International attention was focused on at least one social network this week — Elon Musk decided to buy Twitter, and the day before that he caused mass outrage among Ukrainians with his anti-Ukrainian tweets. What is the real reason or purpose of these statements, we can only guess for now.

What values ​​should be incorporated into building a personal brand?

Olena Derevianko: A successful long-term personal brand can only be based on the values ​​that this personality genuinely adheres to. Insincerity is immediately noticeable, just as the inconsistency of reputational ambitions with the existing reputational potential.

Yuriy Duma: Humanity and professionalism are fundamental values ​​that, in the long term, will help use the personal brand not only for promotion but also for social impact.

Olena Osypchuk: A personal brand today is impossible without a clear definition of its role in the processes taking place in the country. A civic position is an integral attribute of today’s and tomorrow’s personal brand strategy. Today, it is important to be not only a professional but also, in a sense, an activist, volunteer, leader of opinions on issues related to war and post-war recovery. Additionally, it is necessary to build partnership relations because not everything can be solved by budget, but almost everything can be addressed through relationships.

What communication tools will be most effective in budget cuts?

Olena Derevianko: The trends we have noted over the past years have reached their peak. Now, more than ever, it is important to:

• continuously work with internal stakeholders;
• have high-quality owned media (the larger the business, the more powerful they should be);
• establish relationships with target opinion leaders & influencers;
• build a comprehensive communications management system in real 360°, considering all suitable channels for promoting key messages;
• meticulously work on the content of each message and use all ethically acceptable opportunities for newsjacking.

Yuriy Duma: The war in Ukraine has become a new type of crisis that no one was prepared for. But, as with other crisis situations, there is a need for budget reallocation and directing it to those instruments that will guaranteed yield results in the short term — the so-called Performance Marketing. Using its tools, especially through social media channels, will be the most effective solution to maintain and even increase ROI. Simple image campaigns will likely take a pause or have budget cuts.

Olena Osypchuk: Corporate carriers, social networks, and the customers themselves who will receive a wow effect from your service/product and share it. In times of budget cuts, collaborations become important — finding like-minded individuals and partners with whom you can unite and in some cases share budgets, while in others provide products and carriers for barter. We need to learn to work with opinion leaders and word-of-mouth marketing — it’s difficult, but in terms of influence, it sometimes rivals mainstream media.