Written by: Claire Mason, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
If you’re connected to me on LinkedIn, you’ll see that I post regularly about personal branding, thought leadership, and content strategy. My goal is to give people something to think about as they embark on a strategy to make themselves and their business more visible.
One of my most recent posts was all about the need to blow your own trumpet to increase that visibility.
Well, to say that the LinkedIn community was shooketh is putting it mildly.
The fear of sticking our hands up
While my LinkedIn post garnered a fair degree of engagement publicly, I was surprised at how many people got in touch with me privately to share their feelings about “bragging”.
It was interesting, and a little disheartening, to see how the individuals in question had conflated sharing their real talents and skillsets with the world with something unpleasant.
Without exception, each person who got in touch is a top performer. They bring about enormous transformation for their clients. Furthermore, they get tangible results that they can prove.
Yet the thought of proclaiming their impact more loudly had them terrified.
This is a sad state of affairs. Plus it does a disservice to their potential clients.
Personal brands solve problems
Now, I didn’t use the words “blowing your own trumpet” to be deliberately provocative.
I used the term as a shorthand to say that we need to be talking about the impact we have and the results we can get for our clients. And I qualified the statement by speaking specifically about case studies.
No one likes a show-off. That’s universal.
What we do like, however, is someone to solve our problems.
But without knowing who that is, we’re left in the dark to solve our problems on our own.
I’ve recently experienced this dilemma.
I’m working on a project of my own. It requires a specific kind of lead funnel that needs three pieces of software integration.
Off I went searching the highways and byways of the internet looking for an expert to help me. I also asked my networks for recommendations. I was convinced that I’d find someone quickly as I see high-performing lead funnels around me all the time.
But searching for this expert turned out to be an experience akin to root canal. No one seemed to offer what I was looking for.
Eventually, I found a small agency who said they could help. After two calls, I wasn’t 100% convinced they were the right fit for what I was looking for but I didn’t know who else could help me.
Hiring people on this basis is never a recipe for success.
I paid their invoice. Sadly, it turned out that I bought myself two months of frustration, deadlines being missed, work not being done and me ending up no closer to a finished product than when I began.
Needless to say, my search continued. Now with an added dose of me feeling defensive as I’d been somewhat taken for a fool.
Then, a comment on a LinkedIn post I was reading caught my attention. It was from an individual who shared his approach to a lead funnel issue. The issue wasn’t strictly the same as the one I was facing but it was similar, and I was interested in connecting with the person who had written it.
One conversation later and I had found the mythical creature who could help me.
Having worked together for a while now, I’m delighted to say he is delivering exactly what I need and is a joy to work with no matter what I ask.
But he was incredibly difficult to find. And that cost me time and money.
So, I’ve read him the riot act on why he needs to be building a personal brand and regularly blowing his own trumpet. People like me need him and his unique skill set to progress on our own paths.
A reframe on what being visible really means
Instead of thinking, we’re bragging each time we highlight ourselves, what if we think about the user experience we’re creating for people who need us?
Think about any challenges you’re experiencing right now, and what it would mean to come across someone who could help you via their:
Case studies
Social updates of a scenario they’ve dealt with for a client
Results they’ve delivered for a client
Details of their process (I regularly share how I implement PR strategies)
An award they’ve won
A piece of content where they share their point of view on an industry issue
Media coverage they’ve earned
These are just some examples of what blowing your own trumpet can be.
LinkedIn recently shared a statistic that left many of us with our mouths agape.
The social media giant has 740 million people on its platform from 200 countries and regions across the globe.
Yet, of these 740 million people less than 3% of the individuals on the platform are posting weekly.
Now, LinkedIn is not the only game in town.
We are spoiled for choice when it comes to social channels to reach our particular client segment.
However, it does provide an interesting insight into the true numbers of people willing to stick their hands up and say “I’m here and I can help you’’.
Are you getting yourself more visible in order to help people? Or are you and your trumpet acting like you work for the secret service and letting people struggle on?
Just remember, your client’s user experience doesn’t begin once they land on your website.
It starts way before that... when they find you with ease in the first place.
Claire Mason, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Claire Mason is a Content Strategist who works with solo entrepreneurs and founders. She helps them earn the publicity they deserve to grow their sphere of influence and sales pipelines.
Claire has earned bylines from numerous publishers, including The Guardian, marieclaire, and The Sunday Times. And she has placed her clients’ stories in publications like Forbes, CNBC, and WSJ among others. Her clients regularly see increases of 40% or more to their pipelines after implementing her content strategies.
Her work has been showcased as an example of best practices by HubSpot. Claire is also a regular contributor to Business2Community, Brainz Magazine, Tealfeed, and Digital Doughnut, and she writes regularly on how content marketing can move the needle for B2B brands.
