Today, I spoke with Charlene Li, who is the bestselling co-author of Groundswell, an ex-Forrester executive and now a full-time consultant, blogger and speaker. For the past few months, I’ve been really digging down and examining the role of a personal brand within a corporate brand and now, with Charlene’s help, we have a great first look at this phenomenon. Charlene explains how she grew her personal brand within Forrester’s, why she was able to blog on behalf of the company and some other great thoughts about how companies need to think twice before disabling the brands of employees.
How did you secure permission from Forrester to begin developing your personal brand? What were the obstacles and opportunities and how did you communicate them to the company’s management?
In the fall of 2004, Joe Trippi, Howard Dean’s campaign manager, was a speaker at a Forrester event. He spoke about the role and power of blogs in the Dean campaign, and it captivated the audience as well as Forrester executives. After he spoke, I asked Forrester executives permission to start a blog, reasoning that I couldn’t write research about a blog without having one. I also pointed out the opportunity to write timely thought leadership in a way that our traditional syndicated publishing couldn’t. The research director asked that I put together a written plan, which was about two pages long. The plan included details such as the target audience of the blog (press, current clients, and prospects), what types of posts I would write, and most importantly, what I would and would not blog about. For example, I would not include full reports and only selective graphics and data points.
The most important factor was that I had a long history of exercising good judgment as a Forrester analyst. I had been with the company more than five years and had been part of the research management team. I was one of the most highly quoted analysts at Forrester and regularly shared research with the press without compromising the research. I could reasonably argue that I could extend Forrester’s reach and influence with the blog, in much the same way I had done with my press activities.
Do companies run a risk of losing talented employees when they have their own brands? How did you address those risks with Forrester?
It was a concern, but not so much in the beginning because frankly, no one took blogging seriously back in 2004! I addressed this risk early on by insisting that my blogging take place UNDER the Forrester brand. I considered starting a blog separate from Forrester, but was uncomfortable trying to tackle both a new medium and also a hesitant management. I also figured it would be a much stronger blog, and also help the company (and thus me) if it was a concerted, coordinated effort.
For example, Forrester’s press team was very happy to promote news-breaking posts. So I started my blog later than I wanted, but because it was a Forrester blog, I think it was much better.
But to the point about companies losing talented employees, yes, it is a risk. But you risk losing them regardless of whether they have a blog or not. I stayed at Forrester four more years after starting my blog because Forrester made it interesting for me to stay. I could have left after the blog became successful, but chose not to because I could do more with the company than separately without it.
Some people have pointed to the fact that I had a Forrester blog — not my own personal blog — as a failing on my part to develop my personal brand. When I left Forrester, that blog went away — it’s since been incorporated into the Groundswell blog. In fact, having a Forrester blog made my leaving Forrester very clean — the blog and the content I wrote stayed with Forrester and I was free to start a new blog and presence. I still have a strong personal brand because I had built up my name and associated them strongly with the thinking that I do.
How much time should you invest in personal branding?
As much time as your company and work responsibilities will allow. Companies that hinder their employees from personal branding don’t understand that if done correctly and with the right intentions and guidelines, personal branding efforts can greatly benefit the company. If your company is nervous, the best thing you can do is to engage in personal branding activities that clearly, clearly benefit your company first and you second. That said, there’s a limit to the types of activities you *should* be doing to promote your personal brand, for example, promoting yourself versus helping your audience.
What are the most effective channels for developing personal brands?
Clearly, blogging is excellent because you can control the content (text, audio, video) associated with your brand. Twitter is another place to easily engage with people — it’s the expression of your brand via your engagement with your audience. If appropriate, LinkedIn — especially LinkedIn Answers — is an excellent place to showcase your knowledge and expertise.
How do you plan to incorporate the personal brands of others as Altimeter Group grows?
One of the reasons I developed the Altimeter brand is that I want the firm’s brand to be more than just about me. To that end, I’ll encourage new partners to contribute on the Altimeter site but also encourage their outside activities. That’s because it’s likely that the partners will have a strong blog, Twitter following, Facebook presence, etc. so it doesn’t make any sense to make them give it up. Rather, I’ll showcase those outside activities on Altimeter, for example, Twitter conversations that mention any people at Altimeter.
My request in return is that they clearly also promote and market their activities with Altimeter in their personal branding activities where it makes sense. My feeling is that as long people feel that they are getting something out of the relationship with Altimeter, they will continue to stay with the firm. When Altimeter no longer makes sense for them, either because the company is growing in a new direction or they have interests that take them on a new path, we’ll wish them the best of luck and hope that we can do business in the future.
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Charlene Li is an independent thought leader on emerging technologies, with a specific focus on social technologies, interactive media, and marketing. She has a blog, “The Altimeter” that discusses these topics. She is also the co-author of the business bestseller, “Groundswell: Winning In A World Transformed By Social Technologies“, published by Harvard Business Press in May 2008. Charlene is one of the most frequently-quoted industry analysts and has appeared on 60 Minutes, The McNeil NewsHour, ABC News, CNN, and CNBC. Most recently, Charlene was a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research. She joined Forrester in 1999, after spending five years in online and newspaper publishing with the San Jose Mercury News and Community Newspaper Company. She was also a consultant with Monitor Group in Boston and Amsterdam.
