The Anonymous Marketer

In this episode of Rep Your Brand, the host Nick Bennett talks with Jason Vana about branding yourself on social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter. Jason explains how important it is to be yourself, test any advice you get, and learn everything about your target audience.

Jason Vana is also known as #sassyjason, and his sharp tongue is what puts him in the spotlight. He thinks that you can't keep telling people you're a marketing guru if you don't have the following: it is crucial to find your own voice and start creating content that will engage your target audience, regardless of the industry you're in.

Jason stands firmly on the standpoint that it is better to have around 300 likes and 300 comments that are authentic than having thousands of generic likes through pods or similar groups.

In this episode of Rep Your Brand, the host, Nick Bennett, talks to Kyle Coleman. Kyle leads the Growth team at Clari. It is a combination of sales development, growth marketing, and revenue enablement.

Kyle talks about the importance of building a personal brand. He believes personal brands have a positive impact on a company's success. He also finds LinkedIn as the best platform for presenting himself. LinkedIn, as Kyle says, fits his business style, writing style, and target audience.

Successful people usually act like success is a Zero-Sum Game, Coleman states. They believe someone's success must come at the expense of someone else's. That's not true, the guest explains. The whole point of success is sharing your story and helping others achieve it. It is also the projection of how far you have come and what else you can do to be even more successful.

Kyle and Nick mention another key to success, and that is personalization. Interlocutors conclude: hundreds of likes don't matter. What matters is the impact you have on the people you interact with. If you've helped one person, you've done a tremendous job.

In this episode of Rep Your Brand, the host, Nick Bennett, talks to Daniel Murray, a senior manager of marketing operations at ServiceTitan. Interlocutors discuss the benefits of growing your brand on LinkedIn. Daniel shares the story about his beginnings on social media and the lessons he learned over time.

Daniel explains why it is crucial to be consistent on every social platform. He thinks many people are afraid of failing on social media, but that's part of the learning process. He also knows many people are not interested in building their online presence, and that's ok.

Success doesn't come overnight, Daniel states. Therefore, he reminds listeners about the importance of engagement and responsiveness on social platforms. ''Don't overthink it and just start,'' Daniel advises.

The benefits of personal branding are endless. The best way to understand how your personal brand can help you stand out in the market is to hear a real-life success story.

Not only does Christina Garnett know her way around social media and marketing space, but she is also a real-life example of how having a strong personal brand can create new opportunities. With more than 16,000 followers on Twitter and over 7,000 on LinkedIn, Christina selflessly shares her industry knowledge and experience with her audience. It's safe to say she's the go-to marketer for audience intelligence, inbound marketing, and community building.

In this episode of the Rep Your Brand podcast, Christina and Nick discuss the power of social media in the brand-building process, how to use it to create a community and why no one is truly an expert in this ever-changing industry.

Episode Summary

What does a personal brand really mean? There is no shortcut to becoming known on the web, but the key to building a personal brand is authenticity.

Chris Walker, the CEO of Refine Labs, thinks that giving value to the people who already follow you is the most important part of the personal branding journey. But what does giving value even mean? For Chris, it’s whether his content helped someone. If you think that there is already too much quality content on the internet and that no one will listen to what you have to say, Chris is going to convince you otherwise.

Listen in to this episode as Nick Bennett chats with Chris about personal branding and other key topics like content creation, the DOs and DON’Ts in B2B marketing, and many more.

Guest-at-a-Glance

❖ Name: Chris Walker

❖ What he does: Chris is a CEO at Refine Labs. He has built a strong personal brand on LinkedIn and podcast State of Demand Gen that has almost 100 episodes.

❖ Company: Refine Labs

❖ Key Quote: ''Because in order to be a good leader, you need to demonstrate those actions.''

❖ Where to find Chris: LinkedIn

Key Insights

❏ Don’t be everywhere. Figuring out which platform works best for you is one of the most important parts of a personal branding journey. For some people, Instagram is great, while for others LinkedIn gives the best results. Monitor your progress and focus on the platforms that are a good fit for you.

❏ Great marketing requires interaction with customers. To get the best results, you need to know what your potential customers need. There is no value in your offer if people don’t feel the burning desire to have it. Chris firmly believes that listening to what people have to say will benefit both sides.

❏ Get unlimited content ideas by having a system that works perfectly. Chris talks about how he created the perfect system for content creation so it doesn’t consume his entire day. He thinks that to create great content; you need to know what’s going on in the market.

You can’t build your personal brand overnight. But the best time to start building it is NOW. You need to find a platform most suitable for presenting your products or services and figure out how to create content for the right audience.

Andreas Jonsson, CEO, and co-founder at Shield explains why LinkedIn is the best platform if you are starting from scratch. All newcomers, Jonsson says, need to establish a habit of posting. It does not mean you have to post every day, but you need to develop a habit of spending time on the platform to find out what resonates with people.

In this episode of Rep Your Brand, Andreas Jonsson talks about the importance of building a personal brand. He says it is beneficial for both employees and a company. Answering the question about the algorithm, the guest says: ‘’I’m super curious about the algorithm in general because that is what makes or breaks a platform like LinkedIn, especially the social part of it.’’

At the end of the day, Jonsson reminds us, we want to present our content to other people. We need to get close to the right audience. Our focus should not be on the algorithm but on creating high-quality content. If we want people to engage with our content, we need to share our stories and show ourselves as human beings. With that in mind, the guest concludes: ''No one's perfect. You said it yourself. It's absolutely true. And certainly I'm not perfect. I'm just trying my best, and that's all we can ever do. ''

Guest-at-a-Glance

Name: Andreas Jonsson

What he does: Andreas is a CEO and co-founder at Shield.

Company: Shield

Key Quote: ''We are interesting as people, which is why everyone could post to LinkedIn, even if you're a graduate, a student, if you're an intern, you have a unique perspective. And if you can tell stories and if you engage with people and do all of those things, then people are going to follow you regardless.''

Where to find Andreas: LinkedIn

##

Key Insights

LinkedIn is the social platform most people could benefit from. It is a great place to start because you can join it, starting from scratch. One of the reasons is a 'crazy good' organic reach.

Get into the feed and figure out what value is. Being part of the LinkedIn community can help you familiarize yourself with your potential customers and users and what type of content would bring them to your profile. It will help you figure out how to add value with every post you publish and attract the desired audience.

Building a personal brand is beneficial for both an employee and a company. Andreas emphasizes the importance of building a personal brand and uses his own experience as an example. ''I just started posting to LinkedIn. I just wanted to explore what this is all about. So, people we bring into Shield, I'm trying to incentivize them to do the same. And the reason for that is I've seen firsthand on myself, with my own personal brand, how it's benefiting me, how it's benefiting the company, how it's benefiting the people that are close to me.''

##

Episode Highlights

Establish a Habit of Posting

Andreas says the habit of posting is one of the most meaningful ''skills'' he developed to build his following. He explains the importance of consistency and also why consistency is not the same as frequency.

It doesn't mean you have to post every day, but you have to establish a habit. I did that, and it clearly shows, so let me pull out some numbers for you here. In 2019 I posted 136 times. So that wasn't a whole lot. In 2020 I had 250 posts. So it was an increase in my posting activity of around 85%. All my other metrics on the platform, views, likes, engagement in general, and my followers, grew by 400%.''

No One's Really Going to Get Any Amazing Reach and Engagement Once They First Start Out

''If you're someone who's never posted to LinkedIn before, if I tell you to post every day