There are several programs that large brands use to “monitor” the conversation and to know what’s being said.
What if you’re a small brand? Or, even smaller – what if the brand is YOU?
Listening as a brand
1. Listen to how people introduce you.
This simple exercise will give you insight into what people are really thinking about you, what they’ve derived you do. What’s worse is when they don’t even know what to say so they hand the introduction “off to you”. Then, you know that your brand is so muddled they cannot even speak it.
2. Set up Google Alerts and Tweet Beeps.
Know what’s being said about you in written format, in blogs, on Twitter, on comments and posts.
3. Ask three of your best contacts what they feel you bring to the table.
And, listen to what they say. Don’t fill in the blanks for them. Steer clear of trying to fill the silence with possibilities or ideas.
4. Ask someone close to you – if they could change one thing about you, for the better, what would that be?
The key here it to stay silent. If you talk, you lose. This answer will reveal much about who you are and the areas in your brand that need work.
5. Use Tweet Stats.
To know how well you engage others and know if you’re contributing to the conversation as opposed to just blasting out information. (http://tweetstats.com)
6. Ask for feedback.
Not just when you have something to sell or renew – just to let them know they’re valued and their thoughts and opinions matter.
7. Set up your own personal brand listening site.
I don’t market any of these yet I find these sites invaluable to ‘listening’ to what’s being said virtually. I learned this recently from Laura Roeder who has a fantastic video on her blog explaining every intricacy of this. Yet, I myself set this up, and have had the chance to run it since viewing her video and it is stellar! What a great way for small businesses and personal brands to keep on ‘the pulse’ of what’s being said about them. In fact, NetVibes is now my home page when I first go online so that I can stay in the know!
Netvibes.com: is a great tool to set up your own personal listening site. You can RSS any of the following sites I’ll list into Netvibes and it will track and highlight when new comments have been made and what they are. In fact, it’s my home page and I log into every day to see what’s out on-line right now where someone is talking about of to me.
Twitter Search: (http://search.twitter.com), it tracks who has mentioned my name, my company and also who has asked questions about “Personal Branding” and “Word of Mouth”. In fact, Twitter Search’s advanced search function can search for those comments that are question as opposed to just straight statements about personal branding or word of mouth. If you would like to know how to use it for searches other than your own personal brand, ask me on my Facebook page and I would be happy to go further in-depth.
Backtweets.com: I used to search items not readily found in the Twitter Search Site. It captures conversations that people are having about you or your company. It can distinguish links that are using some sort of “link shortening service” like bit.ly or tinyurl.com and reveal if someone is indeed talking about you or something you posted.
The following sites combined will give you great insights and feed back on whose talkingi about your in forums and communities:
Boardreader.com
Omgili.com
SocialMention.com
Then use the following to see where you’re being chatted about in blogs:
Google Blog Search (http://blogsearch.google.com)
And, even if you’re chatted about in the news – this site will help:
Google News (http://news.google.com/)
If you search for your name, in any of these sites, and then RSS feed that query into Netvibes it can be a true listening site hub.
If you utilize other listening tools, please make a comment and share!
Maria Elena Duron | chief buzz officer, speaker and coach focused on helping you move, touch and inspire others to action and speak positively on your behalf at buzz2bucks | word of mouth firm
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A very nice material, very good for personal self assessment and reputation measurement
Ayelehin – thank you for taking a moment to read the post and to share your thoughts. i would appreciate hearing more about which ones you do end up using and how they work for you.
To take a little of the randomness out of “What people say when they introduce you, for instance when you are speaking to a group, write your own introduction.
for instance,
It is my pleasure to introduce our speaker for the evening, Maria Elena Duron. Maria is an expert in personal branding. She has written four books on the subject and holds seminars all over the southeast region to spread the word.
Folks, please welcome
Maria Elena Duron.
You can put your Brand in your email signature line –
“Wolf Halton, the Linux Guy at SourceFreedom.com”
You can also make sure, when people in a social situation ask what you do that you can put it in less than five words. “Hi, I am Ayelehin, I am a branding coach.”
Hello Wolf! I agree with your thoughts on writing your own introduction when being introduced to a group. In fact, I highly recommend the book “Be Sharp” by Asinof + Brown, to make sure that the introduction is succinct yet information packed.
What I was referring to is when people introduce you to their contacts at networking events, over lunch or even if you just happen upon them at the same location. What they say is your brand – perception is reality. Just as important as it is to ’script’ your formal introduction, so you must take charge and have a curriculum in being able to teach people the best way to intro you to their friends over drinks or at an impromptu meeting. Do you have a communication plan that helps provide them the words when they say, “I would like you to meet Wolf Halton, he’s…….” Help them fill in the rest.
To introduce by title actually does you a disservice. It relies on that other person’s perception and past experience with that title. Or, if it’s something so new that they’ve never heard of before they’ll respond with “Oh, interesting” which is code for I have no idea what that position or person does but I don’t want to look like I don’t know.
How do you help people? Why do people connect with you? What makes you unique? Leave the title at home and introduce with the answers to those questions instead.
Maria – I found this interesting when related to my area of expertise which is vacation rental. Many rental owners want to find ways of developing their brand to help them improve, find new rental clients, and to market their properties better. The idea of ‘branding’ in this area is relatively new; owners have often not thought beyond getting a web site or a listing up and running and then wonder how they can attract visitors and monitor how they are doing.
Heather, I do understand your industry and have a chance to work with realtors – some who are selling properties, some who are leasing properties, some doing both and some solely interested in property management as an investment they manage for their clients (the owners).
While the buzz term ‘branding’ is new, reputation management has been around and a part of anyone who provides a product with a service tied to it – like you and your colleagues. You ARE a part of the product and while on the surface it might ‘appear’ that you each can deliver the same thing there are remarkable differences in the timing, the demeanor, the amount of knowledge, the communication style and frequency, Those are some of the differentiators along with others that I might not be aware of (possibly frequency of payout, credit checks available, feedback and reviews such as virtual tours, web access to documents and forms, and your availability). When you start seeing yourselves as one and the same as others in your field – you reduce yourself to a commodity and then the only thing commodities can compete on is price.
You can start by extracting your personal brand and discovering what your current strengths are. Feel free to use my website, http://www.buzz2bucks.com and take the “How Strong is Your Brand” quiz and the free brand audit available – use the passcode b101. Let me know if I can help in any way!
I truly appreciated your article…very thoughtful and clear advice. I’m still a hybrid realtor, trying to catch up to the “now”, and will follow your good “script”.
Great post Maria, and I bet you can guess how I found it!
I’m so glad you found my advice valuable, thanks for mentioning me in this post!
Thanks, Laura! You are amazing! I am a big fan! Your Creating Fame Classroom is really the best + backed with more information that relevant and useful, now!
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