11/09/2012

By Alexia Leachman, Personal Branding Coach at Blossoming Brands

Now when it comes to pulling together your team, there are a huge number of people that you can bring on board, however, I’m going to pick a few that are relevant in the context of your personal brand. These are the people that are critical in helping you to raise your profile in the most relevant and appropriate way.

Your Digital manager

It is the norm these days to have a web presence of some description that is in addition to The Company website. It may be as simple as a one pager such as the about.me site to something more detailed that includes a blog and information about your speaking engagements, your consulting areas of expertise or your new book etc. Now unless you’re a web geek and that’s what you’re known for, faffing with Wordpress or HTML to keep your web presence tip-top is probably something that you’ll outsource. Some people even get others to write their blogs and maintain their social media presence on Twitter and Facebook.

The people that you get involved to do some of these tasks might be numerous, however, the one thing they all have in common is this: the need to be fully briefed on what IS and ISN’T you in terms of your personal brand. You are handing over something very important to these people, your digital presence. This is how some people will “meet” you for the first time so you need to ensure that all aspects of your digital presence are aligned. A disjointed online presence can confuse people and undermine your efforts in the real world. Would you send someone else to meet a new client or employer on your behalf? If you would, I hope you’d make damn well sure that they were briefed accordingly!

Your PR

If you hire someone to do your PR for you, then they will need to know your strategy and how you wish to position yourself. PRs tend to work to long lead-times because of the nature of press and magazine lead-times, so a planned approach will always deliver you the best results. Your PR will also need to be very clear on what your key messages are. Don’t let them assume anything here because you may find that any coverage you get is not quite what you had in mind and does not reach your intended audience. Remember, you rarely get editorial control with PR, so it can all change in the edit. Ensuring that the angle is well briefed to all involved can prevent the kind of publicity you’d rather not have. A good PR person will also be scouring the current news for opportunities to put out a release for you in response to other stories that are circulating. Again, ensuring that they are fully briefed can help you to get better results.

Stylist

In being so good at what you do, there’s no need to expect yourself to know how to dress yourself. Scouring the shops for the best items that will communicate who you are the best, is best left to a pro. Getting yourself a stylist will mean that your appearance will enhance your brand and you will always look the best. Too many times, I have seen high profile individuals and leading industry figures appear in public only to let themselves down with their outfit. When people are talking about you, you want it to be about what you’re saying or doing and not that bad choice of jacket. When you’re well styled, it adds to your message, but when it’s done badly, your message is not even heard.

My next article explores some more team members you might want to consider. Read next article: who else do you need to be awesome?


Alexia Leachman is a Personal Brand Coach and Head Trash Liberator at Blossoming Brands. She helps entrepreneurs find their mojo by helping them to clear their head trash, tell their story, raise their profile, build their digital presence and manage their reputation. She is also the contributor of a chapter on Online Reputation for an up and coming book on Internet Marketing due out in November 2012. You can find out more at www.blossomingbrands.com, www.headtrash.co.uk And you can follow her on Twitter at @AlexiaL