We are all manoeuvring through unknown territory right now and there are many positive and negative outcomes observable all around us.

In this series on ‘Online Personal Brand Tips for Crisis Mode’, I want to share some of my observations and the lessons we can take from them, when it comes to your personal brand (what you are presenting about yourself) online.

In this first article of the series, I’m sharing some observations and tips about the dangers of unchecked confusion and emotion online.

In previous articles I gave practical tips for writing high quality articles and getting maximum visibility with great introductory short posts. Within these articles, I mentioned the importance of considering what your audience wants to see on LinkedIn.

Your audience on LinkedIn wants to see your knowledge, your experience, and your professionalism.

If you are a professional adviser or consultant with a professional audience, then your audience on LinkedIn wants to see your knowledge, your experience, and your professionalism.

And this is where so many LinkedIn trainings out there fall short – I am not afraid to say so. Most LinkedIn trainers take a generalised, often overly ‘salesy’ approach to teaching you to use LinkedIn, with little or no consideration for your personal brand and what your particular audience expects of you.

Professional people:

If you are connecting with people on LinkedIn and immediately sending them a direct message trying to sell your services, before a proper introduction or conversation, and without being asked for the information… you have been taking some bad advice from someone.

If you frequently tag a long list of people that you want to read your articles when you share them on LinkedIn… you have picked up a bad tip from somewhere. (Short term: great visibility. Long term: irreparable, widespread damage to your personal brand. There is a happy middle ground, but it requires a strategy or at least a moment’s thought.)

If you are firing off three posts a day and they are all promotional, repetitive, or don’t add anything of value to your professional sphere… you might be mistaking LinkedIn for Facebook.

For more extreme examples… check out the unbelievable but true behaviours I have observed breaking down people’s personal brands on LinkedIn.

I have previously spoken and written on the topic ‘Are you scared of LinkedIn?’ because many people are hesitant to give it a real go, not wanting to misstep and do their personal brand damage – fair enough. That is why you need to be clear on 1) what your personal brand represents, 2) what your particular target audience wants to see and 3) what the current expectations are around LinkedIn etiquette in your country/countries of business.

If you can answer those three questions, you will know what is and isn’t appropriate or effective in your communications on LinkedIn, and you will represent your personal brand with elegance and style.

What professional people need to do

This week I was putting together a visual flow chart of networking activities for a client in professional services, and it reminded me of one of my favourite questions:

What are the main actions that move the needle?

When it comes to professional advisors and consultants, the thing that makes the most difference to business growth is real-life human contact. This is because professional people are building long-term business relationships that require significant commitment from clients… and that requires the establishment of rapport and trust. This happens quickest through face-to-face meetings where you can chat about the potential client’s business problem and start to offer insight, or when you can demonstrate how you can help through a boardroom presentation to the leadership team.

The question then always becomes: How do I get in front of the ideal client to have these conversations?

What I see a lot of is:

·     Frustration that clients seem to forget to refer others to the business, even though they love the work.

·     Reluctance to spend time networking, because experience has been that it is awkward and/or a waste of time, or because there isn’t much time available to get out of the office to network.

·     No real grasp on how LinkedIn can be used simply and powerfully, in targeted ways, to achieve specific goals.

·     Overwhelm at the pace of change in digital marketing and feeling at a loss as to which tactics to choose, because of a lack of a clear, strategic plan.

The trouble is that the great majority of professional people use these tactics haphazardly, rather than in a purposeful, structured way – like the networking flowchart that I mentioned at the beginning of this article.

To get in front of the ideal client and be given the opportunity to engage with them, you need a planned pathway to get there. Sure, sometimes these opportunities land in your lap through a chance meeting or referral… but I am now hearing a lot of leadership teams saying there is not enough of this to keep moving the business forward.

“Sometimes opportunities land in your lap… but a lot of leadership teams are saying there is not enough of this”

So which activities move the needle?

Is your LinkedIn profile just a basic CV or an authoritative, approach-driven, positioned introduction?

Recently one of my new lawyer clients, a highly motivated individual who deeply cares about preventing and minimising business problems for his clients, said, “So many people could benefit from what I do… if only they knew!”  

I hear this all the time! Sometimes your contacts choose your competitor because he or she seems better than you or cheaper than you. But most of the time your contacts will fail to reach out to you because they forget about you, or don’t realise you are the perfect fit.

What to do about it?

Educating your audience with quality content that clarifies what you do and gives examples will help them see where they fit with you. Doing this regularly will help you stay visible. Connecting meaningfully and building real relationships strengthens trust.

But there’s something much simpler you should do first to start positively impacting your business or professional goals…

Getting content engagement and personal brand visibility among the right people: Share your articles with well-thought-out short intro posts

I recently shared a process and some sample topics to help write high quality and differentiated LinkedIn articles, either for yourself or others, when you have limited time. This was particularly relevant to advisors and directors of professional service businesses, and the people who support them.

Of course, you don’t want to work hard on that quality article only to find that very few people will even see it. It’s important to work on gaining maximum visibility among your target audience, too.

Here are some important steps for the SHORT POST you write to accompany the article when you are sharing it with your audience on LinkedIn.

(If you don’t know what I’m talking about feel free to drop me a line, or take a look at my short posts on my LinkedIn profile as examples.)

This will help to increase your article’s achievement in terms of eyeballs and brain engagement… among the right people!

