Joining The Dots

More than 125,000 people have studied Dot Lung’s courses on personal branding and Instagram strategies for business growth. Adam Baggs talks to her about the importance of community, authenticity and dialogue

Tell us about your background

My parents are originally from Taiwan, but we emigrated to LA in the 80s. 25 years later, I decided to leave my US life and pursue my dream of travelling the world. It started in Barcelona and from there, I was able to make a living doing what I love.

How do you measure your success?

I created a course on Instagram Strategy, on how to grow you Instagram brand. I got a following of 115,000 followers as a result. But it’s more about the deep, meaningful connections I’ve achieved.

You have a lot of contacts to communicate with, how do you keep people engaged?

It’s pretty intense. I use a chatbot that

has an auto reply message that shares my freebies; I have an automatic DM responder that says ‘thank you for contacting me’, and gives info on my free ebook, discounts on the course, and about how to get some of my information. If they do their homework, they can get a deeper relationship.

What do you do?

Right now I teach people how to grow their personal brand as a business. It’s called the Dragons Formula – which has seven elements:

Dialogue Relatability Authenticity Giving value Opinions Niche Sales

It’s about ‘serving’ in order to sell. I take people through the pillars of the formula to create a magnetic presence online.

Who have you helped?

I’ve worked with Meta, Wickes, universities, food chains, global institutions, but I started at music festivals – including Sonar and Off – and spent time applying the methodology to design festivals, etc, that I chose to attend.

What’s been your most exciting work?

There’s always a new challenge. I moved to Tel Aviv recently where I’m working with new tech companies, humanising their product and brand. The secret is providing the human touch to everything. The high tech platforms coming out of Israel are very exciting to me.

I struggle doing pieces to camera, how do you go about ‘creating’ authenticity?

I was never comfortable in front of the camera either, but today I’m a "mother of social media dragons." It starts with having a dream in mind. For me social media was the most powerful free tool available, and when I saw the impact it could have I changed my mind.

So I started to do video and selfies, and this helped close the gap between people getting to know me to wanting to buy from me People message me often now saying they really want to work with me, but this relied on authenticity.

I realised I had to get over fears of being on camera, I had to practice. It’s natural to feel unnatural at first, but as a business,

you either hire someone to do it, or build the confidence by practicing and doing it yourself. You’ll work out what works, what doesn’t work, how to communicate – ultimately it’s about sharing your vision with others.

What’ve been important focus points in your career? I’ve been in social since 2004, when Facebook started, but I’ve been learning more about how to spend my time, and I know I do not want to spend it all on Instagram. Now that I’ve mastered it, I want to spend time doing other things I love. Travel is a passion. I’ve been invited by the president of El Salvador, Israel Tourism, and others to help them. Being able to travel the world has been truly a gift. I see myself doing more and teaching others how to do the same.

The ‘Dragons Formula’ explained...

Dialogue

The whole reason why social exists is down to relationships with other human beings and starting a conversation. If you can have a conversation you’re already ahead of the game. Dialogue builds trust which is vital to keeping customers.

Relatability

To feel relatability, you must feel emotion. This is why dogs and babies are

so popular.Authenticity

Be true to who you are. If you “fake it ‘til you make it”, you’ll get fake followers. Your vibe attracts your tribe.

Getting value

This is the backbone. Give, give, get. The law of reciprocity.

Opinions

This is a very political strategy. You should polarise people, so they get heated and want to engage more. Share your

true values and beliefs. People don’t follow you because you’re ‘Switzerland’.

Niche

This is what will make you rich. The better and more specific the problem you solve the better.

Sales

The more you serve, the more sales you will get, so serve and give. Your brand is not about you, it’s about the problem you solve for other people.