網絡時代自我推銷的風險
????莎瑪?卡巴尼的大部分時間都用在指導企業家和首席執行官們如何通過社交媒體進行自我宣傳。她曾經寫過一本書《禪說社交媒體營銷》(The Zen of Social Media Marketing),得到了很好的反響。她成立的數字化營銷公司正在不斷成長。同時她還擔綱一檔網絡電視節目的主持人,為人們打造個人品牌出謀劃策。 ????26歲的卡巴尼友善而直爽。她給自己品牌的定義是開放、充滿生氣、富有創新性。但她的行為有時候與卻與她力圖呈現的平易近人特征背道而馳。在收到一大堆“你真火辣”和“我愛你”的信息之后,她取消了Google+賬號頁面上的“發送郵件”的功能。2010年12月,卡巴尼出人意料地突然取消了對Twitter上全部16,000人的關注,希望能減少垃圾郵件和評論數量。她說:“局面變得有些不可收拾了。” ????關注者對她的決定看法不一。有些人在博客上評論她的舉動是“干凈徹底、斬草除根”。而有些人認為她自大而又自私。卡巴尼承認這一決定可能會導致她錯失某些機會,比方說可能會有些客戶或者組織找她作為演講嘉賓。但這也使得她能好好思考如何在各種角色間找到平衡。 ????沒錯,卡巴尼是一位作家,她通過多媒體方式友好地為人們答疑解惑,同時她也是這種“透明行業”內的一位公司首席執行官。然而,她本人的個人品牌是否存在曝光過度的問題呢?她說:“曾有人給我建議,剛起步的時候得有求必應。成長起來以后就得學習如何拒絕他人。” ????現在只要一鍵點擊就可以登陸Google+、商務社交網站LinkedIn、Twitter和Quora,宣傳自己的途徑比以往任何時候都多,而毀掉自己聲譽的方式同樣很多。如果只滿足于“他們只要能把我的名字拼對就行”,那你可能忘記了一點:過度的自我炒作可能會導致個人聲譽直線下跌,就像以超乎所有人想象的速度從高級法拉利跑車變成年久失修的破車。關于這一點,社交名媛帕里斯?希爾頓就是現成的例子。 ????對于嶄露頭角的新星或者剛剛晉升的公司高管來說,自我宣傳的誘惑尤其危險。他們獲得某項成功后,不去想努力獲得更多成功,而是開始厚著臉皮推銷自己。梅塞德斯-奔馳(Mercedes-Benz)美國公司營銷副總裁史蒂夫?卡農稱:“品牌就是一個人的承諾,承諾你真正能夠做到的事情。”該公司對于形象塑造比較在行。 ????位于弗吉尼亞州阿靈頓的麥克科米克集團(the McCormick Group)的萊爾?卡爾是一位經驗豐富的招聘官。他說,如果有人在簡歷中未列出實實在在的技能和本領,他對這份簡歷的印象就會大打折扣,他說:“就像回到古老的商業時代,我要問一句‘干貨在那里?’這些人企圖用個性來代替真才實學。” ????有資本吹噓自己好友數量龐大或者發Twitter的篇數很多,這固然很好,但有時候,少就是多。易見咨詢公司(Vizibility)旨在幫助專業人士和求職者對他們的在線身份進行管理。最近,公司首席執行官和創始人詹姆斯?亞歷山大屏蔽了一位LinkedIn用戶的所有更新。此君每小時都在發帖。亞歷山大說:“他已經無權通過LinkedIn跟我溝通了。誰都有權把時間(這種事確實占用時間)和精力花在這些事情上面,但是這么做只會使別人對你敬而遠之”。 |
????Shama Kabani spends much of her time teaching entrepreneurs and CEOs to promote themselves on social media. She wrote a well-received book, The Zen of Social Media Marketing, owns a growing digital marketing company, and stars in a web-TV show offering advice on building your brand and more. ????Friendly and outgoing, Kabani, 26, defines her own brand as open, vibrant, and innovative. Yet her actions sometimes run counter to the accessibility she works so hard to project. She removed the "send an e-mail" button on her Google+ account after a barrage of "You're so hot" and "I love you" missives. Then, in December 2010, Kabani abruptly stopped following all 16,000 people she had subscribed to on Twitter in hopes of eliminating a barrage of spam and other comments. "It became unmanageable," she says. ????Some followers took her decision personally. A few blogged about her "slash and burn" move; others called her arrogant and selfish. Kabani admits the decision may have resulted in a few lost opportunities, such as potential clients or organizations seeking a speaker. But it also led to a careful deliberation on how to balance her various personas. ????Sure, Kabani is an author, a smiling multimedia answer woman, and a CEO in "an industry of transparency." But was she, in fact, overexposing her own brand? "Someone once gave me advice," she says. "When you start, you say yes to everything. As you grow, you need to learn to say no." ????With Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Quora just a click away, there are more ways to promote yourself than ever -- and just as many ways to screw it up. Worshipers at the temple of "just spell my name right" may have forgotten that overbranding can take someone's reputation from Ferrari to clunker faster than anyone dreamed possible. Just ask Paris Hilton. ????The temptation is particularly perilous for rising stars or newly promoted executives. They develop one success, and instead of growing it into a second and a third, they start selling themselves shamelessly. "The brand is your promise that represents real things that you deliver," said Steve Cannon, vice president of marketing for Mercedes-Benz USA, a company that knows something about image creation. ????Lyles Carr, a veteran recruiter at the McCormick Group in Arlington, Va., says he tends to discount a résumé that doesn't list true accomplishments. "It goes back to the old commercial, 'Where's the beef?' " he says. "They're trying to substitute style for substance." ????While it's nice to be able to boast about the sheer numbers of friends you have or Twitter posts you've made, sometimes less is, in fact, more. James Alexander, CEO and founder of Vizibility, which helps professionals and job seekers control their online identities, recently turned off all the updates from a man on LinkedIn (LNKD) who posted every single hour. "He's lost his privilege to communicate to me in that way," he says. "You can spend all this time and effort -- it does take time -- only to turn around and end up alienating people." |