“I don’t have any formula for ousting a dictator or building democracy. All I can suggest is to forget about yourself and just think of your people. It’s always the people who make things happen.” – Corazon Aquino
On the historic day of EDSA 1986, I was a 17 year old idealistic young man, 1st year college and unhappy with the social injustices around me. And because I am not qualified yet to vote in the snap national election, I became one of the warm bodies who supported the uprising against the alleged dictator and supported Tita Cory’s presidency.
Unfortunately, the plight of ordinary Filipinos during her term and beyond has not changed.
Despite freeing the political prisoners, the political left was still unhappy and waged the urban war. The dreaded “sparrow unit” became popular during her term. Likewise, the “welgang bayan”during her time would result to public utility buses getting burned.
The political right was also unhappy. The series of coup during her time speaks for itself.
During her term, the government began giving up control of important utilities like electricity, petrol, media, water and telecos. I will let history judge this act because these are matters of national interest. Fast forward to the present, we are a witness that the gov’t. seems to be helpless when these private entities decide to jack up prices.
During her term, farmers marching towards Malacanang were fired at resulting to several deaths.
Before the end of her term, she also lobbied for the extension of the US Military bases stay in the Philippines.
Add to the woes during her term were the series of national disasters– the Baguio earthquake, Ormok flood and the Pinatubo eruption.
At the end of her term, so is the “black out season”, brought about by the shutting down of BNP project, also commenced.
Despite of all of these, she is still the most respected post martial law President.
What is Tita Cory’s Brand that kept her influence for more than 2 decades, even to the younger generation of Filipinos? What lesson’s in brand management can we learn from Tita Cory.
I simplified my keynote presentation to discuss with you what I shared before graduating students of two different universities in Manila. This presentation gave the graduating class some pointers on how to build and enhance their (personal) brand, merit an interview and eventually get a job by using basic Marketing principles and web 2.0.
Social media sites are so common, like Coca Coca that most people can’t live without. And as a consequence, our e-buddies are everywhere, using social networking site(s) of their choice. This explains why we keep an account of most (if not all) social networking sites (SNS), to stay connected.
With this, we have a diverse but broad tool at our disposal to market our brand. This tool, however, is double edged. If we are not careful, our brand can be diluted in light of the different networking streams. Let’s face it. It’s either we don’t have enough time to keep some of our accounts alive or we are inconsistent with the way we manage our profile. Trying to keep tab with each account is sometimes toxic, specially if you have an 8 hour job. More than that, in the midst of competition, our brands are side swept, not because other brands are better, but brand owners have positioned their brands properly using SNS.
My take on this issue: Synergize all our social networking sites.
Every serious blogger would like his blog to have regular stream of visitors. Even my 8 year old girl requests me to do something to lure more visitors on her site.
And there is only one way to achieve this, promotions.
Online, we have different social networks, forums and e-groups where we can promote our brand. But have we tried promoting our brand offline? Offline promotions can give more exposure to a blog.
When you’re at work, your performance is your brand. If you’re a student, your grade is your brand. If you’re a parent, how you raise your kid is your brand. If you’re a father/husband, how you lead your family is your brand. If you’re a blogger, your blog is your brand.
One need not have a large corporation to get conscious about brand management. If you want to protect your reputation as a person, that is brand management. If you’re a blogger, though you are monetizing your blog, but you select and chose your advertisers, that’s already brand management.
A brand is what people remember about a product, i.e. what comes to your mind when you hear the word Viagra? Or what people remember about you or your blog? If one would like to be two steps ahead, then promoting one’s brand is the first plan. A good brand coupled with a good promotional campaign will lead to greater earning opportunities.
How do we promote our brand?
This is with the assumption that you already know what you (or your product or your blog) would like to be known for. Remember, there are so many blogs out there that are competing for attention. So are job hunters competing for a few job opportunities. So how do we get their attention?
The blogger is a Human Resource Management Executive and Micro Entrepreneur.
He does lecture and consulting work for the integration of (1) "Spiritual Intelligence" in Organizational and Human Resource Management and Development, and (2) "Web 2.0" as platform and tool for Corporate communication, Productivity, Training/ People Development, Marketing and Brand Management.
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