Deciding if public branding is right for your product and goals

No matter what you think of the LinkedIn statuses today, we cannot escape the fact that the influencer marker has infiltrated all industries and professions, including technology. It feels like introverts may be even more at a disadvantage. A brand is about you as an individual, what are you known for, what do you stand for. Personal branding is important for product managers because it helps them establish themselves as a thought leader in their industry and can help them connect with customers. There are several reasons why creating a brand could boost your product, here are some reasons why public branding could be beneficial to you, and your product. So, why should you brand?

Build trust and credibility

A big benefit of a strong personal brand is that it can help you as a product manager build trust and credibility with your teams, stakeholders, and customers, which can lead to more successful products and business outcomes. Branding allows you to solidify yourself as a subject matter expert in your industry. When you build a strong personal brand, you can increase your visibility and credibility which leads to more opportunities for career development, inside and outside your company. As much as you want your product to stand on its own, customers want to associate a person with their products. Customers and stakeholders are more likely to engage with a product managed by someone they perceive as an expert in the field. One way to increase that perception is through your public brand.

Customer engagement

Personal branding helps your customers connect to you. If customers have the opportunity to create a sense of connection with you, it makes it more likely that they will provide more thorough feedback, engage in deeper discussions and feel a stronger sense of loyalty to you and your product.  In previous posts we have mentioned how measuring customer sentiment is an essential metric to understand. When you build your personal brand and connect more with customers, you will have a better idea of what their sentiment and level of engagement with your product is on a more consistent basis. You can take customer engagement a step further by being intentional about building a community around your product. Building a community around your product helps customers of your products to engage with each other, share best practices and experiences, and can lead to increased engagement and product improvements.

Networking

The term networking is often thought about when thinking of looking for your next role. That’s not necessarily the networking aspect here, although that can be a bonus. In the world of product management, connecting with other industry peers, collaborators and maybe even mentors can help you to grow your professional network and increase your career development. Networking with others allows you to share knowledge, collaborate on opportunities, and helps you gain diverse perspectives to help you take more innovative approaches. There is also the potential for career opportunities, but so often we work in silos that the emotional support of peers and community is a strong enough reason to make the extra effort to network.

Branding may seem like a lot of work, and it is. There are some product managers with blogs, social media accounts, and even podcasts. The thought of managing all those media outlets can be overwhelming, but you can start off slow and decide how much engagement you want. There are ways to make external branding look easier

1. Repost from others in your industry

A simple thing you can do is repost information from others in your industry. Reposting is sharing someone else’s content to your own social media platform. It can be helpful because you are essentially sharing valuable and related content. Now this may not increase your trust and credibility by a lot, but it does help you network and engage with other industry peers.

2. Schedule your social posts

Most social platforms allow you to schedule posts by days or even weeks. By scheduling your posts, you can set aside specific time in your day and schedule your engagement. This makes it easier to manage your calendar and reduces the pressure for you to come up with new things. The caveat to this approach is to have the customer connection, you need to engage. Whether that be through comments, replies, or direct messages, it’s best practice to not just post content and never look back. Instead, set some time aside to answer any questions.

3. Create blog posts on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has a creator mode option where you can create your own blog posts. You don’t have to spin up your own website or make any commitments on frequency of posts. It is also a great way to market your product through a more personalized lens and give more detailed insight into its inner workings to your customers.

4. Attend conferences for your industry

Now that the world is opening up again for us to meet each other, there are a variety of conferences available for every industry. Find a conference that you are able to attend to meet and connect with others and expand your professional network. Taking it a step further, many conferences make a request in what’s known as a “call for content” where they publicize the event and ask if anyone wants to sign up to be a speaker. You will have to submit your topic, and it has to get approved by the event team, but this is a great way to engage with customers, peers and increase your public profile.

While there are some product managers that have seen success in their careers once they have started branding, creating a public brand for yourself is not mandatory. Your career won’t stall out because you haven’t updated your online profiles since 2012, but you may miss some opportunities. To know whether you need to brand is entirely up to you. It must be something you want to do, like to do, and is relevant to your product or industry. Sure, you have a marketing team to market your product, but putting yourself out there is a different level of engagement for your customers. It increases the authenticity of your product, but understanding it also requires you to be vulnerable by putting yourself and your expertise out into the world. Be mindful of your company policies around public profiles and understand how much you can say about your product externally.

If you decide that a public brand isn’t needed for your space or something you’re not interested in, your internal brand for visibility and credibility is something that is non-negotiable for your career. Your internal brand matters, whether you think you have one or not you are known for something and that something is what will determine your influence and career growth at your company. Check out this blog post on how to build visibility in your organization.

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