Personal Branding | ISBI 2018OLIVIA MALAURE | MARKETING MANAGER, UK

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ABOUT PERSONAL BRANDING

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▪ The concept of a personal brand is nothing new, but in a competitive world, it’s arguably becoming increasingly important if you want to stand out.

▪ You may be posting informative musings on your Head’s blog on a bi-weekly basis, and tweeting your daily observations, but are you really branding yourself the right way?

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ABOUT PERSONAL BRANDING

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▪ Establishing your own personal brand is crucial because it gives you control of how people see you. 

▪ You could leave that to chance, or you could define what you want that brand to be in others’ minds, then convey that in all that you say and do in an effort to influence it.

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ABOUT PERSONAL BRANDING

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▪ Your brand takes work, but it’s rewarding.

▪ Create time to focus on it, keep at it and reap the benefits in your life and career.

▪ ‘Personal branding’ has become something of a buzz phrase, but if you want to make sure you’re marketing yourself to the world in the best possible way, it’s importance to first understand what exactly a personal brand is.

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WHAT IS PERSONAL BRANDING

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▪ A personal brand is - like any brand - made up of a mix of factors, thoughts and ideas that people have of you when they think about you

▪ Some of these factors are tangible (your knowledge and experience), others are intangible (your personality, attitude and morality), but they all come together to give people a feel of both what and who you're all about, so they can decide if they're going to buy into that brand and in some cases…your school.

▪ You have to consciously work out what your brand is in order to market it to others.

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WHAT IS PERSONAL BRANDING

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▪ According to personal branding specialist Lesley Everett -author of Corporate Brand Personality - your personal brand is ‘what people say about you behind your back, when you’ve left the room or when you’ve finished the presentation. ’

▪ This may be very different from who you really are

▪ Personal branding is a method you can use to help you focus on your authentic core and what you want to be known for or ‘famous’ for and then package and project that brand consistently so that others can engage with you.

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WHY DO YOU NEED A PERSONAL BRAND?

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▪ Helps to lead and engage people at every level within school to ensure consistent engagement with your school’s brand values.

▪ Creates a profile that is well-known for what you do and bring to a school

▪ Enhancing gravitas and impact in meetings, presentations and with local/national media

▪ Being more visible internally and externally

▪ Bringing an extra level of personality to your school with your strong personal brand

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HOW TO ESTABLISH A PERSONAL BRAND

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▪ There are a number of steps involved in

building a strong personal brand

▪ For your brand to be powerful, consistent and

sustainable it has to be authentic. That means

spending some time thinking about what you

really stand for, what your talents and values

are and your strongest personality traits.

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DOES SOCIAL MEDIA MAKE IT EASIER OR HARDER TO ESTABLISH A PERSONAL BRAND?

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▪ It can sometimes seem like if you haven’t got thousands of followers across all the social networks you’re doing something wrong, but the experts aren’t all in agreement.

▪ You can gain visibility so much more rapidly for things you’re passionate about or what you’re great at. If you manage your digital brand carefully, you will quickly become known for the positive things about you.

▪ It’s an error not to have a digital brand presence, which will significantly dilute your reputation ‘by sheer fact you’re not visible and therefore you don’t ‘exist’ in some people’s eyes.

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SOCIAL MEDIA + PERSONAL BRANDING

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▪ Audit your social accounts – make a list of your active/non active channels and compare each of your profiles side by side.

▪ The key to a strong personal online brand is consistency.

▪ Depending on the context, we recommend that each of your social media profiles is consistent – e.g. the same profile image, tagline, about me section and tone of voice.

▪ Get started - Now it’s time to take action to strengthen your personal brand online. The first step, tidying up your social media profiles is no mean feat. But it doesn’t have to take over your life, just apply the following principles for each account.

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STEP 1.

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▪ Ask others how they would describe

you and what can get in the way of

your positive brand.

▪ See where the gaps are and work on

those. 

▪ Use Google /other major search

engines to search for your name.

What you see is what the rest of the

world sees. If you don’t like it, don’t

despair, it can be changed. 

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QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF

▪ What really motivates you and how do you want people to talk about you.

▪ Ask yourself what you can do everyday that adds a layer to your brand to reinforce this.

▪ Carry out an audit - look at all the ways people come into contact with you - both in person and online - then ask yourself: ‘If I didn’t know me and this was my first impression, what would I think?’

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STEP 2. BE VISIBLE

▪ Work on a visibility plan - who needs to know who you are and what you’re great at? Create a plan to ensure you are more visible to these people. 

▪ Think about your non-verbal communication and image next - is it in alignment with the messages you put out about your online brand?

▪ The most important thing to remember when it comes to personal branding is to be consistent - if you don’t, others will be confused by you. 

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STEP 3. YOUR IMAGE

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▪ Your profile picture is one of the most impactful aspects of your social media presence, for two main reasons:

o It humanises you: people are unlikely to want to connect with an anonymous LinkedIn profile or a faceless Twitter profile

o You’ll get recognised: if you come across your connections in real life they are more likely to recognise you if you have a current profile picture

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YOUR PROFILE

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▪ Use the same profile image across all your social media platforms – this will help you build a strong brand online, as well as ensuring you are easily recognised.

▪ Use a professional headshot, or, if you need to take a selfie follow the LinkedIn guide to taking the perfect work selfie

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OWN YOUR NAME

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▪ Protect yourself from ‘cyber-squatters’ on social media platforms by using a consistent user name across all sites.

