Archive for January, 2010
If it Walks Like a Duck, etc., is it a Duck? Not According to Samsung
Posted by: | CommentsI thought the 25” HDTV I recently bought was a TV. How silly of me. Just because a TV behaves like a TV does not make it a TV, according to Samsung, the manufacturer. Hmmm.
To make a long story short, a cliché I know I should avoid as a writer, my cable box and what I thought was my TV are not talking to each other. After two new cable remotes, my cable provider told me the TV is only sporadically receiving the infrared signal from the remote. Hmmm.
I called Samsung and was told I really don’t have a TV; it is a monitor, so they can’t send someone to fix it. They could, if it was really a TV. Hmmm.
I tried to explain that just because they classify this whatchamacallit as a monitor, an ignorant consumer like me still thinks it’s a TV. If it walks like a TV, and talks like a TV, it is a TV, by my reckoning. Hmmm.
Of course, I could send it back to Samsung where they could apparently fix it (of course, the box it came in is long gone). The polite technician I talked to is going to call me back. She’s trying to find someone there who will allow her to classify it as a TV
. Hmmm.
You see words do matter. When will companies learn to understand how their customers think and behave and the words they use? Come on, Samsung, do the right thing and send someone to fix this whatchamacallit.
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How to Get Ahead With a Powerful Personal Brand
Posted by: | CommentsThis article first appeared under in “Primer” Magazine, published weekly online for post-college guys interested in personal improvement and career development.
Personal branding is essential, whether you are just starting out in your first job, or moving up a rung on the career ladder. It’s something you need to work on so when you ask yourself the question, “Who am I?” you’ll know the answer and be able to communicate it clearly and concisely.
Some people confuse their personal brand with their “elevator speech.” The term “elevator speech” trivializes an important process that will help you understand exactly what makes you stand out from the crowd.
Your brand influences how important internal and external audiences, including your boss, your customers and prospects perceive you and what they think you have to offer them. Another way of understanding branding is that it’s the words you would want people to use in describing you.
Branding is what sets you apart from your competition. Let’s look at the brands of some famous companies and people. FedEx, for example, is positioned as the company that you can rely on to deliver your package by 10:30 tomorrow morning. Absolutely, positively. Google is the leader in search, and continues to be. The advent of new competition has hardly made a dent in its market share.
People, like companies, have recognizable brands, too. What is your impression of the singer Britney Spears? Is it different from the way you perceive Mother Teresa? How about Sarah Palin? Her brand positioning is fuzzy right now. People don’t quite what to make of her. It doesn’t help that former members of John McCain’s campaign staff are trashing her.
What is personal branding?
A commonly accepted definition –
How you and the services you provide are perceived in the minds
of the people in your company, your clients and prospects.
Most people will already have a fixed idea in their minds about you. Individuals are often identified with pre-fixes: i.e.: Harvard MBA, Nobel Prize winner, Playmate-of-the-month, 350-hitter, salesman of the year, etc. If your particular target audience has no preconceived ideas, then you have the opportunity to develop your personal brand as you would want it.
Always remember that your brand must promise a benefit to your targets.
Some pointers about branding:
- Your personal brand must be simple and easily understood.
- Two or three of your key attributes should distinguish you from your competition.
- Your targets must be able to grasp your brand quickly and translate it into “What’s in it for me?”
As you define your brand, think of the attributes that set you apart from your fellow employees or with representatives of other companies who may be calling on your customers. Take some time to give serious thought to your strengths. Write them down.
Do a web search of articles and mentions of your competitors to read if anything is being written about them. Are certain words used repeatedly? Look up their names of LinkedIn and study the words the use to describe themselves in their profiles.
Now – and you knew this was coming – do a search on yourself. Go through the same exercise and see what people are writing or saying about you. What are you saying or writing about you in social media and in personal meetings?
What are the ingredients of a personal brand?
Now that you’ve done some soul searching about yourself and research on your competition, get specific about the particular attributes that you can draw on in developing your personal brand. These can include, but are not limited to:
Technical expertise. This can be a real differentiator. If you have a special skill that is unique to you in your company, this can be a real winner for you. Find a way to weave it in your brand statement.
Industry specialty. Suppose you are looking for a new job. You’ve hit a wall in your first job, and it’s time to move on. If you have experience in an industry that is always in need of skilled people like you, then play that up in your brand statement.
Academic credentials. While you’re still in your 20s, where you went to school is still one of your most important qualifications, before you’ve had the time to acquire the experience that will eventually supplant your academic credentials. In the meantime, Harvard, Yale and the other Ivies, and highly technical schools like Cal Tech and MIT, still impress recruiters. And, in fact, will still impress the people who can help move your career forward in your current company.
Awards and recognition. Did you earn any special awards in college? All-American in (name the sport), Phi Beta Kappa?
Reputation of your current company. If you are working for a Fortune 100 company, that will mean something to a potential employer. If your company offers better/more/unique services, that will go into your brand for potential customers.
Your “wins.” Even within your own company, bringing in some big and profitable clients will greatly enhance your personal brand as you seek to get promoted.
