From Blog to Book to a Global Personal Brand
2004. The peace of Pondicherry city (and serenity of Sr Aurobindo Ashram & Auroville) inspired me to write again (after a gap of 14 years). And the story on customer relationship management became the cover story of May 2004 Marketing Mastermind (an ICFAI publication). The passion to blog and write a book took another 6 years to happen.
A typical passionate personal branding journey has three steps:-
A typical passionate personal branding journey has three steps:-
- Start a Blog
- Write a Book
- Consolidate your presence
Personal Branding increases your revenues through
book sales, speaking/consulting/webinar assignments and so on. The fundamental
activities required besides writing, are knowledge of branding principles,
networking, visibility, credibility and content promotion.
Let us look at all the steps in detail:-
Step 1-Start a Blog
Once you are clear about your deep passions, it is time to
start with a Blog. 2-3 posts a week are fine as long as you are consistent. The
blog posts should be of 250-300 words unless the topic requires more
explanation. Microblogs can be derived from blog posts and posted on social
media.
The blog is also a great place for collaboration. Start
writing joint blog columns with people you can learn from (or you can mentor
and they help you in return). Try to develop it as the best place for state of
the art knowledge in your industry besides showcasing your own talents.
Promoting and sharing content of others is also useful for building traffic and
forming win-win relationships.
Step 2 -Write a Book
E-book can be a good learning experience but a hard copy is
still a more respectable option. A book demonstrates your expertise as well as
passion. Writing a good book requires painstaking research and patience (and
you need to have lot of patience with the publisher too).
In case you have money to invest, there are lots of options
available to promote the book. You can also convert your book into an audio CD,
video and a film (if the book becomes a bestseller)
Step 3-Consolidate your
presence
A book with a national/international publisher can give you
lot of mileage but it must be complemented with building relationships through
social media (and offline networking), making collaborations and alliances and
building both visibility and credibility. Whenever possible take the
relationship one step further by meeting people offline or at least talk on
Skype/G Talk /Yahoo Messenger. Having a video chat is very helpful in building
trust as one can observe the body language.
The brand must be built with consistency, passion and should send the same message across all the online and offline platforms.
The brand must be built with consistency, passion and should send the same message across all the online and offline platforms.
Brief Profile
Dr Amit Nagpal, PhD is a Business Storyteller, Keynote Speaker and Digital Storytelling Coach. He is one of the pioneers of digital storytelling in India. After working for more than two decades in academics, and corporates (including publishing, television and digital marketing), he realised teaching is meditation and storytelling is Nirvana.
He is also Chief Inspirational Storyteller at AL Services. AL Services has co-created stories of some of the most inspiring people in India & abroad. He tweets at @DrAmitInspires. To connect / follow on social media, visit about.me
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