Friday, March 8, 2013

Personal Branding Is Repetition

Jeffrey-panorama

 

Should I say it again? Personal Branding is the effective use of repetition. A curious thing about our brains is that after hearing something over and over - we begin to believe it. So when we set out to get "mind share" one technique is to repeat the message over and over. Let me amend my last statement and say that it is a necessary technique. Hey and guess what happens when you repeat something boring over and over? Your brand (if you call it that at this point) is boring. What you say is as important as the repetition. If you tell everyone you are an expert at something over and over and over - in person, on the phone, on your business card, in your email signature - then after a while people will peg you as an expert.

The 2009 Edelman Trust Report suggests that 60% of people need to hear a message three times before they believe it.  So if you are positioning yourself as an expert by writing articles and making presentations - its imperitive that your listeners hear it repeatedly.

(As a caveat to this post - some might consider repetition as an aspect of marketing not branding.   This might be true.   I tend to think of branding as a process that results in a brand.   Im saying that repeated sightings of your brand reinforces it in the minds of your customers - and just saying you are an expert doesnt make it so.    However,  repetition doesnt always need facts to be effective - just look at some beer commercials during a football game.)

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