Kent Blumberg

Ten ways to build your personal brand

A brand is a promise - buy what the brand represents and you expect to get a certain experience.  People have brands, too.  Your personal brand is what people think of when they hear your name.  For example, when folks hear your name they might think, "The gal who gets things done," or "That guy who speaks in riddles," or any number of other things.

What is your personal brand?  What do people think of when they hear your name?  Is your brand telling folks what you want it to?

Here's a list of ten things you can do to build the brand you want to have.

The Loyalty Effect

I had the opportunity to attend a luncheon presentation at the local chapter of Sales and Marketing Executives International last week.  Bret Pinson spoke about "The Loyalty Effect."  Based on the work of Frederick Reichheld, the talk covered what customer loyalty is, why it's important, and how to build it.

Recruiting tips from the US National Guard

Are you having trouble filling key roles in your organization?  Consider calling the US Army National Guard for help.

"Word of Mouth Marketing" by Andy Sernovitz

Andy Sernovitz helped make my vacation last week a pleasant one.  I spent a few hours with Andy's book, Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking (Kaplan Publishing, 2006, 216 pages).  The book is chock full of easy steps that will increase word-of-mouth marketing of whatever you sell.  It's a quick read and a fun read, and well worth your time.

What is word-of-mouth marketing?  Sernovitz defines it as,

"Giving people a reason to talk about your stuff, and making it easier for that conversation to take place." 

It isn't advertising, by the way.  As Sernovitz says,

"Advertising is the price of being boring." 

And it only works if you have good stuff to sell, and if people like you and trust you.

How Consumers Union built customer trust after making a huge mistake

When your organization makes a mistake, what do you do?  One of my hero organizations, Consumers Union (CU), made a huge mistake in January.  But the way they responded to their mistake has deepened my loyalty to them, rather than the other way around.

What I learned about business leadership at SOBCon07

As reported earlier I joined 110 other web publishers in Chicago this weekend.  In addition to fun and community, I picked up quite a few great ideas - both on business leadership and web publishing.

How and why you might want to say you're sorry

These are the first two visa stamps in my first passport.  April 25, 1993 into Japan and April 29, 1993 back out.  These stamps represent the toughest customer visit of my career.  And it still embarrasses me to see them in my passport.

All because I failed to say "I'm sorry."

Your Personal Brand

What's your personal brand?

Don't have one, you say?  Wrong!  We all have a personal brand - it just might not be what we want it to be.

What is a personal brand?  It is that word, or phrase, that comes to mind when people think of you.  Perhaps your personal brand is "whiner."  Perhaps, on the other hand, it's, "the gal who gets things done around here."

Whatever your brand is today, you can make it what you want it to be.  And you should.  The days of the 40 year career at one company are long gone.  As you navigate through the many organizations you will help during your career, a strong brand will help you make career decisions and it will help you attract the kind of organizations you want to help.

How to handle negative criticism

We all receive negative criticism from time to time.  Whether it's our boss, peers, subordinates, customers, spouse, bloggers or professional reviewers, someone is bound to tell us what we might have done better.

How do you take it?  Are you able to turn negative feedback to your advantage, or does it cause you to end up on the witness stand like this poor soul?  First 'don't do':  don't kill the messenger.

There are plenty of ways to make a bad situation out of negative feedback.  Mike Sansone, for example, has apparently been holding weekly workshops at his local Panera.  But checkout his response when that shop reacted badly to negative criticism.  So, there's our second 'don't do':  don't ignore the feedback.

I try my best to notice my emotions first, before I go about responding to feedback.  Most of us will probably begin by feeling denial.  We might think, "He just doesn't understand," or, "He isn't really qualified to judge me or my idea."  Get over it! 

Jason Alba says I "get it"

Jason Alba runs a great website called Jibber Jobber.  He blogs about personal branding and job search and recruiting, while his website offers a powerful set of tools for networkers and job seekers.  He calls the website a "personal relationship manager."

Each month, Jason names a "You Get It" winner.  For November, Jason chose me as his example of "how executives can take control of their personal branding and run with it."

Cool.

No need to read all the nice things Jason says about me (unless you are my mom or wife, in which case, here's the link).  But do checkout his blog and his website.