If you’ve taken any marketing class than you’ve heard of a “push” and a “pull” strategy.
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A “push” promotional strategy makes use of a company’s sales force and trade promotion activities to create consumer demand for a product.
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A “pull” selling strategy is one that requires high spending on advertising and consumer promotion to build up consumer demand for a product.
This works in the same fashion when building personal brands, to some extent. When I first started blogging, I commented on just about every blog and emailed hundreds of people, which of course doesn’t scale to well as you build your brand name. I didn’t have a sales force, but I did create evangelists throughout the world to help spread the word. Aside from commenting on blogs (I still do!), I was writing articles for other blogs and magazines and participating in various associations.
After about 6 months, my strategy transitioned from push to pull because my brand became more visible and people started coming to me, instead of the reverse. By accumulating value and a network, I could invest more time into being productive with the magazine and now book. It almost works like a game of tug-of-war, which I’m sure most of you have played in your lifetime, whether at college or camp. You let people win the first few games and then it’s your turn to pull and claim victory. Throughout the loses, you learn what you’re doing right and wrong.
To me the real goal of personal branding is to be recruited based on your brand (who you are, what you can provide and what you’re passionate about). It’s far easier for this to happen when you’re name is out there, but it can’t get out there without pushing first.
