Good morning. And welcome to the Monday morning marketing Podcast. I'm Esther,
and I'm Melanie.
And today we're joined by Christine Gritmon, social media, personal branding strategist. Welcome, Christine.
Thanks for having me.
It's great to have you here with us. So personal branding. What is that?
I like to say that your personal brand is the version of you that lives in people's heads, and you want there to be a version of you that lives in people's heads so that you're known and you take up some of that real estate. And so that when they are ready to buy or when they need you, they think of you.
So personal branding is it essential to have for business owners? Because ultimately, this podcast is about marketing. So do you need to have a personal branding to market yourself?
The short answer is no, but I think that it is an incredible advantage, and that not having it is putting yourself at a completely unnecessary disadvantage. And what I mean by that is, generally speaking, business is all about relationships. It's about trust. Nothing that we do is unique. There's definitely other people who do what we do, no matter how special we think we are. And so that means that the real point of difference isn't necessarily what we do, and it may not even be how we do it. The only true point of difference that we have that no one can take away and that no one can equal is the people involved ourselves. And there are a lot of business owners who really don't want to put themselves out there, who really do want the business to speak for itself, and they wanna stay behind the scenes. But they could be such an asset at building relationships, at developing that trust, at developing thought leadership, because what thought leadership ultimately is I trust, right? It's saying this is someone who I trust knows what they're talking about. So while I don't think of business is doomed to fail, if the people involved and the powers that be aren't putting their personal brands out there. I do think that it is just such a huge advantage to be able to build those relationships and build that trust with a person in mind.
Gotcha.
So if a person, for example, I have an agency and people know me through the agency, but they also know me on my own. Can you have that? Can you have, like, one person? Obviously, I'm also with the podcast and I have other side hustles or whatever. How does that work, then with your personal branding or does that dilute the branding of, say, the agency?
I think the real key here is to make sure that the personal brand points to the agency. But the agency does not have to necessarily point as much towards the personal brand. I feel like the agency is the product. The agency is what earns you money. The agency is the entity that people are ultimately hiring, but the person can build relationships. The person can be an advocate of that agency and the mere fact that they are a person who runs an agency can in turn bolster their thought leadership credentials. It can kind of make them a little bit more legitimised because it's saying, oh, this person knows what they're talking about, not just because I've seen them pop up all over the place, not just because they know they're active and not just because I've heard them say smart things, but also they have that had a legitimacy of they actually do this. They run an agency. That's great. So they can certainly support each other. But I would say it should be a little bit uneven. I feel like the personal brand should it should support the agency more heavily, then the agency, which has the possibility of becoming much greater than a person, should serve the personal brand, does that makes sense?
It did probably have to listen to that again.
I'll draw you a little picture.
Well, you've actually made me rethink how I network, actually, because when I go to networking events, sometimes people say, explain us to us who you are and what you do. And depending on the type of networking I'm doing, sometimes I'll say I do just one thing, which is Stomp, which would be my main hustle if you like. And then I've got these other hustles as well. And if you look at my LinkedIn profile, which is where an awful lot of people actually start with their personal branding to really start thinking about it. Anyway, sometimes I end up saying all the things I do because as a journalist and an Agorapulse ambassador and this and that, apart from saying I'm really busy, am I actually doing myself any favours?
So this is a problem a lot of people face, and I certainly face it as well. Which is that the more stuff you throw at people, the less they're going to know what to pay attention to, the less they're going to know what action to take, the less they're going to be able to sort of follow a pathway in and or latch on to something that they really associate with you. So it's tricky, though, because at the same time, it kind of feels like, oh, if I don't put that thing out there, then that's cutting me off from the people who might connect to that thing. So it is tricky. I think that really the key there is to figure out is to really know your brand values, know you're kind of brand pillars, know what your brand stands for and find a way to connect so seemingly disparate things, because if you are doing X, Y and Z, all these other things, there's got to be some common thread that connects them of your interest or of your skills. Hopefully, ideally. So I would say emphasise the commonality of them so that it doesn't seem like you're scattered and all over the place, so that it seems like, oh, this is all emanating from kind of one consistent source. And I know what this brand stands for, and everything they're doing is supporting that thing.
Got you.
Yeah. I mean, such great advice already, Christine. Thank you. And we're only just getting started. So we hope everyone has their pen and paper at the ready. Otherwise you just listen back.
