Paul Orford

Quick Questions with Ashley Jones

PAUL ORFORD

Ashley Jones -Founder of Great Influence

Q How did you find yourself in this industry?

In 2014, my friend Steven Bartlett decided to start an agency called Social Chain, where I was part of the founding team. My role within the business was to help him build his personal brand. This was an incredibly successful project that helped Social Chain become a 200m public company and make Steven the UK’s most influential young entrepreneur.

One challenge I often find with CEO’s is that they like to stay under the radar in my industry. Can you outline why they should be more visible? I think we’re moving to a time when everything demands they don’t stay under the radar. Sales, recruitment, culture - they all need a leading voice and a CEO should be that voice. The reason for doing so is very clear - building that personal brand will help transform the business.

Q Why would a CEO use your service?

We often find that even those who already have a public presence aren’t sure exactly what their voice is and who they’re trying to be very clearly. Our role is to understand and define that and then know how best to create content that engages people with that identity.

Q Why do they need your service?

I think for any CEO running a business, it’s impossible to have the focus to build your personal brand without a team around you to help enable it as a strategical approach.

Q Is this different to PR from say perhaps 10 years ago. Has the paradigm moved on where you have to be visible as we only exist on social media?

For the first time there are no barriers to building a personal brand. Previously if you wanted to build your personal brand there were gatekeepers - PR, Event bookers etc. but now you just use your owned social media channels to reach potentially millions of people for free.

Q Some people who read this, may think this is like the emperor’s new clothes,How do you become a specialist?

Ashley Jones Founder of Great Influence

The fundamentals of personal branding in business have been around for decades - people buy from people - the more influential and recognisable a person you are in your industry, the more likely people are to buy from you. It’s just been package now into a service and easier to build one than previous due to social media.

Q How do you quantify success on social media?

Not likes or followers - but impact on the individual and the business in relation to opportunities driven.

Q Can a brand be truly judged a success without having a visible CEO on social media?

Of course, and I think for CEOs of consumer brands this isn’t a necessary, but for anyone in B2B and service businesses it’s becoming a huge competitive advantage.

Q Will the budget reflect your visibility and success?

You can do it yourself for free and do an amazing job, so technically no, but like with anything in marketing - you can hire experts who can help you understand it better.

Q What tips can you give on becoming visible?

Fundamentally you have to want to do it and have a very clear ‘why’ for starting. Then it comes down to understanding what you are trying to be a voice on and being consistent in creating content that reflects that.

Q What’s the best way to reach you for a consultation?

On LinkedIn, search my name and I will come up or via our website www.greatinfluence.co.uk