June 2 @ IMEX Frankfurt, 14:00-14:30
It’s time to start building your brand
A Q&A with Shameka Jennings, CMP, CAE, in advance of her IMEX Frankfurt session.
What do you hope attendees to your session, “It’s time to start building your brand,” take away from the experience?
Personal branding takes place whether we like it or not. I hope attendees feel empowered to own their narrative and their story as well as feel comfortable sharing their story with others and equipped with the tools to start building their personal brand.
What are some of the key challenges encountered by meeting/event professionals when it comes to building or expanding a personal brand?
Key challenges that I’ve noticed for meeting/event professionals when it comes to building or expanding a personal brand are not knowing where to start, thinking they do not have enough time to invest in creating/developing their personal brand or they don’t think their story is worth sharing. I agree that these are all understandable thoughts, but not at all insurmountable. During my presentation, I’ll share how #eventprofs can start building their brand in 15 minutes with digestible tips and a few ideas to get started while walking the show floor at IMEX in Frankfurt. I also reinforce that everyone’s stories (successes and failures) are valuable and while they were lessons for you, they could resonate with others as well.
How, if at all, has personal branding changed as a result of the pandemic?
I believe the pandemic has changed personal branding in many ways.
- The pandemic helped individuals shine a light on their passions and their most authentic self so, in a sense, the pandemic has provided a clearer picture to many of what the foundation of their personal branding is or could be.
- The pandemic made it clear how pivotal a digital/online presence is critical to your brand. Literally, everything pivoted to virtual from our meetings to our personal brands. It’s imperative meeting professionals to get comfortable with at least one social media to help build their brand or create a personal website to share their story/experience.
- Not so much a change to personal branding itself, but I do think the pandemic elevated the importance of having a personal brand. While many event professionals were focused simply on their jobs pre-pandemic, we now focus a little more on ourselves and we feel empowered to better position ourselves to thrive as our most authentic selves based on our unique skills, passions and experiences and not just our roles and titles.
What about the challenges with personal branding and social media, considering the landscape remains somewhat fluid, with platforms coming/going in and out of popularity?
My recommendation for planners when it comes to social media and personal branding is two-fold: First, focus on identifying your target audience. Who needs to know about you and what you have to offer? Find out where they spend their time online. Then, two, build there. Start and focus on one social media platform. It’s more important to me that as someone starts their personal brand, they start somewhere rather than worry about the changing social media landscape. I don’t want that idea to prevent anyone from starting to build their personal brand. As meeting professionals, we’re used to being adaptable. Being fluid is what we do best. The premise of a personal brand is all about your value proposition and how you will share your value with others. The delivery mechanism/social media channel used doesn’t matter and can change, but as long as the value is there, people will be there too.
