible, accessible and accountable.We have moved from a world where big media and big companies had control of the conversation to one where individuals, smaller brands and large companies are on a more or less level playing field.You’ll pay less, but you gotta deliver moreBut while these online platforms are often cheap or even free they do take time, and having the right quality content for a given audience has become more important than ever before, because people have so many more options.Traditionally, you had to pay big bucks to access broadcast media and advertising, but in return you got direct access to your customers’ attention – you could interrupt their day and convince them to buy or believe something. Now, powerful multimedia publishing platforms with global reach are accessible and affordable for anyone, but your audience can tune in or turn off whenever they want.

Social media: handle with care

Before you attempt to develop and market your personal or business brand it’s essential that you get your message right.

It’s vital to remember that social media isn’t a new advertising platform. It’s all about human interaction, and if you approach it as an exercise in blatant self- promotion you are likely to fail – catastrophically. Social media, the internet and world wide connectivity means we can reach a vast audience – which can be amazingly powerful, but also means that if you don’t hit the right note you can do a huge amount of damage to your reputation almost instantly. That means both your brand and your messages need to be well thought out, meaningful, sharable and authentic. Sometimes this means you need to change your whole approach to business.

Become the one they listen to

To be influential online you need to have something worth saying, and have the right tools and strategy to achieve the results you want.

It comes down to being likeable, authentic and authoritative in the topics you talk about. Becoming educated and finding information is no longer a challenge, but expert opinions are still essential to help us make sense of the avalanche of information available online. And we don’t just want put our trust in a random ‘expert’ – we want personalised information, tailored to our needs and reflecting our world view. When we find someone who can provide this for us – on a topic that interests us – we identify with them and begin to value their opinion. These are the people and businesses we’ll listen to, talk about, and buy from:

• People we know, like and trust
• People like us
• People who understand and provide what we need
• People who know what they’re talking about on a specific topic.
• People who are memorable and stand outIn many cases, these people will be people we know via traditional media – such as journalists, celebrities and TV identities, or household name companies.But with the right brand, strategy and effort they could be you.

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