Rohit Bhargava leads the interactive marketing team at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide in Washington DC and is a founding member of the 360 Digital Influence team at Ogilvy. His current list of clients includes Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Lenovo, and Unilever. He authors the popular marketing blog Influential Marketing and will be publishing his first marketing book called Personality Not Included in early 2008. Rohit is a celebrity in the personal branding world. He was named “Personal Brand Of The Year” in 2007 for his outstanding and highly influential online brand and featured in issue 2 of Personal Branding Magazine. We have a good relationship and have been helping out each other ever since. His book is coming out very soon and I would highly recommend it.
The following is a 5-question interview between both of us recently.
Me: Rohit, did companies always need a personality? Why is this even more relevant and significanat in a web 2.0 world?
Rohit: Actually, there was a point in time when being faceless used to work. One of the ideas I share in my book is that many companies became faceless because there was a time when the more layers you put between you and your customers, the more “official” your organization seemed. That time is over, and social media (or what you might call Web2.0 technologies) have propelled its end. The reason why comes down to the speed and distribution of opinion. When we can share our opinions instantly with the world rather than our closed circle of friends, it means that more and more a company’s brand is being defined by the perception about them.
Me: What fraction of someone’s personal brand is his or her personality?
Rohit: Your personal brand has very much to do with your personality, but is also about how you brand yourself. Your brand needs to demonstrate your personality … but it doesn’t take the place of strong branding. You need to have something to stand for, and then personality can help you to live up to it. Without a personality, you cannot have a strong personal brand.
Me: What tips would you give to someone looking to exude their personality to others? (Note: This was a trick question)
Rohit: I think you might be putting a bit of a trick question there, Dan! The idea of “exuding” your personality is not really the main idea. The formula to define personality that I share in the book is that it needs to be unique, authentic, and talkable. All of these are vital for a personal brand anyway. I think you define your personal brand well enough and manage to demonstrate it through your interactions, then it will come through loud and clear.
Me: Could you please re-emphasize the importance of transparency, authenticity and reputation for companies, as well as individuals?
Rohit: If you consider your brand a promise, then reputation is a measure of whether or not you live up to that promise. Authenticity and transparency are both big words in business today, but they are often used interchangeably. One of the points of view I share in the book is that transparency doesn’t matter. My reasoning is that the idea is simply about sharing what you are doing (invented by lawyers and accountants to “open their books” so to speak). What’s missing is a measure of whether what you are doing is right or wrong. Authenticity on the other hand is a much better concept to focus on, because it means you do what you say and say what you mean. Which would you rather see in a company you are buying from or a person you are interacting with?
Me: Do you believe the power of personality lies in pictures and videos? If so, how can we harness the power of this media to convey our brands in way that is attractive to others?
Rohit:I think pictures and videos are just one tool, but not the only way to demonstrate a personality. If you mean online, those are certainly elements that can make a difference, but that’s not to say you cannot demonstrate your personality through text either. One of my favourite examples is the error page that Digg.com uses. If you happen to visit the site and it is down, they will list their team members along with their contact details and a site they recommend for you to visit while you’re waiting for Digg to be back up.
I call this technique Fallibility Marketing in the book, and its an important personality moment that actually doesn’t even need photos or videos to have an impact.
