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Go all the way

  

One final thought on personal branding is to know what you can execute and what you cannot.  The best advice is useless if you cannot execute it.  For example, how familiar are you with the following personal branding must-do list?  Get your domain.  Register yourself on Facebook.  Register yourself on LinkedIn.  Build a blog.  And the list goes on and on.

The idea behind a list like this is you want to be found.  Employers nowadays will search online for information about a prospective job candidate.  So, the idea is that you should be everywhere, so they can find information about you.  What this idea fail to communicate is that it is better not be found than to be found in a poor light. 

If you’re not committed to updating your LinkedIn profile and building your LinkedIn network, you may be better off not be on LinkedIn at all.  It’s frustrating to find someone who’s on LinkedIn, but clearly hasn’t updated the profile ever since they signed up.  The tell tale signs are lack of a network and a job listing that’s virtually blank.  This shows a lack of effort.  If you’re not found at all and there is no visual evidence against you, people may actually give you the benefit of the doubt. 

Same goes for Facebook.  I have discussed previously the fault of small businesses falling in love with Facebook, put the URL everywhere, only to have visitors go to a Facebook page that has had no activities for months.  Same goes for blogs.  Same goes for domains.  It’s far better to not to launch into these tactics at all, than to start and then shows visibly “I know I should do this, but I haven’t bothered with finishing it.”  That’s the wrong message to send. 

Starting is a good.  Finishing is significantly better.

Photo credit: Kate

Who’s sending the email?

As I think about what’s important in personal branding this week, I can’t help but resort to my classic branding lessons.

The most important part about a brand is a brand name.  To this end, you may have heard different tactics such as owning your domain name.  However, I find that sometimes even more obvious choices have not been made:  Email.

No, I’m not going into the idea of picking a professional email address.  Of course you’re not going to pick sirsexalot@gmail.com as your email address unless you’re in the sex industry.  This is something your college advisor has already warned you about.  However, as we mature, we actually run into another email problem that few ever discusses.

I hate getting emails from “John and Jane Smith”.

Now, I don’t mind this so much if I have a personal relationship with both John and Jane Smith.  However, in a recent communication, Jane reached out to me inquiring about a job opportunity via LinkedIn.  (Great use of LinkedIn.)  However, in subsequent communications, I started getting emails from “John and Jane Smith”.  At first, I thought it was junk mail, because I didn’t know this couple.  Then, I realized that it was Jane, sending an email from a joint email account.

In my opinion, unless you’re in business together and truly have a need to communicate as a single entity, get separate email addresses.  Communicate as your own person and develop your own brand identity.  While joint email addresses may be okay for personal use, any professional use should come from a single person. Email addresses are free these days.  There is no reason not to secure a professional email address.

Photo credit: Keith Ramsey

Using Business Cards Differently for Non-Profits

Drawing on my previous experience with non-profit marketing, I found that the single most useful piece of marketing communication is a business card.  However, I also see so many business cards done wrong.  Why?  Because they model it off of a corporate business cards, and that doesn’t really do justice to what business cards can do. 

Why do corporations use business cards?  Corporations don’t use business cards to market themselves.  (Granted, everything does reinforce a brand.  So, a natural company better have business cards printed on recycled paper.)  At the core, corporations use business cards as a simple communication tool.  They contain only the vital information.  Rarely do you see more than name and contact information.  Sometimes, you may even see a corporate motto, but that’s pretty much the end of it.

However, for non-profits, you don’t have the luxury to use a business card so simply.  You have to make every piece work doubly hard for you.  I would recommend the following layout:

Front:  Basic logo, name, and contact information.  This is the typical business card, including information like website addresses for your organization.

Back:  Give one piece of trivia that would really get people excited, and the next time they could get involved.  This gives them the reminder to follow up when they get home.  Following up on the Complete Streets example gave earlier this week, one could easily put a trivia “Did you know” on the back.  In addition, perhaps they meet on a monthly basis every Thursday.  Use this business card as an invite.  Or, if you print business cards locally in a simple printer (on-demand printing vs. printing by the thousands), I would suggest putting upcoming events.  Use the business cards as an invitation to the events.  You’d always have business cards with you, and this may be your most powerful marketing tool for your non-profit.

This worked well for me in the past.  What do you think?  Would it work for you?

Photo credit: Jim Larson

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