Moving Forward is also available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music.
Natasha Giannopoulou is a digital and social media strategist, based in Athens. Today, Natasha will share some important first steps for moving forward with your brand.
Successes at a glance:
Digital and social media strategist.
Branding expert.
Natasha’s story:
Natasha describes herself as a digital and social media professional, blogger, and at the heart of it, a people person. Natasha loves people and her favorite aspect of business is what she calls the “people factor;” the coming together of like-minded individuals to accomplish a mutually beneficial goal. Natasha started her journey as a psychology major in school and then took an interesting career path with a radio station where she worked as an assistant which gave her the first exposure to being in a business structure and culture. Natasha then went to work with an internet services company where she caught the “online” bug. Amazingly, Natasha never imagined her career unfolding this way and it was this formative experience that led her to pursue an MBA and then join a software startup doing marketing and online relationship manager. Her responsibilities included everything from SEO, PPC, online marketing to customer relations. At this time, social media was in its infancy. Around 2006-07, Facebook came onto the scene and offered a new direction for Natasha to take her career in. She saw both the business and educational opportunities for social media to augment reach and enhance learning. Natasha dug in and started learning and seeing the connective tissue between companies and their customers thru the power of social media; helping them understand how they could better understand them as people.
Natasha’s big why:
As Natasha says, “if you don’t understand people, you don’t understand business” (quoting Simon Sinek). Natasha’s big why is to be a connector and help businesses understand their customers via social media: listening, understanding, delivering value.
First steps to building a brand:
As an introvert, putting herself out there on social media wasn’t easy but as she shares on this episode, she recognized that connecting with people requires embracing social media as a way to connect and forge relationships. To that end, Natasha recommends creating content. For her, it was a blog where she shared her knowledge on social media with an audience. From there, she started getting into online marketing and engagement on social media. At the heart of it, Natasha recognized the importance of story: hers and those she invited to contribute to her blog.
Moving forward past that challenge:
If you’re an introvert start with a small step such as building a website or writing that first blog. The key is to push yourself out there and tell your story.
Knowledge bursts:
Best recommendation or tip for starting out with your personal brand:
Engage: research, contact and establish relationships.
Post content that provides value:
Guest blogging is a great way to get started.
Favorite tech tool or productivity practice:
Small choice or activity to move forward:
Being on this podcast!
Support the Podcast:
The Corporate Cliches Adult Coloring Book: makes the perfect stocking stuffer or white elephant gift.
Try out Audible (affiliate link).
Try out Amazon Prime (affiliate link).
Who is Natasha in five years:
Natasha will be a social media, brand consumer and connector. She will tap into her multi-cultural roots to build a global business; connecting with people and businesses all over the world. Natasha will also have a training course and be a featured speaker at conferences and events. Finally, she will have her first book done!
Parting wisdom:
“Just be a lifelong learner. Your professional journey is a discovery one as well. In life, you sometimes need to take detours but you should also never lose sight of your journey and always, always be you.”
Comentarios