Although Oprah Winfrey, Glenn Beck and Jimmy Buffett are on different pages, they use the same playbook when it comes to career branding. Each has developed interlocking brands of the type that can help journalists.
Start with Buffett. He has gone way beyond beach music. His songs and concerts fill his Radio Margaritaville and his lyrics have spawned LandShark lager, Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurants, Margaritaville Spirits, foods, footwear and furniture and icy concoction makers. When he gives a concert in Texas, he calls the venue “Margaritaville, Texas” and for the evening, that’s what it is. He hangs his overlapping brands off Margaritaville.com.
Oprah capitalized on the impact of The Oprah Winfrey Show to launch OWN, an entire Oprah Winfrey Network. She also has a network for satellite radio, O, The Oprah Magazine, a book club, a leadership academy, Harpo Films, a store that includes merchandise bearing her inspirational quotes and a whole lot more, charity activities and on and on.
Glenn Beck has a FOX TV show and is on radio. He has Fusion magazine, he teaches what he calls “real American history” through his online Beck University, has an online store, tours, speaks and charges people more than $90 to hear him talk about his $30 book (he has written several). He has organized a march in Washington D.C. And growth of his online site, The Blaze, is blazing fast.
If journalists practice in small, genuine ways what Buffett, Oprah and Beck do on a grand scale, they can raise their visibility, value and voice. These are some of the strategies:
- It starts by working in more than one way. These celebrity brands use more than one medium. Although they use different channels, the voice is consistent across platforms. This helps people expand their brands efficiently. Rather than report two stories, we report one story and tell it in two ways or places.
- Develop complementary niches. A participant in a branding seminar I gave for the Knight Digital Media Center asked whether it is a bad to have more than one brand. Is anyone confused that the Buffett brand is on music, beer, blenders and Adirondack chairs? No. They go together in Margaritaville. Build news niches or channels that are connected and complementary.
- Form alliances with people who share or complement your values. Buffett’s Radio Margaritaville has Bob and Ziggy Marley, Santana and Bonnie Raitt on its playlist. Affiliations make Buffett a hub that connects other popular artists. Oprah and her guests help each other by being on the same set.
- When you have staked out a brand, share it wisely. Defend and extend the brand so that you continue to own it, but be generous about getting your brand seen in other places and let others use your platform or space. Collaborating builds, competing diminishes.
- Beck, Buffett and Oprah have people. Buffett does not build chairs, Oprah does not write her magazine and Beck does not run the cameras. Colossal brands like theirs require help. A modest brand does, too. If you need a webmaster, videographer or copy editor to build brand credibility, make arrangements.
- Invest in your brands. It takes a little time and money to develop a brand that has reach. But if you do it right you will get your return. It might be in dollars, yes, but more likely it will be in greater career security and opportunities. Don’t measure every decision strictly by dollars. I have lost money or volunteered on ventures that paid me back in unexpected ways.
- Geek out on social media. This phenomenon of megabrands is largely a product of online social networking, so include those channels in your plan.
- Finally, be your brand. The root of any brand, and especially a journalistic brand, has to be authenticity. People spot phonies in an instant, and they can tell what is genuine. Everything you develop has to uphold the core brand.
By developing and extending core values and talents, you get more opportunities to do the kind of journalism you believe in. If you would like to see how journalists are using brands — and remember that Oprah and Beck have some journalistic strains — look up personal finance writer Michelle Singletary, columnist Thomas Friedman and sports writer Bill Simmons.