Well, let's throw a couple of case studies at Christine here.
Let's do it.
Okay. So let's say you're a start up and you're going into the retail sector. Okay. And maybe you've run other businesses before. Maybe it's completely different to what you're doing today. A let's say you're a hairdresser. You run your own business quite successfully for a number of years and you decide to do something completely different in clothing. Let's say so this person is already got an established, I suppose, brand, you know people already
They know her as the hairdresser.
Exactly. So how do they shift and not giving up the hairdressing? Because, you know, it's a brand new business and we're not just going to stop. They need to make some money out of it first. So how do they shift and adjust because not just shifting as it's adjusting the focus. What would you recommend to that startup person?
So tell me some more about the new business.
It's gym wear, ladies gym wear, and it's the brand itself is suitable for all ages and sizes. It's kind of there's no specific niche if you like, but it ranges from so very, very large.
Okay. So this person is still all about helping women look and feel their best. So that's the connection right there. Now in terms of their presence and their, you know, known as a hairdresser, do people know them or do they know their work?
Both.
Both. Okay. Both is good because both means that the hairdresser can appear in their own stuff for the gym wear with hair looking fabulous. Of course, if there are, if there are existing loyal customers or people who have appeared in their social media presence or anything like that regarding their hair business. Maybe those same people can appear in some of the gym wear stuff and become advocates. That would actually be fantastic if this person you said they are still doing hairdressing because they've still while they do. Okay. In that case, I would say you don't want to push that on people. You know, if you sit down with the hairdresser, you don't want your hairdresser suddenly starting to do a, you know, long sales pitch on their gym wear. You don't want to feel sold to while you're obtaining a service that you're paying for. But at the same time, hairdressers have their loyal clients who have become friends. And so I would certainly leverage that those personal relationships were comfortable and where appropriate to help kind of become ambassadors for the new brand. You know, I would say take the people who have made you successful as a hairdresser and bring them with you as part of this new adventure on yet another way to help women look and feel fabulous. And needless to say, every time you show a woman in the gym wear, make sure her hair looks fantastic. But I think in general, the overall brands can be kind of spun together towards self-care and towards you know, what you, you know, helping people, helping women put their best foot forward, feel confident in themselves and feel like they're taking care of themselves. I think that there's a lot of common ground between those two brands to the point where maybe this is the time to expand, to consider yourself a lifestyle brands. I mean, it could go all sorts of directions, depending on how much work the person wants to do. But it's very least I would certainly leverage the fact that they already have the right audience. Their audience is a hairdresser is probably largely female. Their audience for these women's gym clothes is largely female. So leverage that
wow.
I never I'd never have picked to completely seemingly separate things that can have such a common ground.
Oh, absolutely.
That's great. Melanie, have another?
I do. I have a second case study, and that is the likes of us ladies, sole traders as the hairdresser. Most of the time they have a team of people. And that helps understand your brand because everybody has to speak from the same song sheet. But when it's just yourself and your social media type person.
I'm familiar with this type of person.
Really? So am I
I've had a couple.
Sometimes your personal branding can get mixed up with your business branding, even though let's just pretend I'm going to just stick with one brand the Monday morning marketing podcast or Stomp or the journalist. Let's just pick one. But how can you was the best way to protect your personal brand and keep it separate from your business battles, or should you, in fact, separate them?
