By Anna McDermott, Content Creator

Nancy Marshall, CEO Marshall CommunicationsIn Nancy Marshall’s first PR Maven® Podcast episode, she told us about her love of socializing and how it has helped her build not only her personal brand, as The PR Maven®, but the brand of her public relations company, Marshall Communications, as well. Even as a child, Nancy was extremely outgoing and loved making new friends around the world. As an adult, she learned that it was through her personal connections that she could start her company and help it grow each year. She had unknowingly created her own personal brand.

Personal branding is key to building any business. Nancy describes it as putting a stake in the ground for what you believe. If people like what you stand for, they will become a brand ambassador or fan. You can use these personal relationships to build your network and your brand, for your company or for yourself, and social media has become a powerful tool in brand building.

Nancy loves how social media has made making connections easier than ever. Whenever she is at a networking event or just out and about meeting people, she likes to connect with them on LinkedIn and often Twitter and Facebook. Before, if you met someone, you could exchange business cards and hope they’d remember you, but today, once connected on social media, they can get updates from you, learn more about your business and what makes you tick. These online relationships allow people to develop a real understanding of your brand, and begin to like and trust you, which is key to building any business. Social media helps extend our relationships by letting people create real connections across the country and even around the world. It makes building your brand easier than ever.

Nancy also uses her podcast as a great social tool – she interviews entrepreneurs and business owners from her network and shares with her listeners their tips and stories on how they built their business and personal brands. The podcast helps build her own personal brand and that of her guests.

As a true extrovert, Nancy is a proponent of setting up face-to-face meetings with social media acquaintances. While social media provides a fantastic foundation for building trust, there’s nothing better than real interaction for building your brand. She talks about the “happiness chemicals” that are transmitted through the brains of two people who are having a positive interaction: oxytocin and serotonin. She says that you only get these happy chemicals from actual face-to-face meetings, but that social media helps to extend relationships and make people stand out online.

By the way, you can find Nancy’s podcast on android platforms or on iTunes! Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.


The PR Maven® Podcast is presented by Marshall Communications, creator of The Marshall Plan® strategic process. The Marshall Plan is a fully customized document using our 65 proprietary steps and leads to a playbook for your success. If you think your business or organization would be a candidate for a Marshall Plan®, you can take our Marshall Plan quiz to find out.