1. A Publishing and PR
Powerhouse: Defining
My Personal Brand
By: Arianna McLaughlin C2

2. Reading+ lit crit.+ publicity
+ culture…= my brand
Derek Zoolander: Who am I?
Derek’s reflection: I don't know.
Derek: I guess I have a lot of things to ponder.
It took me a while to determine my brand. At first I was too
focused on creating the “perfect brand,” instead of finding
out what makes me click.
It came down to what I love and what I see myself doing.
Reading and books have defined each stage of my life. I can’t
think of a way of “branding” myself without incorporating
that part of my identity.
Combing my love of reading and my interest in PR was the
obvious answer to my branding concerns

3. My Goals
 I want to establish myself as the go-to-girl for
literary PR in Canada
 I want to create a brand that feels natural to me
 I want to create a legitimate and authoritative voice
for my brand
 I want a brand that helps me take what I love
(reading) and turn it into a career in PR
 I want to be help increase the international profile
of Canadian authors

4. Key Messages

5. Where I am at now:
Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats
Knowledge Very limited Recent Decreasing
about literary online presence blockbusters like interest in
criticism Twilight are reading and
increasing the print in
online presence particular
of literature
Distinct Fear of putting Transitional Difficult to
perspective my “personal” time: traditional establish an
self out there publishing to authoritative
social media voice both
Dedicated and online and in
committed to literary
everything I community
start
Writing and Beginner in
reading skills technology

6. Objectives and Strategies
• Objective: To integrate myself into the Canadian literary
and publishing worlds
• Strategy: Increase my online presence
• Tactics:
• Launch my literary review blog by end of Nov. 2009
• Establish a presence on Canadian literary blogs like
the Quill & Quire by commenting on posts- at least 2
comments per month beginning Nov. 2009
• Increase the literary/PR focus of my Tweets- min. 3
Tweets a day, beginning Nov. 2009

7. Objectives and Strategies
(cont)
• Objective: To integrate my love of literature into my PR
career path
• Strategies: Create a brand that integrates literature and
PR
• Tactics:
• Review novels and the publicity they receive- begin
with 2 per month for Nov. 2009-Jan. 2010
• Focus my school assignments on publishing so I have
specific examples for my portfolio
• Conduct an analysis of Oprah’s current book club
selection and how the novel and author are affected by
the process –ongoing

8. Objectives and Strategies
(cont)
 Objective: To make PR and publishing industry
connections
 Strategies: Put myself out there online and at events
 Tactics:
 Use social networking sites to try to find a
mentor by January 2010
 Attend industry events beginning Nov. 2009
 Add more industry Twitter contacts- get in
contact with a least 5 by Dec. 2009.

9. Channels and Tools
SOCIAL
TWITTER BLOGS NETWORKING
SITES
Launch Use Humber
my blog- NING and
New industry end of LKSU30
contacts-make Nov. NING for
contact with 2009. contacts
5x a month Update 2x
a week
Comment Begin
ReTweet on industry using
industry blogs like Facebook
ppl. or Quill and as a
orgs. 5x a Quire to business
week get my tool
name out
there

10. CRITICAL PATH
BLOG TWITTER CONTACTS
• Blog will be launched • Increase industry • Get in touch with 5
by end of Nov. 2009 followers- 5 new Humber PR NING/
industry follower per LKAU30 NING contacts
• min. 2 reviews per month throughout Nov. and
month for Nov.-Jan Dec. 2009
2010 • ReTweet 5 related
Tweets per week • Attend 2 networking
• min. 2 other related beginning Nov. 2009 events outside Humber
posts a month for Nov- by the end of Dec. 2009
Jan 2010 • Min 3 Tweets per day
• Comment on other • Join CPRS mentorship
blogs at least 2x a program by end of Nov.
month until Jan. 2010 2009
• Jan.2010: reevaluate • Join IABC and CPRS by
blogging progress and the end of Nov. 2009
success- see if goals
should be changed • Engage with 5
members from each
org. by Jan. 2010

11. Self-evaluation
 My brand is a work in progress- I am still a beginner in brand
planning and social media . I’m learning as I go along
 I am going to continually update my plan and my brand as I
explore what personal branding is all about
 Self-evaluation will be a defining feature of my personal brand
plan – I need to know what works for me and what needs to
be changed. January 2010 will be a month review and revision
 At the end of the day, I need to…
TAKE CHANCES
PUT MYSELF OUT THERE
EVALUATE