One of the questions that an author of multiple disciplines/topics faces is the fact that you would like to attract the right crowd for your writing. At first it would seem logic to create an account for your own name as a brand and aggregate all your news through it. But lately you can spot a trend in how it might be better to not be working top-down, but bottom-up on reaching the your crowd of interested people.
Bottom-up
The way this works is that you want to reach the people interested in your specific disciplines/topics. So you’ll have to start at that level to let those people find your specific website/blog. If people are generally interested in the way you bring the news, they’ll start searching for your name and not the specific brand name. On the website or blog about yourself, you redirect people further to the topics you’re also writing about. In my opinion this way of working attracts the people you do want to have as followers, because they’re genuinely interested in the stuff you write.
Top-down
The reason why I dislike the Top-down way of working, is that people should not be pushed into following all that you do, share, post,etc. Your own stream of news, interests, shared items, posts and other stuff, might look cluttered to people who are only interested in one of the topics you write about. So offering them the option to find your sub-topics in a place of their own, leaves the choice to the reader.
What are your thoughts on this topic? Please share it in the comments…
February 19th, 2009
Sanne
As I described in my first step into Personal Branding, I’m currently trying to pinpoint my passion, which is to be the foundation of my personal brand. Currently I’m enriching myself with several blog-posts, articles and interesting information to aid in reaching my goal.
After feeding myself with this information, I’m curious about a few things into reaching my goal; how does the passion relate to a Niche and vice versa?
Passion
What are the key elements I want people to think about when they hear my name? These elements relate directly to the one passion I want to create my brand with. Can I also turn the recognizable around on these elements, meaning when people encounter these elements, will they think about me; my brand?
Niche
A thing I was wondering about is the Niche, which comes into play when creating my personal brand. Should I be worried about finding the niche or even creating a niche for my personal brand? Or will it become clear as I go and thus being the outcome of my personal brand?
Explore and Process
By exploring and self-questioning, I’m hoping to find the perfect answer to my questions; the one thing I’m most passionate about on a professional level.
February 13th, 2009
Sanne
Intro
How about a personal brand… If you’re plugged into the online cloud called the internet like me, privacy seems to fade and content about yourself is scattered over the internet. These days, your online footprint left by i.e. messages, opinions and discussions are online and viewable through a simple search, on either Google or through social networks like Facebook, Linkedin, Hyves, etc. There is no hiding anymore and transparency and authenticity are the only means to survive and thrive in this new digital kingdom. Although so it seems… I think it’s best to manage the personal information yourself, that way you control the things you want and don’t want on the internet.
This actually is the second step from creating my personal brand. So let me start off by explaining why having a personal brand would be useful for me or other people existing in the cloud.
My Personal brand
To control the way I want to be perceived through the internet, is to find out how other people perceive me. This part is crucial into finding my passion which can be turned into a personal brand. I think it’s quite hard to really cut down to one passion, as I have more than just one. This journey into finding that passion is a thing not done overnight and is the thing that’s keeping me busy at the moment.
As I have been taking care of my online footprint already, I missed out on taking step 1; which is considered to be making an equation equal:
Your self-impression = How people perceive you
Before stepping into step 2 again, I’ll have to make clear for myself what my personal brand should be…what passion of me do I really want people to find when they google my name.
When I’m ready to take the next step, I’ll be sure to write down my findings on step 1 and explain all there is to the 2nd step. In the mean time my brain will be occupied with finding that passion I really want to brand.
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