打造个人品牌的重要性被高估了

本文为与《创业者》杂志（Entrepreneur）的合作内容，最初发表于Entrepreneur.com。

在最新著作《Growth Hacker Marketing》中，赖安•霍利迪探讨了传统的预算高昂的营销部门如何被更高效的小团队（有时甚至是个人）取代，后者正利用一些可追踪和可衡量的工具来使企业得到增长。

而且整个过程通常不用花一分钱。这些人被称为growth hacker，已经帮助Facebook、Dropbox和AppSumo等公司实现了“从0到100”的快速增长。

安德鲁•陈于2010年将growth hacker描述为“营销人员和程序员的综合体，针对‘我如何给自己的产品带来客户？’这一传统问题，他们采用A/B组测试、登陆页、病毒性传播因子、电子邮件营销以及开放图谱（Open Graph）等手段来寻找答案。

从本质上来说，growth hacker创造性地使用各种营销和分析工具，帮助初创企业以极低成本甚至零成本获得牵引力、用户以及曝光。这是游击队式营销与当今的技术工具结合的产物。

霍利迪详述了Evernote初期的情况，当时，这家年轻的公司决定绕开传统的营销和广告方式，将所有精力和资源都集中到打造一款人们一来就会爱上的产品上。

Evernote首席执行官菲尔•利宾在赖安的书中表示：“只有一心想着做出最棒产品的人，才可能做出最棒的产品。”

如果产品过硬，那么其营销和广告将毫不费力，而且很可能成本相对较低（甚至是零成本）。当然，如果产品本身不行，就算在超级碗（Super Bowl）或世界杯（World Cup）上一掷千金做推广也无济于事，最多也就是令产品苟延残喘一阵。

我刚搬到硅谷时，经常有人建议我努力打造个人品牌，即以某种方式营销或宣传自己。这似乎有些奇怪，因为当时我刚开始到导航应用公司Waze工作，什么都还没做。

但那些博客、聚会、连续创业者都反复强调，个人品牌十分重要。他们本应该告诉我（我现在要告诉诸位）的是，作为一名新员工，脚踏实地、努力工作十分重要。

现在回头来看，“注重个人品牌”是我至今得到的最糟糕的建议。这个建议使我开始考虑其他的事情，而不是做出最棒的产品以及全力投入工作。

我当时以为，通过以某种方式策划并提升自身形象，我就能更快的增加曝光度、提高个人声誉。

This post is in partnership with Entrepreneur. The article below was originally published at Entrepreneur.com.

In his recent book, Growth Hacker Marketing, Ryan Holiday explored how traditional big-budget marketing is being replaced by more effective small teams (and sometimes individuals) who are using trackable and scalable tools to grow companies.

And usually it’s done without spending a dime. They’re called growth hackers, and they’ve helped companies like Facebook, Dropbox and AppSumo go from “0 to 100” real quick.

Andrew Chen, who adopted the term in 2010, described growth hackers as “a hybrid of marketer and coder, one who looks at the traditional question of ‘How do I get customers for my product?’ and answers with A/B tests, landing pages, viral factor, email deliverability, and Open Graph.”

Essentially growth hackers use tools in creative thinking, marketing and analysis to help startups gain traction, users and exposure at very low or no cost. Think of guerrilla marketing with today’s technological tools.

Holiday recounts the early days of Evernote, when the young company decided to bypass traditional marketing and advertising and instead focused all its attention and resources on building a product that people would come to love.

As Evernote CEO Phil Libin said via Ryan’s book,“People [who are] thinking about things other than making the best product never make the best product.”

If the product is good, then its marketing and advertising will be easy to accomplish and probably at a relative lower cost (or no cost). Of course, if it’s a horrible product, millions spent at the Super Bowl or World Cup won’t help sway users. That marketing push will just prolong the inevitable.

When I first moved to Silicon Valley, I consistently received advice to work on my personal brand — that is, to market and advertise myself in a certain way. At first it seemed odd since I had just started working at Waze and hadn’t actually done anything.

But the blogs, the meetups, the serial entrepreneurs all reiterated how important a personal brand was. What they should have told me — and what I’m now sharing — is the importance keeping my head down as a new employee and putting in work.

As I now look back, focusing on a personal brand was the worst piece of advice I ever got. In effect, I began thinking about things other than making the best product or doing my best work.