• Give your audience a reason to read. Introductory sentences could be made up of one of:
  • An eye-catching statement straight from the article
  • A summary of what the article is about
  • A statement of who would benefit from reading and what they’ll get from it
  • Include key words such as industry types who you are targeting in the article, or topic words that people might search for
  • Persuasive/emotive (but not promotional) language that entices people to read e.g. ‘A must-read if you are struggling with…’
  • A question that makes the audience identify with the content e.g. ‘Is this you?’ or ‘Have you experienced this…?’ or ‘Do you have problems with…?’
• Make your article work harder. LinkedIn will share your article when you hit publish. Schedule a second share that month, and future share/s in upcoming months. Each time you share, you should write a different introductory sentence in your post, to entice people to read in various ways. I’ve often got more engagement on second and third shares!
• Include a few hashtags of relevant keywords that people might use if searching for this type of content (or words they might be engaging with) e.g. #TaxUpdate #BusinessPlanning #RoyalCommission (!)
• Be mindful of the time of day you are posting – as most people access LinkedIn on their phones, try for before/after work hours, or if that’s impossible, during typical lunch/coffee break times. You could use a scheduling program to schedule future shares of an article, once it is published – in this way you can control the timing without physically posting at that time.
• Where possible, tag in highly relevant people (but check confidentiality before publishing – e.g. case studies) e.g. event organisers or people whose work you’ve referenced or who worked with you on the project/IP behind the article. This will extend the reach of your article significantly. DON’T just tag a bunch of people because they represent your target market (more on representing your personal brand through stylish posting in a future article!).

As always, keep in mind that people are busy and don’t care about your content nearly as much as you do. It’s all about WIIFM – What’s In It For Me? Make sure this is clear not just in the article, but also in your introductory short post.

“The number of hits means nothing unless the people seeing your content are the RIGHT people for your purpose.”

And remember that the number of hits on your article means nothing unless the people seeing your content are the RIGHT people for your purpose – whether that’s gaining new clients, influencing people or simply giving people something to think about.

This week I was working with one of my client’s marketing team to create their communications strategy for 2019. We discussed the importance of quality professional articles from members of staff, using LinkedIn as the primary platform. The question was posed, ‘What process can I use to help a busy director to create quality content for an article?’

It’s important that the content, voice and perspective belong to the person publishing the article, and this is the big challenge for professional advisers and directors who just don’t have the time to pen articles themselves. The internal marketing team can support them by creating a process to draw the article out of them during a short ‘writing meeting’, after which they can polish the article and send it to the director/adviser for final approval.

In this way, you can retain the advice and even the unique voice of the original author of the content, by using their responses and their words to create the article.

Here’s the process I suggest for those assisting someone to write an article, or for those who are writing their own but need a little inspiration and structure to ensure their article is a worthwhile read.

Pick one of these two core areas that people want an adviser or senior professional person’s perspective on. Pick your related topic that appeals to your target audience, such as ‘tax time for small businesses in farming’ (be specific to be interesting!) and answer the following questions:

Addressing a business problem

• What’s a common business problem or challenge for your clients? Give an example/story.
• Why is this such a common problem? What don’t clients know/what are they getting wrong?
• Why is this problem dangerous if not addressed correctly? Another example/story of when this has happened, or when it’s been avoided?
• Outline a possible solution in every day language. Try to use steps that summarise your advice in a tangible way.

OR:

Responding to a recent media piece or other information – ask one of these to build an article

• What’s something you’ve read/heard about in the media lately that may affect your clients? Summarise the news item in your own words and explain how it may affect clients, and what they should do about it. Can we link to the original news item or others involved in this space?
• What was your take on a recent business/professional development event you attended? What key points stood out to you, what’s your experience/opinion of these, and how do they affect your clients? What do your clients need to know? Did you get a photo of the event? Can we link to the organisers/others?
• How do recent legal/compliance changes affect your clients? What do they need to know and do?

One last thing: be sure to use ‘client speak’, not ‘around the office speak’, when writing! LinkedIn is a professional platform but your language should still be accessible. Imagine you were answering a client’s questions, face-to-face. Write it that way. More on this topic soon!

Key take-aways from AFA Ales & Tales

I recently had the pleasure of presenting at the Association of Financial Advisers’ Ales and Tales networking event, where the audience was good enough to listen a whole hour’s presentation on personal branding principles, despite it being the end of a very hot day!

The theme was building trust online, and the key take-away that came from the discussion was that despite the challenges of a breakdown in trust for the financial industry this year, the basics of integrity, quality service and building meaningful human relationships remain paramount.

This was certainly my message for how to develop a strategy online! As I mentioned in the talk, you wouldn’t go up to a random person on the street, stick a business card in their face and yell, ‘Buy my stuff!’ – so why do people do this online? Yes, you need to confidently let people know how you can help, but remembering there are real humans behind the screen and treating them the way you’d like to be treated is still essential.

You wouldn’t go up to a random person on the street, stick a business card in their face and yell, “Buy my stuff!”

Building a standout, trustworthy personal brand comes down to being great, caring about people, and then communicating that clearly and consistently to become a highly visible ‘go to’ in your field. It’s about building meaningful business relationships using both in-person and online tools. This is all true no matter what your industry.

The steps I covered to develop personal brand confidence & trust by creating a standout professional image online were:

1. Know your goals for developing your personal brand – be focused
2. Know your purpose (why you do what you do) – because people connect with meaning
3. Know your values (how you do what you do) – clarity on this builds trust
4. Know when you are in flow: what you are really good at and how you love to make change – you will be most effective here
5. Know what others value in the work you do
6. Determine your Point of Difference & the value you bring as an individual – 3 key messages
7. Gather proof e.g. case studies, testimonials, list credentials / experience
8. Work on your ‘look’ – in person & online e.g. profile photos
9. Write out your positioning – title, bio, elevator pitch
10. Build your thought leadership with great content

I regularly address these 10 points in keynotes, workshops and articles, and they are looked at in depth in my book on personal brand strategy.

Thanks to the AFA Perth committee for their invitation to present and their warm welcome. It was also a great pleasure to present in such a creative space as Paper Mountain in Northbridge – this made for a business networking event with a difference!