Relationships are only as strong as the value placed on the relationship by the least interested party. In other words – reciprocity defines the value of a relationship.
Consider: a guy may invest a great deal into a potential relationship with a girl (flowers, concert tickets etc). However, the bonds of their relationship are only as powerful as the invested interest of the girl (reciprocity). Without her interest, their relationship carries no water.
The same is true with your personal brand. Your personal brand is only as meaningful as the value others place in your brand. Your relationship with your constituents, your personal brand will wain without regular contribution.
Consider: the hebrew word for love is ahava, from the root word hav, which means to give. The principle represented by this word as that the love present in a relationship is only as strong as the level of investment from every involved party.
Relationships and your brand take regular investments
Your relationship with your constituents will wain without regular investment. Thousand of parties invest immeasurable hours, dollars and efforts to generate brand/relationship equity with your target constituency. Your avenue of influence, your brand mind share, will dissipate without regular investment. In the digital realm, twitter value, blogging, subscription, community participation, Google Rank, technorati authority and even your one-to-one relationships demand regularity. Without proper pacing, your bridges will burn.
Generate brand/relationship equity
Key Takeaways:
- Your brand value is determined by your constituency.
- Relationships demand regular investment generating relationship equity from both the personal brand holder (you) and the brand subscribers (your constituency).
Key Action Item:
- Whatever your personal branding activities, be they publishing online or in print, attending conferences or participating in digital social media, perform these actions with regularity. Never sit still. Always be investing, always be optimizing, always be building.
Author:
Jon Burg is a Senior Emerging Channels Strategist with Digitas, a leading global interactive agency network. Jon blogs about the evolution of marketing, media and technology and the resultant impact on the human experience at Future Visions.
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Welcome to Thursdays Jon. I like your comparison between relationships and personal branding.
I speak fluent hebrew and I’d never heard that ‘hav’ connection. Beautiful.
Of course, your point is dead on. No one likes to be ignored. In the past, I remember how amazed a person would be if they wrote a complaint letter to a company and the company actually responded. Today, if a company doesn’t respond, the market will turn.
Same with people. For example, bloggers have such strong followings because most of them respond to email, comments, etc.
It takes a lot more work than people realize to build a healthy relationship with someone else. It’s a long-term strategy, not a short one.
[...] From Personal Branding: Your Personal Brand Has a Half-life “Relationships are only as strong as the value placed on the relationship by the least interested party. In other words – reciprocity defines the value of a relationship.” [...]
[...] From Personal Branding: Your Personal Brand Has a Half-life “Relationships are only as strong as the value placed on the relationship by the least interested party. In other words – reciprocity defines the value of a relationship.” [...]
@Dan- I agree that relationship building is a long-term investment if it is to be successful. The same holds true with your personal brand — it’s a long term investment and it even has the power to out live you because everything we put out into the digital world is archived.
@Jacob- Your right. I know my favorite part of interacting with blogs outside of the knowledge I gain are the relationships I make with the blogger and others in their community..
@Johnathan- This is my first time reading your content and I enjoyed your first post here on the personal branding blog. Looking forward to more!
Relationship is key to any endeavor.Relationships require investment in time and energy. let us take a cue from banking, if you keep withdrawing without deposit, your account will soon enter red. Let keep giving, it is a law that gurantee heavy returns at long last.