▪ You can check the availability of usernames by visiting namechk.com. You should also take a few moments to secure your personalised URL on LinkedIn.

▪ This will both boost your search engine ranking

results, and make it easier for people to track you down on LinkedIn.

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BE SOCIAL - BE GREGARIOUS!

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▪ Online conversations are happening everywhere, all the time, so don’t be shy, get involved. Whether it be commenting on a blog post, or responding to a discussion in a LinkedIn group, this is a great opportunity to showcase your expertise. Comment as often as you can, as this will ensure you stay in the forefront of your network’s minds.

▪ Finally, if you really want to go the extra mile, consider starting your own blog and encourage . With a little time and a lot of commitment and focus you can build the go-to online resource for your area of expertise, which will further differentiate you from your peers.

▪ Think about where you will blog as Heads blogs can also help your school website SEO efforts.

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MAKE YOUR PERSONAL BRANDING A CHOICE – NOT HABIT!

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▪ Audit your personal brand

▪ Make a choice - don’t resort to habit

▪ Think about your values

▪ Create the elevator - pitch 30 second,

60 second and 2 minute versions that

describe your experience and vision

▪ Be consistent

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HEADS ON TWITTER

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▪ Check out our list of Tweeting Heads

▪ If you google ‘education hashtags’ on

Twitter you’ll find hundreds!

▪ Decided on themes that you’ll post

about that reflect your personal

values. Arts/Leadership/Edtech

▪ Decide the topic areas that you won’t

be posting on!

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LINKEDIN

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▪ Having a strong LinkedIn profile is equally as important as making a good, in person, first impression.

▪ After or even during conferences, workshops and other CPD related events, many attendees use LinkedIn to stay in touch with the people they meet.

▪ A blank LinkedIn profile is a missed opportunity to showcase your professional expertise, and highlight information that can make meeting you more memorable.

▪ Publish your blog articles on your LinkedIn page as articles, so you have your work in a place that you can continue to grow if you move to a new headship.

▪ Join relevant groups and take part in discussion

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LINKEDIN – MUST HAVES

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▪ Add a descriptive headline -Your headline should include popular keywords someone may include when searching for professionals with your career background. You can either simply use your job title or take things a step further by highlighting your passions.

▪ Add a summary that highlights your experience & supports your career development goals e.g ‘Educator with 16 years experience as a Senior Manager at leading Preparatory Schools. My core aims are to continue improving and to be productive, happy and fulfilled so that the pupils in my care all prosper.’

▪ In your profile’s summary, you should highlight your key skills and strategies of choice.

▪ If your goal is to advance within the education sector then your summary should highlight your past accomplishments and illustrate your further leadership potential.

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6 GOOD REASONS TO BLOG

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1. Good for your school website’s SEO

2. Establish Authority

3. Build Rapport and Engagement

4. Create Opportunities

5. Tell Your Story

6. Stand Out

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HOW TO BLOG

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1. Think about your audience. Who are they? Write for

them

2. It’s all in the timing - create a content calendar

3. Create a list of topics and themes that you’d like to

blog about

4. Be consistent and realistic

5. Keep blogs between 300-700 words.

6. Consider dividing longer blogs into multiple posts

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EXAMPLES OF GOOD HEADS BLOGS

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https://jheywoodblog.wordpress.com/about/

http://www.pocklingtonschool.com/category/headmasters-blog/

http://www.royal-school.org/From-the-Principal

http://www.canford.com/From-The-Headmaster

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Is your content

here?

▪ So after all your hard work it would be a shame to not get

it found

➢ Ensure that your document title and/or URL includes the

keywords that your audience is going to be searching for.

➢ If it is a blog hosted on your website ensure that you’ve

added your keyword to your H1 tag, your URL and that

your keywords are in the first few lines of your content.

Make it easy for search engines to understand what your

page is about

GETTING YOUR CONTENT FOUND

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OPTIMISING YOUR CONTENT

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➢ Add internal links within your website to the content you want to

be found. This tells search engines this page/document/video

is important

➢ Ensure you’ve got social share buttons where your content is

being hosted so even more visitors can read / watch what you

have to say. Encourage sharing. The more your content is

shared, the more potential parents/pupils you’ll be exposed to it

and the higher you’ll be ranked in search engines!

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▪ It’s worth keeping track of the blogs and social posts

that have been successful over the course of the year

▪ Which blog posts or news articles were most read in the

past year?

▪ Which social posts were most shared or liked?

▪ These will give you a good indication of what your

school audience is interested in

FINALLY - MEASURING YOUR SUCCESS

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MONITOR YOUR PERSONAL BRAND ONLINE

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▪ There are a number of tools you can use to monitor your personal brand online including:

▪ Klout: This platform helps you measure how influential you are in your area of expertise. It will give you a score of between 0-100 which is partly determined by who your followers are and how you interact with them online. o It is important to stress that although your Klout score is important, it is not the be

all and end all when it comes to monitoring your personal brand online, the tools mentioned below can also be valuable.

▪ Google Alerts: By signing up to Google Alerts, each time you are mentioned online, you will receive an automatic alert sent directly to your inbox. You can then ensure you are the first to write a comment response, retweet or send a personal message in response, thus strengthening your personal brand even further.

▪ Hootsuite: This tool lets you track conversations that mention you across Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.

Thank You!Thank you for attending our presentation.

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