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What Story Are You Telling About Yourself?
March 5, 2013
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It's been over two years since I started writing Merge each week for All Access. Its mission is to offer some assistance to radio in the social and digital arenas. As we all know, there are many stations throughout our industry that are simply undermanned in this space. So Merge is here to offer a peek into trends, tools, and things I experience from being in the trenches as a social strategist for some of the greatest radio brands in the country.
This week, it's a side step from talking radio brands in the social sphere and actually offering up the "social mirror" to you – your personal brand.
We talk a lot about telling your station's story with visual communication that plays up to what your fans value about your station - but what about you personally?
What story are you telling?
Because social has made this world more open and connected, we see things we never thought we'd see – for better and worse. Our behavior socially can define us within the blink of an eye – which is a positive and yet, unknowingly a negative, too.
Differing opinions can be formed about us when we are not mindful in this space. With every post, tweet, picture and even Vine, we're telling our story.
One way to stay a step ahead of any incorrect online judgment is to simply monitor your social persona. Does it mesh with your true self?
One tool to start with is Vizify. I stumbled on it a while back, but never really thought to use it as a personal brand monitoring device. When you go to Vizify, it will ask you to plug in the social media sites you use, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others.
Through all of your communications on these platforms, it will create an interactive infographic that shows what they say is "the best of you."
That's key with this specific tool – what does the "best of you" look like socially?
I put it to the test and plugged in most of the social platforms I'm on and hoped for the "best":
Click to view larger.The results were good.
Beyond my work in radio, social, and Jacobs Media, my "story" is filled with images of my hometown, my daughter, and key moments I care about (like when Dave Grohl appears anywhere). Basically the impression of me I'd give anyone face to face.
Because technology enables us to do so much of our personal social communication "on the fly," we sometimes don't think through what we're about to post. That can lead to unknowingly telling the wrong story about ourselves and leaving potential hiring managers and decision makers to form incorrect opinions about us.
As you start to monitor your own personal brand, look for these three factors:
Be consistent.
Is it clear who you are or are you leaving room for people to draw their own conclusions about you? There should be no reading between the lines.
Be bodacious.
The world is drowning in substandard content and information overload. Are you sharing pieces of you that make people glad they're connected to you?
Perhaps my friend Tim Staskiewicz, Digital Content Director for CBS/Boston put this point best with this Facebook post:
Be grammatically correct.
We've all been victims of auto-correct or just typing too fast and hitting send before proofing. You are what you post and bad grammar reflects poorly on everyone.
Monitoring your personal brand isn't everyday thinking, but it probably should be. We all want to protect our radio stations, but we should also be mindful of our most valuable personal assets – our names.
Are you telling your real story?
Tweet me anytime @lorilewis.
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Please enjoy MERGE archives here.