Back in 2009 I wrote a blog about what I called the Whole Brand encompassing not just the usual - company and product/services(s) - but the personal (leadership) and the category, be it broad such as sustainability or practical and narrow such as eco-clothing.
Today I was reminded of the importance of the YOU element, the leader of your company, be it small with under five employees or a Cisco Systems. I was reading a Forbes article by Rafael Aparicio entitled:
Branding Your Friendship: The Hidden Power Of Your Personal Network
"It is up to you to go ahead and take control of how people perceive you, because if you don’t take control of your own brand, others will."What this means is that the leader of an organization needs to step out onto the Web in an organized, consistent manner which may include a personal website, a presence on LinkedIn and Facebook, a blog, videos on the organization's YouTube channel and maybe even a twitter account.
It used to be all talk about issues, challenges, programs, products, solutions, partnerships and, now, it's relationships and for that we need to see and hear from the leadership about their respect for Mother Earth and their vision and commitment to a more sustainable future for all of us. In support of the importance of this point, I suggest reading the 2013 Cone Communications Social Impact Study: The Next Cause Evolution. Download here.
The personal is even more critical if one is engaged in fundraising or outreach, both of which I consider to benefit from being practiced as a discipline of marketing.
Ruth Ann Barrett, Portland, Oregon, January 15, 2014.
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