Tell me what you think about this:
Septic tank cleaning has really taken off in the past few years because companies are seeing value in becoming closer to their sustainability and self-reliance.
Companies are looking for feedback, ideas, and to provide support to their septic tanks in order to increase loyalty and satisfaction, as well as attract new customers. Read Waste Web listed “solid waste management” as one of the top trends for 2010, and it’s not a surprise.
Back in 2007, I assumed one of the first waste management roles in a Fortune 500 company, right after DELL hired professional waste managers to rebuild their tarnished brand after the famous “Lost in Austin” incident.
As a septic engineer, it was essential that I played several roles, including being a recruiter of new members (marketing the facilities), keeping the content fresh and creative, and moderating.
There are several septic engineers that have done an excellent job growing and retaining their business, and turning them into evangelists. Ike Pigott and Geoff Livingston are examples of successful community managers, who used their personal brand to support their clients.
Mad Libs
I ask, because the above paragraphs actually exist, in a lightly altered form, in other places on the internet.
Remember “Mad Libs?” It’s a game where you take a story, then replace many of the key details with blanks. Then you (verb) the text in a(n) (adjective) way, and hope your (adjective) (noun/s) start to (verb) when you read it back to them.
Well, take out the references to excrement, and insert some other challenge or hot topic or buzzword in the above, and it makes a fairly compelling argument for how Personal Branding will indeed augment that activity. Fill in the blanks, and you have a case statement.
The rhetorical structure is there, and it certainly sounds convincing enough. Yet you know that my example is so absurd that it can’t possibly be right. There is no logical underpinning… yet this is what passes for “genius” and “thought leadership” in the business of communications and marketing.
When you can make septic tank cleaning sound like a viable fit for Personal Branding, it’s time to look at that concept a little closer.
So what is Personal Branding? Let’s rip that definition straight from the author:
WHAT IS PERSONAL BRANDING?
Personal branding is the process by which we identify what makes us unique and then communicate that to our audience. The internet has made branding more accessible to people, and now all brands can actively and directly engage with their audience without a middle man. Whether you work for a company, or you’re an entrepreneur, you have a personal brand and need to manage it to have a successful future.
4 steps to building a personal brand:
- Discover: Understand who you are, what you’re passionate about and have expertise in, and then how you want to position yourself in the marketplace. Also, setting up short and long-term measurable goals.
- Create: Develop a personal branding toolkit that helps sell your brand. This might include a business card, a website or a blog, social network profiles, a resume, cover letter, references document, and a portfolio of work. You also need a consistent name, picture, format, and possibly a slogan.
- Communicate: Networking with people in your community constantly, both online and offline, to further the relationships. Becoming an expert source for the media, and speaking at events.
- Maintain: Controlling your online presence and ensuring that it’s up-to-date and reflective of your current brand position.
Sounds like Personal Branding is a great idea, which can augment anything, right?
But if it supposedly augments everything, then it really augments nothing.
The Septic Tank of Consultancy
There is a lot of crap floating around out there. Businesses are right to be wary, but it’s so hard when the volume of crap gets to be too much. Think Goebbels and the Big Lie.
One way to cut through the crap is to recognize its most common forms of gift-wrapping. The above Mad-Libs test is a good one to start. Also look for appeals to emotion instead of fact. (Transparency is a great thing, because, you know, it’s open and honest, and open and honest are good things that give you good feelings, right..?)
Embrace your inner skeptic… before he runs off and spends his time working on his Personal Brand.
I’m not eager to defend ‘personal branding,’ and there’s certainly lots of platitude-rife ‘thought leadership’ out there, but I also don’t think it’s fair to say that there’s “no logical underpinning” to the argument that, whatever its dimensions, personal branding can help your business. If, done right, it works for anything, then logically it can work for everything. And that includes septic tank cleaning, however distasteful you may think that business is. The idea that something that augments everything actually augments nothing is not logically consistent.
Andrew, I can think of many professions that Personal Branding would not augment. (In many, the Personal Brand is indeed a detriment.) Yet, when you plug in the words, it still seems to make sense.
That indicates to me that we ought to put more stock in the rhetorical device being employed, and less on the snake oil being touted.
I think personal branding at ways is like a platypus. If you take it too seriously you will be a laughing stock. Having read the original post yesterday, I can safely say that I like the Mad Libs version better.
A good community manager is able to change perceptions and build a loyal following. That community and company that pays said employee should be the driving factor not someone’s ego.
Snakeoil salesmen need a fancy title to make them sleep easier at night.
Good thing there’re baffles above the scum!