Meet the Experts: Managing Business and Personal Brands in the Era of the Consumer
Every person has a brand and the choice is yours whether to use technology to communicate your value, panelists said during Thursday’s "Managing Business and Personal Brands in the Era of the Customer" discussion. Presented by Pitney Bowes and moderated by Sheryl. Y. Battles, the company's’ vice president of corporate communications information, the panel included Haji Flemings, digital/personal brand strategist information, Prince Lal, director of operations and strategy for customer analytics and interaction information and Preston Thornton III, director of product management information. Be careful what you share online, regardless of privacy settings, panelists recommended. Assume everything posted online will leave digital crumbs. "People meet you and your brand [online] in lieu of sometimes actually meeting you physically," said Battles. Be mindful there are no longer traditional curators for content and people have access to tons of information. Make sure you claim digital real estate to promote your brand. Marry passion with skill so that your brand is authentic, Lal said. Defining a niche helps you to develop the expertise needed so you become a go-to-person, especially locally, panelists said. Branding is all about stories. "You have to be a storyteller, able to craft a twitter bio and think and create in sound bites," said Flemings. Be careful to protect your corporate brand, which does not end at the end of the workday. Keep your personal brand separate. On the topic of repairing your brand when something negative happens, you must be transparent, panelists said. Help people understand what happened, how you will fix it and what steps will be taken to prevent it from happening again. To monitor your online reputation, use Google Alerts, which will notify you if your name or other keywords you enter are used online. Socialmention.com will also alert you when your name or brand appears on social media sites. Google yourself often. |
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