Jan
4
It’s no secret, I’m in Jill Falk’s personal branding class over Lindenwood’s January Term. In some sense, it’s an entire semester packed into three weeks. Which is unlikely for me, because I’m a categorical under achiever. However, the class seemed interesting enough, and I’m hugely into personal branding, marketing, and corporate branding; so it’s undoubtedly something I can professionally benefit from, as well.
When I Google my name, I am four of the top five results. Apparently beyond that, combinations of “addison” and “todd” are fairly popular. However, the fact that I have secured the top spot with my Google Profile is somewhat of a personal accomplishment. However, I would like to change that so my personal website is the first thing that shows up. While my Google profile is by no means a loss, I would rather my website serve as a central hub for all my social networks and the content I publish.
Over the next few years leading up to graduation, I would like to market myself and my personal brand as a social media and online marketing professional. Whether that ultimately winds up to be for individual clients on a freelance style or basis, or on a professional level for a large corporate conglomerate.
My expertise currently lies with people. I love connecting people, communicating with people, and making people happy. As cheesy as that sounds, that’s what I’m into. I live for the smile that can be put on people’s faces. When it comes to marketing, I love seeing people connect over what might perhaps be something corporate or professional in nature in a real personal way. Marketers forget that the masses aren’t just masses, but they are souls; living beings with hearts that are attached to their “decision makers.” There is so much more to marketing and connecting people than a catchy slogan and a color product or service. People are going to be persuaded to do or be something because something in their heart wants them to be.
Sure; there are the products that everyone will always buy, and services they will always use. But the business of connecting people to people, is not something that rests in a product or a service. People are what matter when it comes to building not only a brand, but a company, a business, and a life.
Goals for me include building a business that is built around helping people manage their own online brands, whether corporately for their businesses or personally for themselves.
A company I admire immensely is Digital Royalty. Spearheaded by Amy Jo Martin, (@AmyJoMartin on Twitter) the CEO, the company by their own admission, they “digital integration and social media strategies for corporate and entertainment brands, professional athletes, sports teams and leagues.” With high profile clients like Shaq, Fox Sports, UFC and Dwayne Johnson, they have taken their clients from entities that had little or no social media presence, to accounts with millions of followers and interactions that have defined industries.
Digital Royalty is a company that I admire, for how do business, as well as how they have done their social media integration. My plan is work for, and one day own a company like Digital Royalty.
