Filling the white space

At one point, our professional personal brands are surrounded by a lot of ‘white space’. But then ... not so much.

G’day, my name is Trevor Young and this is my newsletter about positioning ourselves to take advantage of the opportunities that come with being an active participant in today’s Reputation Economy. You can subscribe by clicking on this button:

Filling the white space

As the saying goes, your personal brand is “what people say about you when you’re not in the room” – people’s collective experience of having come into contact with you over time and formed an opinion as a result, both online and offline.

Early days there is probably not much in the way of public perception of the ‘professional you’, if only because people don’t know you well, your body of work is skinny, and your networks under-developed.

But over time, this changes with a succession of new roles and/or new jobs, or new businesses and projects launched.

And slowly but surely (or quickly, if you have your act together), you will make new connections, attend industry events, and start building your nascent network.

People’s perceptions

Pretty soon, the white space starts getting taken over by other people’s perceptions of you, rightly or wrongly.

Unless you do something proactively to influence the way people think about you, their opinion will be what counts. They got in first. They filled up the white space.

Hence, the goal is to try and ‘fill the white space’ yourself by publishing your own content, actively participating on social channels, being useful and helpful whenever and wherever you can, speaking at events, and delivering value in public forums.

Because if you don’t fill the white space, someone else will.

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"Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work."   - Stephen King

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Tip of the week

One of the key tenets of professional personal branding is to become our own media channel so we can communicate directly with our target audience.

LinkedIn provides us all with a terrific platform from which to do just that, albeit via the general newsfeed, which can be a bit hit-and-miss.

However, with the rollout of LinkedIn Newsletters, we provide our connections and followers the opportunity to subscribe to our content. That means, we have a better chance of cutting through the newsfeed noise as LinkedIn alerts subscribers whenever you publish a new edition of your newsletter.

LinkedIn Newsletters have the potential to be a game changer for personal branding, but they aren’t for everyone. I explain more in this article.

Listen ~ read ~ watch

Interesting articles, podcasts and videos that have popped up on my radar. I hope you find them interesting too :)

LISTEN: How content works in the world today

Mark Schaefer and Jay Acunzo go deep on the topic of content, and discuss how reach, resonance, and relevance are intertwined and evolving into something new in a post-SEO world. Plenty of food for thought in this episode of Mark’s Marketing Companion podcast.

READ: When old is newer than new

In this article, author and genuine advertising guru, Dave Trott, reminds us that the great thing about doing things the old way is that “nobody else is doing it”.

If you want to stand out from the crowd, consider going ‘old school’!

WATCH: The year in search

Some consistent (if not unexpected) themes in this annual Google video that looks at how the world used its search engine. In short, it provides us with an accurate snapshot of what people are feeling and thinking about. This ‘big picture’ focus is important for anyone who creates content because it allows us to better understand our audience.

Of note: “How to use my voice” is one of the search terms featured. While it relates to making a statement and having an impact on society - finding, developing and amplifying your voice is critical for anyone who wants to grow their profile and build their reputation. But it’s not just about about generating awareness of who you are and what you do, it’s about having a voice and a message that people can relate to, resonate with … and importantly, will listen to.

Onwards!

Trevor 💪

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