Thoughts

What's In A Brand?

A fountain pen resting on an open lined notebook beside a cup of coffee in warm window light.

The digital world is incredibly noisy. Trillions of text lines and images strive for attention from a few billion eyeballs. For founders and top executives in business, standing out requires rising above the noise.

Everyone visionary or influencer has a strong and unique personal brand. A personal brand isn't the products they sell or the name of their company; it's their ideas - an intellectual relationship with viewers built on awareness, identification, and trust.

Awareness is the beginning of a digital relationship. It means saying something interesting, and doing it in a different way. Every exec has specific expertise and a specific point of view; it's a matter of expressing yours in a provocative and meaningful way. And awareness doesn't happen overnight; one adage in advertising is that a viewer has to see something seven times before they remember it, and they have to be shown that thing 21 times before they see it seven times. It's not about repeating content over and over, though. It's about consistently adding interesting content.

Next, there's identification. Does the reader identify or resonate with what you're saying? Is your content relevant and timely? The best content causes head-nodding in the viewer. Often, it leverages a trend or shared experience and incorporates your unique take on it. Most digital influencers have a strong understanding of who their audience is and what they care about. Content should always serve the viewer.

Trust makes the difference between a one-time visitor and a long-lasting relationship. It comes from impressing your reader, not once but consistently. Content should not only be interesting, but true in a factual or emotional way. Economists like Daniel Altman build brands using charts and their analysis of them. Motorsports analysts like Michael Uhlarik express compelling and often controversial opinions about motorcycling trends or brands.

So, when building a brand of your own, be bold in your vision, be consistent in your contributions, speak to your audience, and tell the truth. It's the path to a strong position in a crowded market.

These pieces are written for founders and C-level operators at B2B technology companies. If you want this kind of writing under your own name, that is how I work, and pricing starts at $1,500.

More thoughts

Inventing the FuturePublic renown goes to tech executives who make bold predictions about what will happen, rather than explaining what's happening now. Why Executive Social Media Campaigns FailEvery company wants to sell its products, but C-suite executives build their personal brands by articulating a compelling vision, not with product marketing. Avoiding JerkophobiaMaking bold predictions is risky, and most executives are afraid to get it wrong. Vision: Seeing the Big PictureThe leaders we call visionaries always combine a solid grasp of what their companies can do (and why it's better), mapped against a larger understanding of business and society. Writers Versus ChatbotsSince chatbots came into common use a few years ago, people like me who got paid to write for others have seen a huge drop in business. Building a Brand in Stealth ModeTech startups are built on technology, products and people. When you're still in stealth mode, it's tempting to ignore branding altogether, but that's a mistake.

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