8 Simple But Effective Tips for Brand Building for Middle Aged Professionals (Software, Books, Sites to Make It Easy!)

Like me you probably look on in incredulity at the twenty-somethings with a million followers on Instagram who get paid by brands to endorse vacation spots.

Lucky them of course and the bloggers and vloggers will tell you it IS a proper job. But what about the rest of us…who cannot professionally vlog from our bedrooms about how to improve our receding hairline — but with an ounce of professional credibility would like to develop and grow a brand based on our professional activities?

Especially because promotions, jobs, sales, plan-B all depends on it nowadays in the day of upstart startups and no more jobs for life.

1. Blogs Are Dead

But beyond that — it is the fulfillment you get from hosting charity fund-raisers — doing things more than shuffling papers at your desk. Trust me, this is better than the modern-day cult of the self. It’s the feeling of helping others that is going to make the brand building useful. (You don’t believe me yet, I know, you think brand is ego and money…after those wear off…it’s purpose and fulfilment that is why brand is truly important).

Speaking as someone who is a brand ambassador for a financial services company, what develops a brand professionally?

2. Video Content

A blog is the bare minimum, but they get next to no traffic. Instead learn the art of re-purposing your content. Write it once, re-use it in different places, like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and update it. Use a service like meetedgar.com . Work once, automate. You will want about 250 great pieces of content for that to have something different daily. It will take you a few months to do that. But at least the work is not dead.

The person who I think is the best at all this is Neil Patel (not a relative). He gives so much free (just as well because he charges $10k per month)! www.neilpatel.com .

3. Strategic Advertising

There is ample data to show that video content works, people will look at it. Not just you in a professionally lit HD webcam setting in the office, or home, but maybe even clips professionally edited eventually with title screens to make it more professional. My team use Camtasia for this — but I used to do it myself ‘back in the day’.

Sure, you know about #tags — and to ensure you tag people you would like to take notice, but did you know you can target via advertising/sponsored content on say LinkedIn CEOs in your industry. You really are then targeting.

4. Have a conversation — show your expertise

Tweets, vanish, LinkedIn articles do not. Use Canvaa for a more professional image to your posts — again visuals improve traffic.

Learn how to make emotionally impactful headlines without it being clickbait. I like www.copyhackers.com for ideas and a few reminders. They even have a headline scorecard.

Two great ways to do this — one is Quora where you can answer questions and if you pick topics where you are a leader in the field and there is a lot of interest (you can see on the site what people are interested in) then you can repurpose your content and again get far better reach leading to achieving your overall goals.

Another is with Twitter — replying to those firms with whom you want to make an impact but whose Twitter managers, usually someone also speaking to their strategic partnerships department, don’t get too many people replying. Don’t waste your time writing to the US President — too much noise. I mean firms whose posts get under 10 replies — some FTSE 100 companies even fall into that category.

5. Get Serious

Don’t forget to repurpose and re-use so it is never wasted! Productivity and efficiency is vital. Then you just need to amend current content slightly to maintain content for the future.

If you do not have time to do research, use upwork.com — BUT never put out a general request else you will be flooded. Instead, do a private listing and invite only the best that you find from their search facility.

In an age of superficiality, serious value, hard content, is a book. Proper publishers, like the Financial Times. Late nights, passion. No short-cuts, no ghost writers. The more unique value you add, the easier it is to succeed. For me it was the books which led to the TV show.

Of course I recognise luck — the Global Head of TV at Bloomberg happened to be watching CNN and saw my interview and offered me my own show. But if you don’t get that, you at least have a greater opportunity at airtime.

6. Diversify

Why is that important? Trust me, personal brands, like corporate ones, have higher profit margins! But only if you add value to the client. It helps to work out how and why you do — expertise, credibility.

Markets (Forex, Stocks, Bitcoin — UK and global markets); UK-India trade and investments. Global paper review. Global Economy. Entrepreneurship, Start-ups. Author of 18 books on trading, Government advisor on entrepreneurship. Former Visiting Fellow at Oxford University in Business, former columnist Financial Times

7. Speak with Passion and Authority (else sit down)

Do not be known for only one thing. I received an email from the BBC asking me the areas I specialise in so they could update their database. You never know what will be the next big thing. For me, I told them the areas I have specialised in:

Find the conferences, they are always looking for speakers. Explain why you are a specialist in your field. I speak at Alt Assets great conferences for LP GP — great in the hedge fund industry, but that came from them hearing me elsewhere. Before you know it, you are hosting the Chancellor and PM!

IF there is a short-cut to being recognised as a specialist — this is it.

But be good, learn from YouTube how to be an amazing speaker. Be yourself, your style. Do not pretend to be someone else. Add value through information in an interesting way. If you are not interested or afraid — no one else will be interested.

My favourite books on this: “Stand Like Lincoln, Speak Like Churchill.”

8. Be like a Barrister

But you have to be valuable, original, entertaining, informative — that means waking up at 0330 sometimes to be on air at 5am and planning and thinking. The public are demanding, they want quality. You have to set the highest quality standards.

I was interviewed recently for a Non Executive Director post recently at a very prestigious internationally recognised organisation. I was asked if my approach is like that of a barrister each time, to collect the evidence and then make a decision based on a brief. And I explained that whilst personal anecdotal experience is useful, having a professional approach to research, collate, think, plan is vital for not just being a barrister but also an NED.

So too in this brand business. Do not just dive in and think a few tweets is working. You need to be getting the most for your time. Especially because this is not your full-time role.

And like a Barrister, keep a portfolio ready of your greatest hits. Success is preparation meeting opportunity. Here is mine for when, as today, two different companies want to know my rates for speaking to investors.

Some of the benefits I’ve had from branding below:

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CEO Investment Fintech | Int’l Best Selling Author — TV Presenter| 24option Partner | Fintech 4 Financial Literacy|www.alpeshpatel.com

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on January 25, 2018.