Large caveat. This is a do as I say, not as I do, because I am a total, you know, unplanned mish mash. And people actually do love it. In my case, people love it when I bring the personal and no one ever says, I wish you'd talk more about marketing, but at least not to my face. They probably just unfollow. And that's fine. But so this is do as I say, not as I do. Don't go looking. I mean, do go looking at my profiles, please, Christine Gripman. But, you know, don't judge it through this lens. But I will say, first of all, you need to decide how much of your personal life you're even comfortable sharing, because one thing that freaks people out and intimidate them about social media is they're like. But I'm not really that public type of person? And if I do social media for my business, does that mean I have to show the world what I'm eating for breakfast? And no, it does not. Being human on social media, it's extraordinarily important. Nobody wants to follow someone who is all business all the time, and especially they don't want to follow somebody who's selling all the time. However, different people will follow you for different reasons. And it is perfectly okay if you decide to put boundaries that make you comfortable around what you keep to yourself and what you keep private the way around that is you can be human without sharing personal things. And the way you can do that is by humanising your stories. If you are telling a business story, try to phrase it in the form of, you know, I was talking to a person or I was talking to a client to the degree that you can without compromising their Privacy. Or, you know, just engaging with people, engaging with other people's, content with other people's posts is a great way to be very human on social media and to be personal in making those connections without sharing whatever feels private to you. Now then that's people who are less comfortable sharing too much personal stuff. Now let's go the other direction. There are people who are over sharers where it's all personal stuff. And it feels like I followed you because you're in my profession or because you're a thought leader in your profession. And all I'm seeing is your dog. You know, that can go the other way. I would say in that situation, there's a couple things to be done. One of them is see if you maybe want to separate out those accounts. A lot of people don't want to manage two sets of accounts, and that's fine. But that might be a good solution for some people where they just, they love having some place to share their personal stuff, but it really is getting their business stuff off track. One good guidelines is a very quick scroll. Or if you're on Instagram, looking at like your Top six post, we talk about top nine, but really with the story highlights there, it's more like top six. At a quick glance, would someone get any impression of what you do and you should always be aware of what that mix looks like of your most recent handful of post. Again, do as I say, not as I do, you know, and some of those can be personal. I mean, some of those even can be your dog. I know people who have decided that their pet is kind of one of their recurring elements, and people associate that animal with their personal brand, and that is totally fine. But just always be aware of what that most recent mix looks like, because any post that you make any moment in time of your profile, any of that could be someone's only impression of your brand if they're not hooked in? And do you want to make sure that it doesn't mean that every single post needs to be super branded and unbranded about business? I mean, you can have that occasional dog post, but just kind of look at the most recent handful at any given time. And if the most recent handful of post, if it requires too much scrolling to get to the point, then maybe reconsider your mix of content. And again, if you are all business, that's totally fine, too. There's ways to be human and to give people something to latch on to with that just by showing your personality, showing your personality and exposing your personal life are not the same thing.
Agreed yeah.
Well, that's where there's a little bit of a struggle with the agency that I run because it's more serious, and I'm not serious.
Well, that's a separate, I think that's a separate account.
yeah. No.
Yeah.
I don't even post to my personal stuff, it's too much effort.
But is having human interactions. So even if you're a very serious agency, again, human doesn't have to mean silly. You know, human doesn't have to mean unprofessional. Just make sure that people feel like they're not just getting a load of prefabricated marketing messages, make them feel like there's a person behind the profile.
Yeah.
And that person might be serious.
Yeah. And I know a lot of people who do sort of feel, well, every time that they put up their pet, they do get a lot more interaction and a lot more traction. So that's why people sort of use their animals as their sort of team mascot or their business.
I just had a great reaction to my overweight self in a bikini. It's a high waisted, retro style bikini and retro style as part of my thing. And confidence is a big part of my business and brand, also giving confidence to other people and having confidence myself. So I feel like it's on brand, but at the same time, that's not social media advice, is it? You know, it's giving people a sense of look. I'm walking the talk my feeling anyway.
And definitely be human on social media. Is it's called social media for a reason?
Yes. And being human doesn't have to. It's not the same necessarily as vulnerability. It's not the same necessarily as, you know, being an oversharer or ignoring your own sense of Privacy. It just means we're late as a human being. You wouldn't go telling your life story to someone at a networking meeting either, but you would talk to them right now.
You've made a very valid point there. Actually, I know some people speak to me about what shall I put up on LinkedIn? And I mentioned to them comment as you would as a networking meeting, people think, oh, I'm on LinkedIn because they put Congrats on your new job or Happy Birthday.
like that does anything, and it's great.
It sees you posting, which is something you wouldn't have done without that prompt. But that's not connecting with people that's not building a rapport or relationship. And that's what branding is all about, isn't it? To those businesses that listen to us all over the globe. Do you have maybe three top tips for them to take away?
