Digital Platform Building: Crafting a Personal Brand Online – GM4

Digital Platform Building: The Essentials

[0:00] – Introducing this week’s podcast: The concept of platform.

• Recent research reveals that there is an increasing number of older entrepreneurs, as opposed to younger startups—a ray of hope for those in the Grey Zone (Baby Boomers and Gen Xers) who may be dissuaded from pursuing a business.
• Having a platform is one of the major determinants of success. It is, in essence, your visibility: It's all of the things that you do that other people see that establishes your authority and gives you an opportunity to reach out and influence a community.
  
  

[6:17] –  Understanding what a platform is.

• Your platform defines how you are seen by the world; it’s where you put your energy. For the same reason, it’s imperative to start building a platform for yourself as early as possible.
• There are some common building blocks of a platform.
  
  

[10:23] – The first building block is your own website.

• The most important reason to have a website: it’s your calling card, a digital space of your own to which you can send people.
• Your website can include anything from product descriptions to value-adding content (e.g. blog posts, podcast episodes).

[10:57] – The next part of the equation is having a mail list.

• Your mailing list allows you to have conversations with people outside of them visiting your website. 
• Remember: unless people are interested in looking for the message you are delivering, you might find it difficult to reach them. 
• However, if you have permission to email them, you can increase the likelihood of them receiving your message. 
  
  

[11:47] – Building an audience by having a regular media gig and public appearances.

• Regular media gigs are not that easy to come by, which makes it important to seize the opportunity whenever it arises.
• However, considerably easier is the process of guesting on podcasts, doing collaborative videos with other people to do guest appearances on their channel, and other similar gigs. This makes them a terrific starting point for you in this aspect. 
  
  

[13:04] – The next building block: speaking engagements.

• Whether they're local, national or international, any opportunity to do a speaking engagement is something that you should look long and hard at. 
• While you won’t always be invited, you can submit your ideas to conferences for a chance to speak at them. Be careful about how you choose those conferences, though; go with ones that are not just going to massage your ego, but will actually allow you to build your bona fides and reputation. 
• Nowadays, you can get speaking engagements for online summits where you can deliver your content as a webinar or video. This really expands your reach, making it easier to get access to those new marketplaces for people to discover you.

[14:50] –  The key that opens the door to most speaking engagements: publishing a book (digital or physical).

[15:22] – The next part of the platform: social reach. 

• The conversational social platforms are primarily Facebook and Twitter; closely related to these are social publishing platforms (e.g. Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, Facebook Live, LinkedIn). 
• Keep in mind that anybody who follows you on those social platforms aren’t automatically part of your tribe yet; you have to convert them into your own space through email messaging.
  
  

[17:01] – How book sales can open many doors for you.

[17:35] – Nurturing your relationships with individuals of influence in your circle, and understanding the concept of ask equity.

• Individuals of influence may be people in the media, celebrities, relatives, or anybody who can help amplify your message and share it with their community. 
• If you help people out with an important project, they are probably going to be more than willing to help you out with your own important projects.
  
  

[19:01] – Taking all of the aforementioned things together to generate business opportunities from your platform. 

• Essentially, we need to become visible; once you're visible, then you can strive to become influential. 
  
  

Resources

• Over 50? Your Entrepreneurial Life Is Just Starting (via Yahoo! Finance)
• Platform by Michael Hyatt