Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

The Personal is Professional: BSR Conference Brand Camp

Aug 29, 2016 11:00 AM ET
Campaign: The BSR Conference 2016: Be Bold

By Julia Robinson, Communications Manager, BSR

The internet nearly broke over a single tweet in June, when one presumptive U.S. presidential candidate urged another, “Delete your account” (employing a popular saying coined and used by Millennials and Generation Z to indicate disdain). The tweet now has more than 1 million interactions.

We are certainly living in interesting times. Who would have imagined that a social media platform once widely (and unfairly) derided as a way for the bored to update the bored on their daily minutiae would make front-page coverage in major media outlets—and be considered a huge influence in a presidential campaign?

In our changing digital landscape, many CEOs, world leaders, and grassroots organizers are beginning to realize that individuals need to be accessible, authentic, and personally invested in the issues at hand in order to create impact.

But building your own individual brand can be daunting, and that’s where we come in: The new "Brand Camp" track at the BSR Conference 2016 will help participants build personal and professional brands that drive sustainability impacts. Because when it comes down to it, sustainability—and being bold—starts with you.

  • “Be Bold in 5, 10, 20 Years,” led by CivicMakers, will help you build personal narratives to imagine a brighter future, with timelines to turn these visions into reality.
  • Led by Walk of Life Consulting, “Personal Branding for Sustainability Influence” will give you the tools needed to develop punchy, strategic, compelling elevator pitches about the work you do.
  • “Pitching a Convenient Truth” will help you develop strong messaging on how to advocate for climate leadership in your organization, with expert communicators from the Climate Reality Project and World Wildlife Fund.
  • “Sustainable Events” will use BSR’s and our partner Meet Green’s 20-plus years of experience to help you put on an event that showcases sustainability while implementing sustainable practices.
  • Finally, “So You Want to be a Social Media Star?” will guide you through best practices for your personal Twitter and LinkedIn accounts (including some ideas from yours truly).

As BSR’s social media manager and blog editor, I spend a good chunk of my time scanning Twitter feeds, tweaking turns of phrase, and distilling messages into concise pitches. I also help my colleagues build their own brands, by (gently) cajoling them into blogging, providing social media trainings, and connecting with them one-on-one on honing their messages. Because when they look good, BSR looks good (with apologies to Vidal Sassoon). And by encouraging BSR staff to be more human in our digital world, to use their hearts, heads, and business minds to create a sustainable future, I’m trying to further our mission.

With #BSR16 Brand Camp, we’re extending this approach to you, to help you make the personal professional—all in service of building a better world.