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Lisa Harris and Lorraine Warren

10th November 2009
   
h    teaches Digital Marketing and is an e-tutor for the University of
Liverpool online MBA. She has a research project called ͚Punch Above Your
Weight͛ which tracks how small firms promote themselves, network and grow
their businesses using Web 2.0 technologies. She is also running various projects
to integrate aspects of open learning into the MSc curriculum at Southampton,
and developing new work investigating the development of digital presence.
h  
 
teaches Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Her research interests
are in the emergence and adoption of new technologies, particularly in the Digital
Economy. Recent projects have included the development of new business models
in the creative industries (funded by the EPSRC's Digital Economy Initiative) and
developments in the photovoltaic industry. She is currently developing projects in
the social media domain, including issues of academic identity, entrepreneurial
velocity, ethics and trust.
 Ë    
   

h Lorraine: entrepreneurship literature considers

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need for entrepreneurs to
build a self-identity as an entrepreneur in
society/context, establish legitimacy, trust, as part of
value creation, cultural, sociological perspective
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h Lisa: marketing literature considers u 
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as essential
part of growing a business/managing a career. There
is a strong focus on  
   

 

 



This session will demonstrate how you can

develop your digital presence in order to
make yourselves (and your work) stand out
from the crowd, using social media to build
your online profile.


  
  
 
 
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h Agility
h oresight
h High velocity
h Peripheral sensing
h Trends
h Rapid prototyping of new possibilities
h Be active outside of existing sphere of
influence
 
 
 



h According to Olins (2003), a brand is ͞

 
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h Chris Brogan (www.chrisbrogan.com) notes that a
strong personal brand is a mix of reputation, trust,
attention, and execution:
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h inding a job and managing career progression increasingly
involves understanding how today͛s networks work and how
to deploy them effectively, both online and offline.
h Building and maintaining a personal brand in this way is
becoming a critical activity for a prospective employee or
entrepreneur
h It is essential to make sure that the nature of the information
an individual displays online is going to encourage rather than
discourage a potential employer.
h This work draws upon the results of an ongoing research
project which is investigating the use of new technologies by
entrepreneurs to build their personal brands.
 
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h The nature and content of many jobs is also fundamentally
changing
h new cultures, mindsets and skills required
h In 2008, Business Week voted the accounting firm Deloitte as
the best company in the USA with which to launch a career:
ʹ Recognise that the need for change is not just about facilitating social
networking.
ʹ ͚reverse mentoring͚ uses younger employees to advise and coach their
older colleagues in new styles of communication and collaboration
ʹ helps to break down the traditional hierarchical barriers between the
generations at work.
 




  

h The CBI and Universities UK have recently published a report on graduate

employability called ' uture it'.

h The survey of 581 employers identified entrepreneurship and enterprise

as being particularly important attributes that they looked for in their
prospective employees. The report defines these skills as:
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h
8% of employers responding to the uture it survey cited an

entrepreneurial mindset as important, and
2% said a "positive attitude"
mattered. The University attended was given consideration by just 8% of
employers, and a graduate's degree results by just 28%.
 Ë

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courosa
tuesdaytweetup
mpntod
ruskin14

There are also some useful Twitter guides which can

be linked from: http://www.twitip.com/personal-
brand-how-to-build-yours-in-twitter/
 Ë  Ë


h #  . Become known as a reliable and informative source of help
to your network
h $
% . Ask for advice and you͛ll receive ͚collective intelligence͛ from
your network
h & 

 . Include links in a tweet to direct traffic to your blog or to the
recommended posts of others.
h s ' . subscribe to feeds for specific websites/conferences, or from
content providers such as the BBC.
h |  ' %
. Twitter allows you to befriend and track the messages of
other users.
h '


. Interact with other like-minded people, or experts in
your field. Develop relationships for future mutual benefits such as testimonials
or peer recommendations.
h %
# 
 Twitter can be used as a means to find potential customers or
clients online. Do a search for keywords related to your product on Twitter
Search and then follow users.
h #     . or example to provide real time coverage of
conference keynotes
h (
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. An informal and casual way of arranging adhoc meetings.
 $  
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h Ask not what the community can do for you, but what you
can do for the community͙
h The best long term way to build brand influence is to be seen
as a ͚giver͛ of good quality practical information and advice.
h An authentic personal brand therefore delivers both a track
record and a promise of the ongoing delivery of value.
h How exactly will *you* deliver value??
 | 
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h How can you tell whether your brand building

efforts are paying off? Check out these
measurement tools:
ʹ Google alerts
ʹ Twitter alerts
ʹ Comment alerts
h http://www.davidrisley.com/2009/02/16/3-
powerful-tools-for-monitoring-your-brand/
  
 
h Ongoing time and effort is required to develop and maintain
online profiles, learn new tools and ascertain when best to
integrate them into the mix.
h 2 brand building elements should not be forgotten ʹ Harris
and Rae (2009) show that it is not a zero sum game, because
good online networkers also tend to be effective
communicators offline.
h As with most things in life, you get out what you put in, and
persistence pays off.
h It is critical to be authentic. If your online presence is
developed at only a superficial level, for example by basing it
simply on ego, spin or piggybacking off the work of others,
then it will not be enduring.
 v

#

h So what exactly are *you* going to go away

and do to develop your digital presence?
 s  
 
h Schawbel, D. (2009) |u  !u  

uu"uu#u
h aynerchuk, G. (2009) Crush It!: Why Now is the
Time to Cash in on Your Passion
h Brogan, C. and Smith. J. (2009)Trust Agents: Using
the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and
Earn Trust
h Harris, L. and Rae, A. (in review) ͞Building a personal
brand through social networkingj Journal of Business
Strategy