Episode Summary
The benefits of personal branding are endless. The best way to understand how your personal brand can help you stand out in the market is to hear a real-life success story.
And that’s where Christina Garnett, the Senior Marketing Manager, Offline Community & Advocacy at Hubspot, comes in. Not only does Christina know her way around social media and marketing, but she is also a real-life example of how having a strong personal brand can create new opportunities. With more than 16,000 followers on Twitter and over 7,000 on LinkedIn, Christina selflessly shares her industry knowledge and experience with her audience. It’s safe to say she’s the go-to marketer for audience intelligence, inbound marketing, and community building.
In this episode of the Rep Your Brand podcast, Christina and Nick discuss the power of social media in the brand-building process, how to use it to create a community and why no one is truly an expert in this ever-changing industry.
Guest Profile
- Name: Christina Garnett
- What she does: She's a marketing strategist and a community builder, working with Fortune 500 brands to strengthen their digital strategy.
- Company: Marketing Media Maven LLC
- Key Quote: "The doors open when you give more than you take."
Key Insights
- A strong personal brand can open doors for you. Unlike your reputation, a personal brand is something you have control over. It's how you want others to perceive you. Whether your end goal is to land a better job or become a thought leader, creating a strong and powerful personal brand can differentiate you from others in the market. For Christina, it has opened almost every single door that she's had as a marketer.
- Twitter allows people to express themselves and connect. What makes Twitter still rule the social media world is the shareability aspect. Tweeting, re-tweeting, and quote tweeting are empowering. Posts get easily shared on other social networks, like Instagram and TikTok. Other than that, Twitter is all about conversations. "I love the idea that you can reach out to people, that you can have conversations, that it really spurs conversations more than anything."
- Focus on adding value rather than becoming an expert. Christina talks about the importance of giving value and sharing your knowledge with the world. In the ever-changing marketing industry, it's nearly impossible to become an expert. On the other hand, what is possible is to add value to everything you do and give more than you take. "Adding value means that someone is able to glean something from you that they may not have thought of before. It might be something new. I truly believe we can all learn from each other, and not a single person has everything."
“I don’t like the word ‘guru.’ I don’t like the word ‘expert.’ How can you be an expert on something that’s changing every second?”
Christina Garnett
Founder | Marketing Strategist and Consultant
Marketing Media Maven LLC
Episode Highlights
The importance of community building for brand reputation
“In the past, we had community building. We just called it word of mouth. How do we leverage that and essentially almost weaponize it, but in a good way? How do you leverage word of mouth but do it in a collective space? Someone says something negative about your brand, and those are the people that stand up and say something back to them before your own channels can even say anything.”
Marketing is also about connecting with your customers
“You need that connection. It makes you feel human. Your marketing thought process could be brilliant. You could be this century’s Ogilvy, but you would sound like a marketing bot if that’s the only thing you have to talk about. Tell me more! I want to connect to people, especially in 2020, when there was such a need for vulnerability, too, to be able to openly say, ‘I am struggling, I can’t sleep, I’m stressed, I’m crying at my computer, I don’t know how to cope. Is anyone else like this?’ Just that crying out into the void and acknowledging that things suck sometimes is a very human thing and creates connection.”
Where to start when building an online presence?
“It depends on your goals. Do you want mentorship? Do you want to learn? Do you want to build a network? Do you want to set up your personal brand? Figure out what your goals are and then prioritize them because depending on where you want to be, that’s going to differ.”
Why no one is truly an expert in the social media marketing space
“I don’t like the word guru. I don’t like the word expert because, especially in the marketing and social media space, how can you be an expert on something that’s changing every second?”
“One person will see one type of post that they absolutely love, and they’ll try to make it their own and do it in their own way. Things are constantly in flux because we’re constantly seeing things that trigger us, make us think of something else that we would want to create. So how can you be an expert in something that is that fluid and forever changing?”
No matter how good you are, not everyone will like you, and that’s okay
“Be very clear about who you want to be and realize that not everyone’s going to like you. I think a lot of people go into social media, they have a personal brand, and they create great content. And then someone comes in there and starts hating on them, and they immediately take it seriously. And that troll becomes the voice of their imposter syndrome. And they’re like, ‘See? I was right. You’re not as good as you think you are.’ You are never going to be everyone’s cup of tea. And that is absolutely okay. Just be yourself.”
