When I met my biological father met I was working on health care reform and attending caucus meetings in D.C. I have had many, in depth conversations with him translating medical terminology, explaining the endocrine system and demystifying pharmaceutical labels for him.
In a mind sometimes tumbled by ever increasing signs of dementia, he holds fast to his description of me as “the one who went to medical school and knows the doctor stuff.”
My client and friend, Janet is kind enough to talk about me with her network of briliant thinkers. One of those thinkers refers to me as “Marketing Genius Woman in Detroit.” The label is a combination of Janet’s words about his own unique perception of what those words meant to him.
The descriptions are not what I would assign myself but both bring home the realiziation that people will describe you based on their experience with you filtered through the lens of their own perceptions.
We all have a self-assigned set of keywords for our position, character, relationships and values. We “market” them to the world in words and actions. But, in our interactions with others they may create their own set of long tailed keywords that not only describes us but our position and reflection in the other person’s life. Who I am is answered in each encounter by how you see me.
As a company, it validates the need to communicate marketing messages that will be reinforced by your customers experience with you. The great opportunity is to then extend that great branding with additional distinctions. So, you go from being “company that sells great X” to “company that sells great X and treats their customers like royalty.”
In life, your keywords give clues to your character and relationship with others. In life and business branding, your actions and interractions can reinforce (or not) your messaging.
Hi Karen! “Calm and evoking calm in others” really does fit you perfectly. It’s so easy to miss your own strengths and others can truly help us to see us that. I love those kind of “aha” moments. Hmmm, interpreter of gobbledygook – I like it! 🙂
Hi Karen, I love this! And after reading the conversation so far (that really got the neurons firing) I remembered when I was described – at JJL in a comment – as calm, and evoking calm in others.
It was in that moment, that the keyword that would become my life was embedded in my mind. It took someone else to recognise it.
Sometimes others see, and label, the things in us that we are too close to see. It really pays to listen closely to the keywords others give us 🙂
So could you be the miracle medical marketing genius?? Or possibly someone who is able to demystify stuff that is gobbledegook to the rest of us and share it far and wide? Hmm…
Karen, You ask a very penetrating question about changing keywords or changing your brand. For search, it’s probably best to stick with common terms, but use your site and other means to convey your unique value. Otherwise nobody will find you. It’s kind of like how I feel about site navigation – stick with tried and true layout and nav labels; otherwise people get confused. What do you think?
.-= Brad Shorr´s last blog ..Funny Marketing Photos =-.
Robert, lol, can we please issue cue cards? LOL! it does make you aware of not only who you are but how that gets projected. You’re right though, consistency is the only way and honestly your character will show up when no one is looking so better to work on the inside so that the reflection is clear for others. 🙂
Jackie, thanks for the discussion around this and Burns poem! I also appreciate the translation or I would have been running to find the list Joanna gave me! lol! Asking others for their keywords will be a wonderful exercise for you. I guarantee that it will clarify your vision and boost your confidence. I would love it if you share what you find. You’re welcome to share it publicly in a guest post here or privately if you prefer.
Brad, I love where this line of thought is going! This is why I find it so helpful to think out loud here, other greater minds come along and fire up the neurons! You are so right on target and when the company/person wants to be found/known by the keywords customers are not using do they change who they are or do they leverage who they are to customers?
“… people will describe you based on their experience with you filtered through the lens of their own perceptions.”
Yikes! If there was ever a reason to care about how you come across to folks, this is it, Karen! I remember being hurt long ago when I overheard a co-worker describe me as “the coke-bottle shaped one over there”. Sometimes you’d really like to issue cue cards to folks, y’know?
But the solution, as you have no doubt figured out, is to be who you want to be, consistently, over time. It’s pretty much the only way.
.-= Robert Hruzek´s last blog ..2B or not 2B =-.
Oh this is such a good post. Thank you Karen.
The Scottish poet Robert Burns from his poem “To a Louse” ( yes it is about a head louse!!)
“O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us! ” roughly translated as
“O would some Power the gift to give us
To see ourselves as others see us!”
I have long struggled with my own “keywords” and inspired by your post and Brad’s comments I think I will ask other people – who know and work with me – to come up with them for me!
.-= Jackie Cameron´s last blog ..Turn off and tune in =-.
Karen, I like the way you apply search engine jargon to our most basic human habits. “Keywords” is a great way to describe the labeling process we all, by necessity, use to compartmentalize each other. For a long time, I thought I was misunderstood, because the keywords people used for me struck me as totally off. Over the years, I’ve begun to see that they were more on target than I gave credit for. Hmm …
This “keyword gap” comes up in search marketing all the time. Firms think of themselves as “x”, but customers think of them as “y”. Or, a firm describes itself in a way that either –
1. Nobody searches for, or
2. Too many people search for
What does all this have to do with your post? I’m not sure, but you definitely have me thinking!
.-= Brad Shorr´s last blog ..A PC Guy Goes to the Apple Store =-.