Post on 14-Jul-2015
Personal Branding for Developers
Edin Kapić
What Will You Learn Today?
• Why should you market yourself?
• Building a brand
• Your blog
• Using social networks
• Speaking
• Writing
• Summary
Why Should You MarketYourself?
Marketing....A Nasty Word?
• I think that marketing is bad
• I want my work to speak for me
• I don’t want to brag aboutwhat I do
• I don’t want to marketmyself
• Marketing can be donebadly
• But we’re not a meritocracy
• But I don’t want to project a wrong image either
• But I do, all the time
MARKETING
someone who NEEDS something
connecting
someone who PROVIDES something
with
You already market yourself
• With your CV
• In your interviews
• In your interactions with other people
• Every time you want to convince somebody to do something
• But, do you choose what do you project to other people?
Personal Branding
• Choosing the message you send
• Choosing the image you project
• Reaching more effectively and to more people
• Making an impact
(and expose a subset of yourself)
Why should you investinto a personal brand?
You can be the best developer in the world
but if nobody knows about you
you’ll never reach your true potential
Specialize your brand
Be a big fish in a small pond
But “I am not goodenough to
market myself”
“I am faking it”
Building a Brand
What is a Brand?
• A logo?
• A name?
• A color?
• A theme?
•A set of expectations about a product or a service
•Everything associated with a product, including its symbolism and experiences
Examples of brands
Examples of developer personal brands
What makes up a brand?
Message
Visuals
Consistency
Exposure
Message
• What is your unique point of view?
• What are your values?
• Why are you different?
• What are you offering?
• Specialize, specialize, specialize
“I help and inspire companies and teams to deliver their projects andoptimize their work using SharePoint/Office 365 technology in aneffective way”
Visuals
• Logo
• Colours
• Fonts
• Style
Consistency
• Meeting the expectations, every time
• Helps to keep your messageclear
• The most overlookedcomponent of personal branding in developers
Exposure
• Repeated exposure is whatmakes your brand stick
• You get exposure by usingdifferent channels
The Brand Lifecycle
Build Plan
Expose
Measure
Repeat
How to build a brand?
Pick a niche
Pick a message
Refine the message into tagline and
elevator pitch
Create your visuals
How to spread your brand?
EXECUTE YOUR PLAN
Consistence Monitor your metrics
ACTION PLAN
Pick your channelsMake baseline
metricsEstablish deadlines
Establish milestones
STRATEGY AND GOALSWhere do you want to be
in X years?Which is your desired
situation?What is your end objective
with your brand?
Example
• Niche: “C++ Windows driver development”
• Message: “I help companies shorten their driver development time by mentoring their teams and reviewing their code”
• Tagline: “Your driver problem solver”
• Elevator pitch: “Your company does Windows drivers? I save you on average 75.000 € in development cost by mentoring your team and reviewing your code.”
Example
• Visuals:
• Channels• Blog www.driversheriff.com
• Twitter @DriverSheriff
• YouTube Driver Wild West Screencasts
• Mailing list Driver Sheriff Roundup
• Goals: Get 1000 subscribers in 6 monthsGet 5 leads per month
DriverSherif
f
Your Blog
Your Blog
• It is the channel that you own and fully control
• You should provide useful content aligned with your message
• Think about SEO
Your Blog = Your Business Card
• Prospective recruiters can know you better
• Clients can find and reach you
• You can convert your visitors into customers
Secret Recipe for a Successful Blog
But “Nobody is going to read it”
“I don’t knowwhat to write
about”
Using Social Networks
Social Networks
• Extra channels for your message
• Growing and nurturing your network
• Same principles apply:• Add value
• Be consistent
• Apply branding
Which ones?
•Twitter•LinkedIn•StackOverflow•SlideShare•Facebook•Pinterest•Google+
Tools to Manage Social Networks
Speaking
Speaking? Really?
• Speaking is a very powerful, direct connection with your audience
• Builds your personal brand very quickly
Speaking Interaction Trust
How to start?
Local usergroups
• Meetings
• Code Camps
• Hackathons
Specializedconferences
• Local
• International
Global conferences
• International
But“I am afraid of
speaking in públic”
Writing
Writing
• “He/she wrote a book on thatsubject”
• Writing gives us credibility as an
• Slow-paced, in-depth channel for message
What to write?
Technical articles BooksWhitepapers
Additional considerations
• You’re not going to make (much) money out of publishing
• You can sell premium content such as videos
Summary
• “How do you want to be known”
• It’s not about selling, it’s aboutcommunicating
• 4 key brand ingredients: message, visuals, consistency, exposure
• Make a plan, keep it going
Personal Branding for Developers
Questions?
¿Preguntas?
Preguntes?
Perguntas?
Domande?Galdeak?
Fragen?