Public Speaking – How to Build Your Reputation and Personal Brand
If you have to give a talk to a live audience or if you make business pitches to prospective clients or stakeholders then it is almost certain that someone will be checking you out beforehand. 2200 years ago Aristotle understood the importance of reputation. He suggested that whilst logic (Logos) and emotional reasoning (Pathos) could eventually win a debate, it is Ethos – our character and values that pre-set the level of acceptance that we are given.
So with Google and the like making it so easy for others to check us out establishing a credible reputation is as fundamental these days as having a business card. Here are some essential and useful ways in which you can build your reputation and personal brand.
1. Be very clear about yourself! Create a clear statement of what you do, most importantly describing what that actually does for your customers. Clarify what your distinctive skill is that relevantly distinguishes you in your particular market. Write this up into a story that you can get across as a 1 minute and 5 minute pitch and with further case study examples, as a 20 minute talk.
2. Add something exceptional about yourself. Olympic Champion would be fantastic but personal endeavour through sponsored runs, championing others, changing your own life, taking up martial arts all say something extra about you.
3. Write about what you do. Being an author makes you an authority. The hard back book variety is terrific but e books provide an easier entry level. Read how others do it and learn from them.
4. Write articles that share your knowledge and post these on your website as free downloads. Learn by modeling the style of the most read authors. Publish your articles with article directories such as EzineArticles, articlebase and goarticles all of them offer great editorial support. Regular article submissions with links to your website provide the fresh content that search engines like.
5. Write a blog (weekly is good) that in theme and content is consistent with your personal brand. Synchronise it with your current articles and also look for current news links to gain maximum topicality and leverage on search keywords. Blogger.com and wordpress.org offer simple platforms to use. Look for help from seasoned bloggers who want to share their knowledge. Yaro and Gideon at Becomeablogger.com and Leo Babauta are typical of many.
6. Search for common interest blogs and then write a guest post on their blog to start up reciprocal interest sharing. Make it a value-adding post that will encourage them to follow you. Visit Digg and Stumbleupon to see what is attracting interest in the blogging community. Join in common discussion groups.
7. Join Linkedin and offer testimonials for your ex-colleagues, remembering the “Paying it forward” principle. Search for common interest groups and join their discussions. Post your own questions and create your own discussion group. Gather responses to your questions as source material for articles. Link your blog to Linkedin.
8. Join Twitter. Set a weekly tweet target so that you remember. Look for topical news and relevant interest links to make your Tweets interesting. Keep them consistent with your personal brand and relevant to your blog and articles. Use Twitterfeed to feed your blogs to Twitter.
9. Scan on-line newspapers and magazine for your particular market. Join in on their blogs. Post answers to their reader questions and surveys. Keep answers consistent with your brand they can come back and bite you! Submit articles to professional journals.
10. Create your own Personal Brand Website. Basic self-build packages with free hosting are available through guys like weebly.com and wix.com. Post your blog and articles and other free giveaways. Offer a “public service” with reviews of products, services or suppliers relevant to your market. Make it a site that visitors will want to bookmark and share with others. Post a newsletter with recent client case histories, plus their glowing testimonials. Use a web design company if image is a key attribute of your Brand.
11. Create a biography that will be used in all your on-line locations to give a consistent story. Ensure that it is consistent both with your business proposition and distinctive talent and with your brand personality.
12. And do not forget the off-line world. Attend the Business Networking Groups that are relevant to your Brand and Market. Give free sampler sessions of what you do. And never stop giving recommendations of people that have worked with you – what goes around does come around! And always be asking for referrals from people you have worked for – word of mouth is still the best reputation builder of all!
Copyright © Bob Howard-Spink
Article Source: Ezine Articles
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