Yes. So one big tip I would say that I think too many people overlook is don't... Engaged. Sorry. Engagement doesn't just mean reply to the people who are engaging with your stuff. Engagement doesn't just mean start a conversation with your post. Yes, you should do that. But the biggest part of engagement, the place where the riches and engagement strategy really lie are going outside of your posts, outside of your content, outside of your profile, to other people. And you know, a like means nothing. A like is seen by the person who's profile. It is a follow means nothing. It's seen by the person who's profile is if you can comment, if you can try to make a habit of going out there finding something that you have just like a couple words of actual thought on and don't comment. You've done several things you have exposed yourself to everyone who sees that post because they will see your comment and they might click over and cheque out who you are. That is gold. But you've also led with value. You've shown up to that other person's profile bearing the gift of engagement. You shown up to the party with a bottle of nice wine. I mean, that's really how you build relationships, not by just clicking like and doing a follow for follow game and then unfollowing them a few days later when they haven't followed you back. No, no, no. Put comments there. Get in conversations there, find other people in that person's audience. I mean, that's really where it is. If you just spend all your time, you know, with your Blinders on just looking at your own stuff in your own community that you already have. You're not going to grow. So that's the biggest tip that I have and the other two will be much shorter
Yeah, It's fine, we have time
The other two are. This is been a big kick I've been on lately. I'm actually preparing a few talk specifically on this premise, which is that people feel like it's sort of selfish or self absorbed or show offie to kind of rock their personal brand online and put themselves out there in a bigger way. But it is the opposite. It is selfish to hide yourself from the people who need you if you are so hung up in your own issues, whether it's feeling like you're not good enough or whether feeling like you're totally good enough, but it'll look braggy if you, you know, put yourself out there, whatever it is, if you let your own hangups get in the way, allowing the people who need you to find you. That is selfish. So think about who needs you. Think about what they need. Think about putting yourselves in their path because they need you. So that's the second tip. And then the third tip, I'd say, is it is better to get really, really good on a social media platform that you like and are comfortable with and are getting reactions on. Then it is to have asset on all the platforms. I would say figure out where you're comfortable, figure out what's moving the needle for you, figure out what you will actually maintain without it feeling like torture and you feel free to do that. I give you. I hereby give you permission to have ask your Facebook if you hate Facebook, as long as you're doing something else, like see somewhere, do something. But if you hate Facebook, you know what? Figure out Twitter. If you despise LinkedIn, figure out Instagram, do something and do it well, figure out what you will actually get yourself to do rather than letting yourself get bogged down and intimidated and overwhelmed by feeling like you have to be everywhere and hitting it the whole time.
Brilliant. We couldn't have said those any better ourselves, especially the last. Well, Christine, it's been an absolute joy talking to you today. Where can our listeners find you? Follow you and learn more about you?
So I'm the only Christine Griptman out there, which is great. I had to share my maiden name, but I've had Christine Gritmon all to myself for the past 13 years. And that's gripman grit like in something gritty and Mon Monday. And I'm a little mixed up on the handles, though, because I'm C Gritmon on Twitter and Instagram. I'm Christine Gritmon ink on Sorry, Facebook and YouTube. I'm Christine Gritmon, of course, on LinkedIn and I'm gritmon.Com. Also, one very good place to find me is every week I have two things that I do. I do a Twitter chat called Chat about Brands on Tuesdays at twelve noon Eastern. And then on Fridays, I have a live interview show that pairs with it called let's Talk About Brand. And that's Fridays at twelve noon Eastern time, and this is airing in august actually on hiatus from the show in August, but I will be back that first full week of September. So make sure that on Tuesday, September 7, you tune in on Twitter for chat about Brand's. And on Friday, September 10, you tune in and all sorts of places for let's Talk About Brand, which is a live interview show with an expert.
Brilliant. Well, yes. Thank you so much, Christine. Invaluable information of great source of up to date current information. And there's fabulously. We're doing this Twitter chats as well, because that will keep people, you know, constantly rethinking their branding all the time.
I learned there so much from the chat. I love it's a hugely global community. We get people from many continents. It's just such an amazing community. And people come back a week after week. And I learned so much from my chat about Brands community. Originally, I planned for the chat to support the Live Stream show and to really draw audience over there. But the chat has actually become a bigger thing, and I think part of that is because it's bringing out such cool thoughts from such amazing people who share them week after week.
Brilliant, brilliant.
We'll be sure to drop in some week on Chat about Brand as well. And thank you, Christine, for taking time out today to talk to us. We'll be back next week with more Monday morning marketing Bye Bye
bye.