But we didn't bring David on to get his Oscars review, we wanted to talk to him about his specialty helping people and companies uncover their branding message. He is a self described Brand Therapist. His first words of advice are to look at the current results that are being achieved, and analyze where the message may be missing the mark. David works with clients to identify up to 10 unique elements that make up a brand such as leadership, culture, understanding lingo, rituals etc.. that must in the end be crafted to allow people to understand what you are capable of delivering.
David will be providing specific information about Personal Branding for Social Media Success with two distinct sessions as a webinar on March 18th. Why am I not getting results from Social Media? Digital Reputation Building kicks off at Noon, followed by Awful to Awesome - Authentic and Effective Personal Branding at 6:00 pm.
One of the cautions that David gives for anyone listening who might be considering branding advice or educational sessions is to dig into the qualifications of the presenter. Do the strategies that have been developed match with the overall objectives of your organization or does the prepackaged advice only work if you are in a very narrow niche.
A major challenge in the world of social media consulting today is crossing the chasm in front of business owners who believe they do not have the time to invest in personally executing social media tactics and assigning brand responsibility to someone who either is not clearly representing the brand, or may indeed move on from the business and take some brand reputation with them. David's advice is to make sure that the pillars of the brand are clearly documented and to never assign full responsibility to a single individual.
He brings to light the difference between the original CNN Twitter account which was an RSS re-posting of news headlines into the Twitter stream, and the personalized fan account CNN BRK which raced Ashton Kutcher to 1 million followers. The CNN account that was more human oriented, speaking in a real voice was the account that grew the largest and was eventually incorporated by CNN into their regular social networking strategies.
An additional example that David uses to demonstrate a company that understands its brand and does not get off track from its intended mission is 37 Signals, the makers of the project management system BaseCamp. Both Desiree, who uses BaseCamp for managing projects, and David believe that 37 Signals is successful in maintaining such a loyal user base by having strong brand awareness. They are in business to build easy to use tools.
We want to express our sincere thanks to David Cohen for taking the time to appear on The Bella Buzz, and if you are interested in participating in his webinar on Thursday March 18th, follow this link and use the code BELLABEACON to get 50% off.
Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.
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