No, I’m not related to that guy out of ‘New Order’ - Bernard Sumner, or Sting (Gordon Sumner)
Well, at least I don’t think I am, but me and Bernard are from the same neck of the woods - so to speak.
What’s in a name?
On LinkedIn there are over 750m+ registered people, with circa 350m of them active each month - Globally.
Chances are there are a considerable number of them on other social media platforms with the same name and similar job title as you.
I won’t bore you with the key pillars of branding (see lots of companies waste 100’s $$€€ on that one) but your personal brand (reputation) is vital on social media, and in particular on LinkedIn.
We all fear going into a network event and not being able to remember people's names - it happens to me often!.
However, we do have an uncanny knack of being able to subconsciously place people by their personality (there are people we relate to, and those we don’t) so it’s that we think of before their name - until we have really got to know them that is.
‘Jenny the creative’, Malcolm from IT, George the VC, Tim from that agency thingy etc, etc.
Below is a high level summary of a few recent conversations from people (leaders) who have reached out to me to talk about a 'social strategy'.
Q) “Can your Social strategy help our company get new customers?”
{me} Fair enough question, but ‘what’s wrong with the ones you already have’?
Q) “Their alright, we lose a few so we always need to get more so we can sell more of our products/services into."
{me} ironically a social strategy isn’t about traditional selling or advertising, so if you need help improving your advertising or writing your content, or managing your social media that isn’t me.
Q) OK, worrying but, we have a big target to hit, so if it’s not about selling, what’s it about?”
{me} well, the really difficult bit about the methodology is that you have to stop talking about you, and start talking about me (the customer) which means learning how to listen, proactively get involved in conversations, and engage in other peoples!
Q) "Sounds a lot like real life"
{exactly, its a lot of common sense, which unfortunately isn't common practice}
As with anything in life there is a huge difference between being 'passive or being active' if you want to achieve your goals, or as the cliche goes if you want to win the lottery 'BUY A TICKET'
In summary, a key part of my 'leverage and build' process is to teach people and businesses how to focus on delivering 'social proof' which is driven across the entire business - not just the marketing department.
It is something which is validated via a combination of personal and business branding, this social proof is critical in today's world due to the huge increase in usage of social media for listening to 'social buying' signals.
So one easy example is when your writing your 'Linkedin' headline, have a think about how it can make you stand out and make the reader want to find out more about you.
Chances are If they’re reading about you, they aren’t reading about a competitor, because you just made yourself ‘relatable’ to them.
Bernard Sumner (born 4 January 1956) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. He is a founding member of both Joy Division and New Order, and is widely credited with the latter band's move towards electronica and synthpop.[citation needed] Sumner is widely credited in advancing UK dance music, and the popularisation and technological advancement of sequencers. In the early 1990s, he collaborated with former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr as Electronic.
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