Adam Rodricks is a digital marketer, professor and now author! His new book Trigger Fingers: Personal Branding Through Storytelling instantly became a bestseller through pre-orders. He started his career as a community manager for Staples Canada and we met at a Staples store when he taught a workshop about Instagram. Thankfully I take a selfie with everyone I meet so I could pull it up 3 years later! Adam is currently the National Lead, Digital Marketing Services at KPMG Canada and I’m excited to share his insights about personal branding.
How has your personal brand evolved as you got older and built your career?
Adam Rodricks: In a word? Hunger. Early on in my career, I had an insatiable appetite to build brand any way I could. If you threw me an opportunity, I was up for it because my sole objective was to open as many doors as I could and develop as many relationships as possible. I was a sponge. After more than a decade working in marketing, I’m still hungry, but now I have what I’d call “a specific craving” and I build brand more consciously to satisfy it.
What is the best social media channel for personal branding and why?
It’s different for everyone, but for me, hands down it has been LinkedIn. One of the biggest reasons for that is the lack of anonymity on the platform which has lowered the toxicity you’d likely encounter on other platforms.
But I know incredible photographers who would say their answer to this was Instagram, no-brainer, due to the visual substance of their portfolio. I know SEO pundits who wouldn’t trade Facebook ads for anything else in the arsenal, and I know crypto-professionals who swear by Twitter and only Twitter. Different strokes for different folks!
Who is your favourite person to follow who has an amazing personal brand and why?
Steve Dangle – my childhood friend since kindergarten, inspiration for my book and Toronto Maple Leafs influencer. Steve has the most fearless creation of personal brand of anyone I know through his YouTube series “Leaf Fan Reactions”. Seriously, I remember when he started doing some of his off-the-wall comedy and warning him that it may not fly, but he persisted because it was (and is) so authentic to his personal brand. Bet on yourself.
How do you think men and women approach personal branding differently?
That’s a great question! Disclaimer though: I can only speak to general trends from the people I’ve personally managed in my career, so please don’t think these characteristics apply more broadly – this is simply some anecdotal feedback from my career.
Many of the women come armed with a plan! They build brand consciously, and everything from their content calendars to their aesthetic flows into those overarching objectives. I don’t generalize, but if the women I’ve worked with have one thing in common when it comes to how they build brand, it’s how methodical they are in their pursuit.
Men by contrast? Many of them are quite happy to learn as they go. They have no issues pivoting from what was once their plan if something else catches their eye, and they’ve all been super curious by nature, which has led them to do a significant amount of A/B testing to get to know their audience.
No one approach is better, and a lot of these traits are interchangeable between the men and women on my team. I currently manage a mix. The best approach arises when they learn from each other and combine their approaches so strategy meets flexibility.
Trends come and go on social media. How did you write advice for the book that’s timeless and will help someone who buys it a few years from now?
Okay, so this was an early learning in my career: I used to be highly prescriptive with my teachings – “go here, click here, third option down” kind of description. But the platforms changed so rapidly, that I learned I was stale dating my content as soon as I could create it. So when it came to the book, I looked at platform-agnostic advice. You’re not going to learn about a specific feature on TikTok that builds brand, you’re going to learn the rationale behind why it’s important, regardless of where you’re posting. There’s a chapter in my book (that’s available for free here) that ends with “the anatomy of a great post”. It’s advice that can be applied to every single social platform. This helped ensure that what I was writing would be relevant long after the social platforms shifted.
If someone is not active on social media, how can they tell their story?
Brand building happens in a lot of places, social media just happens to be one of them. I’ve had leaders with phenomenal experience who were lovely to talk to but just couldn’t wrap their heads around social media. We put those people on stages. When they had stage fright, we conducted a podcast. My point being: there are more options than ever before to build your brand online, improve your reputation and measure your efforts. Social media is only [one] tool in the marketer’s arsenal.
How can you make sure that your personal brand stays consistent online and offline or at work and outside work?
It starts and ends with authenticity. The second chapter of my book tells the biggest story of cringe I’ve ever experienced when someone was a different person online and offline. What happened was so awkward… you just have to read it. The easiest way to ensure consistency across platforms is to ensure the brand you build is true to you. When you do that and you question if something is “on brand”, you answer honestly and you’ll always be right.
It’s wedding season and I saw that you got married during the pandemic. Congratulations! What is the role of personal branding and social media in weddings?
You know, this is such an interesting question because in business and in relationships, “merging” or even the consideration of more than one personal brand can be a tricky thing! What if one person is an aggressive brand-builder (in this case, me) and the other has little to no desire to engage at all (true story, my wife)? We see a lot of influencers, particularly lifestyle/fashion/beauty verticals who incorporate their weddings into their content. And because sharing all facets of their lives is so second-nature, they do a phenomenal job of amplifying the events of their wedding day far beyond the guest list at their reception. On the flip side, there are others who say this is a special moment that they have no desire to “socialize” because they prioritize the intimacy of the day or their spouse’s wishes, and I respect that too.
Many people struggle with the comparison trap that’s caused by social media. How can you escape that to focus on your own life and personal brand?
I cannot stress this enough: develop a healthy relationship with social media, or none at all. Set boundaries. If you feel terrible after looking at social media, stop looking! As stated above, social media is just one tool in the marketing toolkit. You know the best part about social media? It gave everyone a microphone. You know the worst part about social media? It gave everyone a microphone.
Follow Adam on Twitter for more insights and commentary!