Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Since I published my book KNOWN, I’ve had an incredible amount of fun coaching dozens of people through a process to create a profound online presence. I’m starting to see that there are three specific issues where people get stuck when embarking on their personal brand strategy. Today, I’m going to name these three areas and propose some ways for you to get “unstuck” if you’re experiencing these problems.

The building blocks

Before we go through the three common problems. Let’s review the primary process behind the book, as a reference. Every person who becomes “known” in their field follows four steps:

“PLACE” — Not necessarily a “passion,” but a sustainable interest — it’s your story, what you want to be known for.

“SPACE” — Where do you tell this story? Can you find a niche that is uncontested or under-served?

“CONTENT” — The fuel of a personal brand strategy is consistent content — written, audio, or video.

“ACTIONABLE AUDIENCE” — In the book I show how a social media audience is passive and I demonstrate how to build a tribe that can help support your goals....

Becoming known may be the only permanent, sustainable competitive advantage we have in this tumultuous world. But where do you start? How do you do this? What is the role of social media? Blogs and video? Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat? How much time does it take?

This seems so overwhelming.

Well, until now. It does not have to be....

Ten years ago today, Jack Dorsey sent out the first tweet. Twitter was nearly an afterthought in those early days, an outcropping from a video service Dorsey had a hand in starting. Despite protests from investors, the company launched officially July 15, 2006.

Still, I like to think of this day as the “real” birth of the service.It is no overstatement or social media hyperbole to say that Twitter has changed my life. Although I am known (somewhat?) for writing the best-selling book on Twitter the platform has altered my path in profound ways.I could spend days recounting the real personal and business benefits of Twitter, but allow me today to tell you one story, one of my favorites....

TThe story of how a small family business pulled off one the biggest successes in YouTube history....

..We had to scale a content marketing effort quickly and decided that Stephen’s primary source of “rich content” would be video. He was a natural on camera and the lush and ancient countryside of Provence proved to be an ideal backdrop to explore wine making, food. history, art and local color of the region.

Stephen was in it for the long haul and consistently documented his wine-making journey in a very human and entertaining way. He talked about a labeling crisis that almost crushed his business. He created a funny video about the ridiculous paperwork he faced from the French government, what it was like to attend a wine-tasting competition, how the grapes were harvested in the first morning sunlight, and many other interesting little vignettes. He shined a light on his village, his pets, his family. He lost his balance on a grape harvester. He put a human and modern face to a stodgy, traditional business....