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Developing a personal brand as a business asset

Being clued into the quantity and quality of followers is a good metric for the long run

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Personal branding genius, Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Group, works tirelessly around the clock. When he’s not busy building brands from the ground up, he’s enjoying his time on Necker Island. Worth over $5 billion this year, Sir Branson has reaped the benefits of developing his personal brand over the year.

“Branding demands commitment; commitment to continual re-invention; striking chords with people to stir their emotions; and commitment to imagination. It is easy to be cynical about such things, much harder to be successful. Too many companies want their brands to reflect some idealised, perfected image of themselves. As a consequence, their brands acquire no texture, no character and no public trust.”

With over 13 million followers on LinkedIn alone (100X Virgin group), Sir Branson has one of the most public personas in the world. He’s developed his brand by being honest, genuine and always thinking about the customer. This is why he’s so beloved across the industries in which he participates. Personal brands have that effect on us. They make us have a relationship with the persona behind the brand.

For Sir Branson, consistency is the one thing that has made him successful in the personal branding space. He is a vocal advocate for open marriage, global warming and other key controversial factors making him even more appealing to follow online.

In his seminal blog post published on his personal website, his views on passion and influence have inspired many entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams. An excerpt from the blog post summarizes his personal brand’s attributes -

“Finding your passion means you will never have a job. I have learned this from my years creating businesses. I’ve never had what I would call a job, but I’ve worked every day for five decades. It’s all about finding a balance between work and play – it’s all living.”

Whilst it's clear that the advantages of having a personal brand are far greater than not having one, there are challenges that few can foresee. Creating a business asset such as a personal brand requires a strategic focus to defining the persona and understanding the challenges when it comes to barriers.

Prabir Jha, president and global chief people officer of Cipla Inc, has some eye-opening insights in this regard.

“It is really tough to build a strong personal brand and even tougher to hold on to one. Sometimes, brands get stale. Sometimes, they lose their contextual relevance. Sometimes, competitor brands offer a nuanced attraction. Being clued into the quantity and quality of followers is a good metric. Do people still reach out as much for advice as before? Are you still as sought after for sharing thought leadership views? Do you deep down feel that you are losing context and connect?”

In other words, when a personal brand has challenges ahead of itself – personal or corporate, the brand needs to focus on the things that count, i.e., passion, hard work and long hours in the office. When your passion supersedes confusion, scrutiny and pain-points, it can truly become an impactful force in the industry.

Looking at even the multi-crore combined value of Brand Anushka Sharma & Virat Kohli (#virushka), any marketers can confirm that their total brand power (Over 30M followers) is incrementally greater than any other power duo in the country. With sponsorships lined up to the T, their PR and social media managers take their online profiles very seriously. Both stars are honest and genuine in their approach to social media, taking time to respond to their die-hard fans.

What’s their advice to defending a personal brand? When Anushka Sharma was attacked on Twitter for Virat’s poor performance, she responded by ignoring the remarks.

“One cannot respond to these things seriously because it's just a person who is writing something because one must have had a bad day, is pissed off, had a fight with his girlfriend or maybe just got dumped. The easy way to act is to strike somebody who wouldn't probably answer back to you and wouldn't fall down to your level”

Therefore, when facing your detractors, engaging with them may be a waste of time and money. Whereas the impact obtained from supporting your fan base and engaging with them might be a better value for time for personal brands.

In the 21st century, trust is the currency of choice. It's scalable, reproducible and takes hard work and effort to build up. In 2008, when Tesla was going through some massive production-related problems, CEO Elon Musk had little to no reputation left. He felt like he had betrayed the trust of millions, who had seen a sustainable future through his company’s vision. He put his last $30 M into Tesla and was living off friend’s loans and couches. At this point, nobody could see him bouncing back.

Then, Musk turned it all around with some key projects that he executed flawlessly, and by working 80-100-hour weeks he was able to develop trust back again into his company. His brand turned around, and his detractors became his investors. He worked hard through his struggles and was finally able to create a $50B+ company, resurrecting it from ruins.

What are his final thoughts on the matter? - “The reality is great highs, terrible lows and unrelenting stress. Don't think people want to hear about the last two.”

That’s what a personal brand is. It’s a promise to a stakeholder of reliability and trust.

BUILDING PERCEPTION

  • Creating a business asset such as a personal brand requires a strategic focus to defining the persona
     
  • In addition to this, engaging with fan base might be a better value for time for personal brands
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