I thought that by curating and growing my image in a certain way I would gain more exposure and grow my reputation at a faster rate.

但问题在于，我当时实际并没有提供价值。那时，我一心只关注自身形象。我会反复地检查确认自己在社交媒体上发布的每个帖子。我会不厌其烦的宣传公司业绩，就为了给自己长脸，虽然那些业绩同我几乎没有半毛钱关系。

我可能太天真了，误入歧途，执迷于打造自身形象。但我自我推广和打造个人品牌的做法很自私，结果适得其反，使我的本职工作受到了影响。

幸运的是，情况最终没有失控，也没有令我失去朋友、错过机会或者丢掉饭碗。原因很自然，我要想在Waze取得成功，就必须迅速成长。

所以说，职场新人们，别发愁或费劲去打造个人品牌。工作出色、为人正派，自然就会有个人品牌。这听起来容易，做起来却很难。

人们宣传或展示自己的成绩无可厚非。毕竟，你不自我推销，谁会来推销你？但关键在于，先干出成绩，然后再打造个人品牌，否则就是本末倒置。然而，许多创业者把时间都花在面子工程上，结果盛名之下，其实难副。这就好比一辆汽车油漆刷得极好，却没有发动机。根本开不了。

随着越来越多的80、90后加入创业大军，他们将面临塑造个人事迹和形象的压力。这一点我曾感同身受。但别把时间和精力放在与做出最佳成绩无关的事情上。

别担心得不到赞美或没被人记住。前阿森纳（Arsenal）和英格兰（England）队队长托尼•亚当斯有一句名言：“在绿茵场上尽力为你的球队而战，你的名字将被人记住。”

不论你是实习生还是销售经理，都应该将全部精力放在你的工作或项目上。如此一来，你将赢得口碑，个人品牌也将得到提升。没错，这需要时间，但正如古罗马哲学家爱比克泰德所言：“但事实是，公牛不会霎时间成熟，人也不会一夜之间成为英雄。”

个人品牌不是由人们精心发布的微博消息构成，也不是由人们选择共享的图片决定。这些都只是声誉的一小部分。最重要（也最困难）的部分，是某人长期以来日以继夜做出的行动、决策以及工作的总和。

如果个人品牌没有价值支撑，就会一文不值。但出色的工作则既可追踪又可衡量。（财富中文网）

译者：Hunter

审校：Lina

But the problem was that I wasn’t actually delivering value. My focus was overwhelmingly on me, me and me. I would double- and triple-check every social media post. I would go out of my way to paint company achievements in ways that would make me look better, even if I had little or nothing to do with said accomplishment.

I may have been naive and misguided, as I thought I was supposed to build my image. But my efforts in promoting myself and my personal brand were selfish, counterproductive and took away from the real work I should have been doing.

Luckily, this did not get out of hand or cost me relationships, opportunities or my job because, of course, if I wanted to succeed at Waze, I had to shape up real quick.

Those who are just starting out, don’t worry or bother with a personal brand. That will come as a by-product of doing great work and being a good person. This sounds easy in theory. But it’s very hard in practice.

There is nothing wrong about an individual’s selling or showcasing her work. After all, if someone doesn’t promote herself, who will? But the key is to do good work first then build a brand — not the other way around. Yet so many entrepreneurs spend all their time building an image that the track record doesn’t support. It’s like a car with a great paint job but no engine. It doesn’t go.

As more and more millennials enter the startup scene, the pressure will be on them to build a story and an image. Trust me, I felt that pressure. But don’t focus on anything that’s not about doing the best work.

Don’t worry about being credited or remembered. As former Arsenal and England captain Tony Adams famously said, “Play for the name on the front of the shirt, and they’ll remember the name on the back.”

Whether hired to serve as an intern or a sales manager, focus on the work or project and give 100 percent. By doing that, word will get around and a personal brand will grow. Yes, it takes time but as Epictetus said,“It is true, however, that no bull reaches maturity in an instant, nor do men become heroes over night.”

A personal brand isn’t the sum of tweets that people so mindfully post. It isn’t the pictures that someone chooses to share. That’s just a small part of a reputation. The most important — and the hardest — part is the collection of actions, decisions and work that a person does day in and day out over a long period of time.

A personal brand is worthless if it’s not backed up. But good work? That’s trackable and scalable.