If you follow me on Twitter or are connected on Facebook, you may have noticed I’m a darts fan. Don’t worry; it only comes around for a couple of weeks a year.
I would like to say well done to Ted “The Count” Hankey after winning his second World Title tonight!
I would also like to share a few thoughts I’ve had about darts – a sport that has suffered a bad reputation in the past – and what we can learn about personal branding.
One thing (other than throwing darts) that dart players are good at is rallying the support of an audience. Where else do people dress up, shout slogans, do dance routines and yell numbers on a cold winters evening? And for sweaty balding men, no less!
It’s about more than playing good darts. Not just anyone that walks out there, scores 180 or checks out on the bull’s eye will be mobbed by the crowd when they come through for a drink at the bar after their match. In the same way that not everybody who signs up for a twitter account and says useful things will get 1000 followers.
You also have to work on how you present yourself and your brand.
A dart player might have a good nickname, like Phil “The Power” Taylor, just as you might have an easily recognisable online pseudonym. It can only help if there are endless puns to be made on banners by the audience hoping to be noticed by the television cameras. Equally you can bend and twist your pseudonym to make it memorable or just to up your key word density on any given web page.
Perhaps there is some imagery to go with it; you have a clean looking avatar that people can associate instantly with your presence. Ted “The Count” Hankey always comes on to the stage before a match dressed as Count Dracula and throws plastic bats into the audience. In fact most of the players have a representation of their nickname printed or embroidered on their shirts. These become iconic images associated with each player.
I had tickets to see second round matches at the Lakeside on Tuesday night. The biggest crowed hubbub was caused by Daryl “The Dazzler” Fitton. He comes on stage dancing to Madness’s “One Step Beyond” and wearing sunglasses. There were legions of fans there to see him, all dressed in black suits, hats and sunglasses.
It’s simple, it’s memorable and it’s easy for fans to show their support.
Just like we should all have a simple explanation of who we are and what we do, a memorable hook (whether that be a pseudonym or a URL) and make it easy for people to follow us by making RSS subscriptions easy to find and the “follow me on Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn etc.” call to action as prominent as possible.
So, that makes me Katharine “TheSourceress” Robinson and as sourcing (or sourcery) is my business, I would have to have Blondie’s “One Way Or Another” as my walk on music. Perhaps I would wear a witch’s hat too.
What would be your darting brand?
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