We all have a personal brand with social, cultural, intellectual, and personal needs that may not necessarily be addressed in our daily work. Address these needs and you begin to improve your brand. Here is my agenda for building your brand.

* Join and participate in community and professional organizations * Generate media coverage about your brand * Stay in touch, or renew old ties with friends, family and business associates

Let’s examine how each one improves your brand.

Join and participate in professional and community organizations The best brands grow, evolve and get better with time, while maintaining their special qualities from past.

Professional and community organizations provide ample opportunity to learn and grow.

They provide professional development opportunities. They allow you to network with peers as well as with people you would not necessarily ever meet in normal course of your workday.

For instance, I am a member and served on board of our local International Association of Business Communicators chapter. This allowed me to broaden my contacts in corporate communications world, as well as form a number of friendships I probably never would have developed. I’m also a member of North Carolina Citizens For Business and Industry. Here I meet people from all walks of life and all work disciplines. Finally, I am involved with Charlotte Reads, a local non-profit that focuses on literacy issues. This allows me to use my communication experience in support of an issue I feel very strongly about.

But it’s not enough to just join groups: you must participate to benefit fully. As a participant you have opportunity to stretch, to gain confidence in yourself. Learn to lead by involvement on board or in a special project.

I’ve been re-reading The Fall Of Advertising & The Rise Of PR, by Al and Laura Ries, and it is their book that has moved me from suspicion of advertising’s demise as a brand-builder to conviction.

As Ries’ say, “Publicity is nail, advertising is hammer.” What does this mean? It means that your PR effort helps make your message believable so that your advertising will have credibility when it hits.

Typically, companies want to hit market hard and make a lot of noise. Advertising allows you to launch quickly, control message, and have your message in as many media as you have money for. However, that does not mean your message will be believed. The louder advertisers yell, less likely I am to believe them. How about you?

PR takes time and does not necessarily work on your schedule. Planting new ideas or changing minds is a slow process. When your PR program rolls out over a longer period of time, prospects have time to adjust their attitudes. Brands that take this approach are longer lasting, too.