Chapter 6: Time to Brand Yourself – Not the Burning Type

It's all about you and your brand, but what does branding mean? Well, I am happy you asked and I, Ms. Jax, will provide you with the knowledge to brand yourself successfully and professionally.

Branding is all about how you market yourself. To create a significant and cult-like following, you need a defined purpose coupled with consistency; organic followers are essential to sustained growth and follower engagement. Branding also helps with personal and professional growth. For example, branding builds a network that could lead to future employment and greater opportunities versus someone who does not have a brand or social media.

This chapter will explore and educate you on the various social media platforms and how to brand/market yourself across the various platforms. Upon completion of this chapter, you will have a clearer understanding of how and why to brand and the platforms to use for your specific...

Determining your brand and story

Understanding your purpose and vision will allow you to understand your brand. Your brand is the story you want the world to see. Therefore, if your vision and purpose are not clear, it will be challenging to figure out your online presence/brand. Most people who lack vision have a social media feed that looks like an unchaperoned child in a candy store. That child is going everywhere, high on life with no path or reason. In the world of social media, more postings are not always better. Instead, the post/content should be brand-focused and consistent.

Think of your feed as a personality, and that personality is driven by what you feed it. Many people will evaluate you by your feed. Let me ask you, what do you think when you see someone who is posting cat memes, ice bucket challenges, and occasionally save the alpacas? I am certain your first thought is not, "Wow, this person is really knowledgeable about InfoSec. I would love to ask them...

Exploring the different social media platforms

"In today's world, social media is the primary platform for digital marketing, thanks to the 3.80 billion social media users as of January 2020. That is more than a third of the earth's entire population!"

– TechMagnate.com

Is it just me, or does it feel like every week or month there is a new social media app? I cannot keep up, and neither should you. I will teach you how to be strategic in your branding by picking one, maybe two, platforms to focus on and then expanding.

First, we will review some of the leading social media platforms. There are many, so we will focus on the ones we recommend for cyber branding

In this order, we are going to review Twitter, Discord, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. This is not an all-inclusive list.

At the end of this section, you will be provided with a social media summary to help you decide on the best 1-2 platforms that fit your brand and audience.

...

Considering a blog versus a podcast

These platforms and approaches are diversely different, and I will explain their differences to help you decide which platform might be best for you.

Blog

Blogging is an expressive platform and very individual-based. You may interview people as part of your blog article, but as a blogger, it's about you and what/how you write.

Blogging is a remarkable platform for new cybersecurity professionals to hone their skills and technical writing. I would encourage anyone who is entering this field to write more. Cybersecurity is just as much a science and technology as it is an art. When you write, you tap into the right side of your brain, which is your creative side that helps you as you research and develop products.

Get familiar with some other cybersecurity bloggers and their work to decide whether you want to blog. There are different platforms to express your writing but the best I have found for new writers is Medium. You can...

Engaging your audience to grow brand awareness

The techniques provided in this section are not all-inclusive; these are foundational steps to help you grow brand awareness on any platform.

If you are reading this and have been publishing content and doing all the things we mentioned earlier, yet your followers and engagements aren't increasing, here are a few possible reasons why:

• You may not be engaging your audience in a way that resonates with them. For example, if you are rebranding from your alpaca socks, the current audience may not be interested in your thoughts on cybersecurity.
• It may mean you need to refine the content to become more engaging, such as adding more graphics or content to engage your followers.
• You may not be on the right platform. Review the summary of platforms in the last section and make sure you are on the right platform for your brand and target demographic.

Here are some general ways you can better engage your followers...

Summary

In conclusion, in this chapter, you should have learned more about your why and branding story while obtaining a foundational understanding of the different social media platforms available. You should also have a better understanding of picking between a blog versus a podcast with resources to assist in your cybersecurity growth and branding.

A final note before I hand you over to Kim; if this chapter helped you find your purpose and refine your why, we would love if you shared that information with us. It has been a pleasure leading you on this journey. Best of luck as you move on to Chapter 7, How to Land a Jay-Oh-Bee!, in which you learn about finding a job, preparing your resume, and mastering your interview.

Questions

This has been an amazing journey. Here's a quick recap:

1. What was the number one thing you learned from this chapter and why?
2. What is your purpose?
3. Did you define your why? If yes, what is it?
4. Which platforms are you going to focus on for the next 6 months?
5. What is the number one thing to branding? (I said it multiple times.)
6. Do you know how many times I wrote alpaca in this chapter?

   A. 3

   B. 5

   C. 8

   D. What are alpacas?

Please reach out to any of us on our social media platforms. Also, reach out to me if you want the answer to the alpacas question.