KVR Webtech in Conversation with Dorie Clark- Branding Expert & Keynote Speaker

Dorie: Hi, This is Dorie Clark, I teach for the Duke university Fuqua school of the business and author of the few books including “Reinventing you, Stand out” and regular contributor for the Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur, and other publications. Something that people may not know about me is I am a committed vegetarian. I started eating meat when I was 13 years old and so for more than two decades I have been a vegetarian. I am a huge animal person and that is my personal commitment in a small way of trying to help and support animals and oppose the cruelty of factory farming.

Dorie: Apart of the reason that I do what I do..in my work is that it is incredibly frustrating for me to see so many talented people with good ideas who wana be making a difference but they are not getting heard and their messages are not getting through and I think we see more and more of it because we now live in this very crowded media environment and thankfully the gatekeepers have come down. People can create their own content and publish and put it out there. But the problem is that we now have a glut of content and people don’t know where to they turn and they don’t know where to look in a world where things are not curated so finely. And so we as individuals if want to get our message out we have to be smart about how we are putting ourselves out there and where we are investing our time and energy. And so my goal is to help talented people really be able to be strategic in their efforts so that they can make the biggest impact possible.

Dorie: That’s a big question. I would say for answering it professionally, it would probably be the publication of my first book “Reinventing You” in 2013. Still even though we are increasingly in this democratic environment with content distribution as we are talking about I think there still is a real residual benefit and I perceived prestige or a level of authority that comes from publishing a book and so when “Reinventing You” came out it was released from Harvard Business Review Press. I think it really did do the trick of kicking my career to a new level. There is just a certain level of authority that gets invested in people who are authors, people look you differently they assume that you must be Knowledgeable if you can write a 200-250 page book and so it open up lot of new opportunities to me whether it was media opportunity, your page speaking opportunity. So that makes a really big difference.

Dorie: In addition to “Reinventing You” and Stand Out, I also have an e-book “Stand Out Networking”. You know I love all my books of course but probably the one out of them that I think is my personal favorite because I do see the progress for me from one book to another I feel like I am getting better at learning how to write books. I think I started out of the pretty decent level because I used to be a professional journalist but I think as with all thinks that get better and better so my most recent big book “Stand Out” which is about how to become a recognized expert in your field. I think I had the most deep solid hopefully useful information for people about how to apply things to their own life. So I am proud of all of them but I think that’s probably my favorite that I have done so far.

Dorie: The answer is Yes and that half done, with my next book my third full length book that is gonna be about how to monetize your ideas in a new economy and it would be released endly 27th from Harvard Business Review Press and I am quite excited about that.

Dorie: I think that really what we were dealing with its just growing perfusion of platforms. You know from the beginning that’s been a concern but now it seems from day to day there is just these new vows that come into play I think a latest one that people are hyped up about is live video of course Facebook is been making a huge play in that space and there are such things like blab and a periscope and so I think that’s the latest manifestation but overall it’s just the question that people have to answer from themselves on how to balance breadth and depth when it comes to channels in Digital Marketing.

Dorie: I would say Social media if for defining it, is really media that is created and shared by regular people. It’s distribution channels that are not controlled then monopolistic fashion by traditional power brokers and entities and you know there is real dramatic imposter that which is great and what I think works best actually I think you can establish yourself as an authority just by being a curator but I think that your brand or you as an individual will do a better job and faster job establishing yourself as an authority if you are the content creator if you are the person not just sending the 100 and 40 character tweet. But writing a blog post, creating the video, creating some kind of deep long form content that shows your expertise and makes a contribution to the dialog in your field.

Dorie: Well, I think along the once what we have been talking about I think a common mistake is going too wide and not deep enough. There is a real pressure people you know even your boss or whatever will be asking, well you know why you aren’t on a periscope why aren’t you doing this and I think there is this fear of being left behind and you have to keep up with everybody else and stay current on various platforms. And Yes there is a first mover advantage if a platform takes off that’s absolutely true. But the truth is we need to prioritize. For every new thing that you taking on unless you adding new staff, you really ought to be winding something else down and I think too few people do that I think social media is a place for a lot of people make half harder the efforts and you could do allot better if you make a consorted effort.

Dorie: Well similarly if you are creating a steady stream of deep long form forkfuls content on something people will notice and begin to come to you I think that’s really critical because far more people are going to be sharing content rather than creating and so if you put yourself into that verified category before to on if you keep up the pace your name is going to start become recognizable to people and you will see a disproportionate benefit.

Dorie: If that’s your goal the best thing that you can do if you are specially starting out in a world of in internet marketing or social media etc is think about how you can cultivate a strong personal brand for yourself because certainly if you decided to become an entrepreneur and work yourself that can be advantageous in drawing in potential customers for yourself but even if you are planning to work within a company if you have a strong brand that gives you leverage in negotiating with your employer. People are going you to want come work for them because they gets a work for you and that means you can dictate your terms more you can have a higher salary you can have a better working condition. Having a strong brand really is an insurance policy for yourself and so if you get known for your ideas that you can take that with you and it becomes a permanent asset that you bring to the table.
Thanks very much, if folks want be in touch and want to learn more about my work, especially how you can apply these concepts and how to stand out in the digital work place in the world of social media marketing. Please go to dorieclark.com/join and you can receive a free 42 page Stand out self-assessment work book that can literally walk you through the steps of developing a strong brand when it comes to the digital marketing space.
Thanks very much and take care.