In my prior life as a director of car sales for HertzNorth America, I fondly remember our top sales person. BillWilliams made more money than any other sales person and he did itwith the least amount of inventory because he was located inHawaii. He single-handedly sold out the entire inventory everyyear, enabling us to avoid shipping cars back to the mainland fordisposition.

I invited him to speak to all of the regional managers at anational meeting to share his secrets. But to my surprise, therewere no secrets. He simply said that he worked hard to get peopleto know, like and trust him.

If you approached a Hawaiian and asked what they knew aboutHertz Buy-A-Car, most would shake their heads and say “not much.”However, if you asked what they knew about Bill Williams, he or shecould talk about Bill for an hour. Although Bill used the Hertzbrand, the brand that he focused on was his own.

Related: Read another column by Jack Burke “BeyondWords.”

In Bill's day that meant a lot of time spent visiting people:buying them drinks or dessert in the evenings at restaurants andbars; delivering donuts to the local police stations; and becominginvolved in community service whenever possible. That's where heput efforts, and the cars just seemed to sell themselves.

What brand will you focus on?

Super producers know that they have three or more brands underwhich they operate. They have the insurance agency brand and keyinsurance carrier brands. However, the most important brand is you:the individual producer. That is the only truly unique and personalbrand you represent because carrier brands can change and agenciescan merge or be sold.

Related: Read the Jack Burke article “Watch YourLanguage.”

Over the years I've recommended that producers focus on theirown brands, but few have had exceptional results. In recent years,building a personal
brand has become easier with the Internet and social media—mucheasier than Bill ever had it in Hawaii. I am amazed that mostproducers are still slow to put up websites, which can begin anamazing process of building identity and brand.

The Digital You

Make a belated New Year's resolution to develop your personalbrand. Even if your time is limited, you can't afford not to do itif you want long-term success. If you truly don't have the time,the aptitude or the knowledge, hire a local college student to helpyou along the path. Once you get started on the journey you caneither continue to hire it out or eventually learn how to do ityourself.

Initially focus on four areas:

1. Website
2. Facebook page
3. LinkedIn page
4. Personal blog.

Your website will be the central focus and deserves the mostattention in its launch. Your Facebook and LinkedIn pages just needsome tweaking. Your blog can be part and parcel of your website andall of them can be integrated to avoid duplication of effort. Forinstance, our company website, soundmarketing.com, continuallyupdates the “Latest News” area to show recent social mediapostings.

Website

Consider adding these items to your website and let people getto know you:

• Pictures of you and your family: Preferably use informalpictures, although a professional picture might be used on the homepage. People like to see you in your natural element.
• Professional and community activities: Consider a calendar ofevents for those organizations and links to their websites. Linksshould be set to open within your site as opposed to sendingviewers elsewhere.
• Hobbies and sports activities: Let people identify with whatyou do. I brought on a major client because he saw a car Irestored, which was similar to one of his own. We started talkingand our firm ending up doing some training videos for NASA.
• Insurance niches: Identify your main niches and provide valuedinformation and resources. On your own site, you can be much moredetailed than the information on your agency's site.
• Anecdotal case studies: Tell stories about the experiences ofyour clients, so prospects can identify with them and withyou.
• Additional contact information: Let people know that you areavailable when they need you.
• Agency resources: Link information from your agency site. Makesure this is up front on your home page.
• Social media: Have a spot where the latest comments on yoursocial media pages and blog posts can be shared.

Those are just a few ideas to help get you started. You mighteven get outside the box with a spousal page to allow them to helpconnect to others through their activities. If you sell personallines and have teenagers, let them have a page as well. They canhelp you bring in their peers and their families, as the teensstart driving and moving on to college. Beyond calendars, you mighteven want to have pages devoted to your charities and othercommunity organizations.

Social Media

This area is constantly evolving, but the two mainstays at thispoint are Facebook and LinkedIn, with some consideration forTwitter as well. Link the pages so that an entry in any oneautomatically links to the others. Visit your accounts on each ofthem. Make sure your profile is properly filled out withappropriate links to your website. Coordinate photos, so that thereis some continuity of appearance with your website.

Post appropriate information. Avoid controversy unless it isrelevant to your clientele. Skip the breakfast menu and talk aboutimportant issues:

1. Information that is valuable to your customer constituency
2. Information about your activities in your profession and yourcommunity
3. Personal information that would truly be of interest toothers.

Blogging

Although it seems scary at first, blogging is pretty simple andstraightforward. If you have a thought or an issue you want toshare, this is the place to do it. If you want feedback from yourclients and prospects, this is where they can give it to you. Ifyou see something of interest to your constituency, here is whereyou can provide them a link to the article or resource. However,please note that this is the last of the four items mentioned inthis article for a reason. I believe that the website and socialmedia are far more important. Save the blogging for last, after youhave mastered the others.

Related: Read the article “What Animals Teach” byJack Burke.

Integration

Although we have focused on digital resources for your personalbranding, it is only one facet. You still need the one-on-onevisits and interaction with the ambassadors that can help carryyour message. You still need membership and action within localcommunity organizations and charities, and you need to meet theperformance expectations of your clients to assure that they referyou to others and maintain their loyalty to you. No amount ofbranding can ever overcome failure to perform.