After you have analyzed your key capabilities, you will need to put them into words that communicate the essence of your brand. Be particularly aware of presenting yourself with an eye toward what’s in it for the listener. Your brand statement is the “grabber” that that will compel your listener to want to hear more.
Example of a grabber:
“This is Peter Quick with the Quick & Jones law firm. I recently returned from a five-year tour in our Moscow office. We’re the only full-service American law firm there. I have a first-hand understanding of what it takes to set up a company in Russia.” Here, your brand is based on your personal, unique experience of having worked on the ground in Russia.
Communicating your brand
Now that you’ve defined your brand, you need to communicate it to those who can contribute to your success. You can:
- Contact reporters and offer to become a source for quotes and articles
- Conduct seminars for clients and prospects
- Write articles
- Give speeches
- Become active in professional organizations
- Be active in social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter
Before you get started in marketing yourself to those who count, be sure you can answer the question –
“What is My Brand?”
How Well Do You Communicate With Yourself?
Posted by: | CommentsThere is much talk and more written about effective business communication with your customers and prospects. But what about how you communicate with yourself?
I began to ponder this question as I sat waiting to be called for a panel on my first day of jury duty. The laptops thoughtfully provided for the jurors were hopelessly slow and outdated. So I had the choice of reading the newspaper, or a paperback or pondering the meaning of life. Finally, time to THINK!
After some thought, I began a conversation with myself about how to move forward with my redesigned blog, the steps I should be taking in new business development and how I should be balancing my personal and work lives, etc. etc. Wow. That’s a lot of conversation.
As I pondered how I should be communicating my ideas to myself, I realized I had several options:
- Free Association. Just let the ideas rip. I guess nowadays that would be known as mind mapping, should I choose to write down the ideas. But doesn’t this slow down the flow of ideas to myself?
- Make a list. If all else fails, make yet another list to myself. Hey, Jeannette, what are your top three priorities for the next week, month, year? Go ahead, write them down. Wait a minute. Didn’t I just write a list, ummm, last month? Wonder where it is.
- Communicate through a friend. Yes! I’ll call Janet or Andrea and discuss possible courses of action and then ask them to feed back to me, through their lenses, what my priorities should be. This is a roundabout way to communicate with myself, but it takes a lot of responsibility off my shoulders. It’s also called avoidance.
- Say and do nothing. Now we’re getting to the heart of the dilemma that I think afflicts a lot of people. It’s easier to ignore this essential inner conversation and just keep trying stuff to see what sticks. No thinking needed for that.
What I’ve noticed in the complex world of the blogosphere is that my conversations with myself are shorter and less reflective. Got to keep checking email every two minutes. Need to get another blog written. And don’t forget a quick look at Twitter and Facebook.
No time to communicate with myself. Too busy for meaningful conversation that would replace a lot of wasted time on the web.
Communication of the People, by the People, and for the People
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The upset by Scott Brown in winning the election in Massachusetts to fill Senator Edward Kennedy’s vacant seat was a real shocker. A Republican in the most Blue state in the nation? But maybe rather than an anomaly, it portends the future.
Communication is a two-way process and the politicians in Washington have proven themselves tone deaf. They didn’t listen. The labels Democrat and Republican have lost their currency.
Voters in America are angry at the direction of the country. Thanks to the Internet and Social Media, they have developed their own communities to exchange ideas and vent. Why weren’t Washington and the politicos tuning in?
They are way behind the curve when it comes to understanding what their constituents are communicating to them: We want you to keep your promises; we want over-the-top spending stopped; we want jobs more than we want health-care reform, or at least health care we can afford as a nation.
I predict that Congressmen and Senators up for re-election this year – regardless of party – are in for a shock. Republicans may be gleeful that they got their 41st vote to prevent a super majority. But they are in jeopardy just as much as Democrats who will be on the ballot, because people are disgusted with the governing class, who have not been listening to them.
My sister-in-law Susan Paladino, who lives in Massachusetts and followed the campaign closely, summed it up in a note she sent to friends. Here are some highlights:
“Last night after the election was decided I listened to radio news programs and talk shows at several times throughout the late night, early morning and the next day. The focus of EVERY report of the election results was: What went wrong? The analysis centered on Martha Coakley’s abilities as a candidate (remember that AG is an elected position and she has run other campaigns), the inabilities of the Democratic machine (their designation, not mine), the timing of the election, and the weather.
“A British broadcaster asked her correspondent in the US if Martha Coakley had run a poor campaign. The answer being yes, she then asked if Scott Brown had run a good campaign. After a noticeable pause the reporter said that Brown had driven his truck all over the state talking to everyone who would listen to him – the inference being that this was a strange way to run a campaign. Not one reporter said that Brown was an effective campaigner who listened to people. Still no one asks: What went right?
“As the money poured in for Scott Brown from around the country a tipping point was reached, the tide turned, and more and more people joined the fiscally conservative side with the thought that they would be heard in Washington.
“If there was one salient point about this Massachusetts election it is that people realized that they had a voice and it could be heard. As that point began to come across the tide turned. “Yes we can” reverberated around the commonwealth.”
To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln: we’ve entered an era when communication of the people, by the people, and for the people will determine the course of our country.
