Are You Building Your Personal Brand?
Are You Building Your Personal Brand?
To build your personal brand start by filling out your online profile on social networking sites including but not limited to Linkedin and Facebook. If you’re willing to devote the time to Twitter, then go there as well. If you’re willing to devote more time to it create a Flickr account with photos and a YouTube channel where you aggregate videos about your favorite topics.
It’s critical to understand one point though before you set out to build your personal brand. Whatever you put online stays online. And, your personal brand is you both professionally and personally. If you think you can build a personal brand about your 9 to 5 life and a separate personal brand about your evenings and weekends life, think again. The web has converged our lives into one platform.
How can you help your staff build their personal brand while also benefiting your organization? Start by embracing this concept because you will both benefit. Next, set out to build your own personal brand if you haven’t already. In most cases, whatever you do to build your personal brand you should encourage your staff to consider, though in their unique way. It’s important to know the area of expertise of your team members and encourage them to build personal brands around those strengths. Start with the basics described above by creating a footprint on the social web by getting them actively engaged in social networking sites. Make sure their profile is completed entirely. Upload a good picture of you that is current. Once you’ve filled out your profile you’re just getting started. Then, start connecting with people you know directly or indirectly. Use the Search feature to find people you used to work with or went to school with or are from your home town and connect with them. In LinkedIn you connect with others. In Facebook you friend others. In Twitter you follow others.
Chances are you’re already using at least one of these mentioned social web platforms. That’s great! But, are you building your personal brand with them and encouraging your staff to do the same? Perhaps, your staff has a head start on you and they’ve been bugging you to get started. You’ve resisted either because you thought it is for kids or because you think you don’t have the time. Well, Mr. or Ms. CEO, I’ve got news for you. Many of your peers are already there. Your absence is obvious. The train has left the station. Get on board!
Once you have your social profiles completed, how often do you upload content to your personal profile or to industry social sites? How often do you recommend others in your network? How often do you answer questions in online discussions? How often do you ask questions? How often do you check each of these platforms – once per month? Once per week? Daily? Hourly? In order to develop your personal brand you must be active in the online social platforms.
Here are some tips to consider in building your personal brand on the social web:
• Be visible: Stay active in which ever social web platform you choose to participate. When you are active you will be noticed more and you have more opportunity to engage with others.
• Be interesting: Whatever your subject matter expertise you probably have ideas to express. Think of creative ways to express your thoughts. Ask questions meant to get people thinking. Remember that often what is obvious to you is probably not so obvious to others. Don’t be shy about expressing your points and stimulating new conversations.
• Contribute: Similarly share your insights. We live in an economy where our content is our marketing. When you have good content to share, by all means share it! You’ll get recognized for it. Don’t be surprised if you get invited into more conversations, or invited to speak or write because you have contributed good content.
• Push the envelope: This one requires discretion especially if you are employed (as opposed to being self employed) or you are the CEO. You don’t want to create controversy which can have a negative impact on both you and your business. Using discretion you can be provocative and thought provoking with your ideas or methods of getting things done.
• Be real: This is critical. The social web is not a place to act or be someone you’re not. You may get away with it for a little while but not for too long.
• How do you want to be found? If you do a Google search on “personal branding” the number one listing (in early 2009) is a blog called Personal Branding Blog by Dan Shawbel. Develop your personal brand around something specific that you can use as your unique value proposition. Even if it doesn’t boil down to a single phrase like this example, you can still become known for something like “the gal you want to hire if you need to launch a new product in the (fill in the blank) industry.”
To promote your personal brand promote your presence on the web. Start with the simple tactics such as including links your social web profiles. If you have a blog, include graphic links to each of your social web profiles and invite people to connect to you.
Building your personal brand is too important to ignore. Businesses who understand the value of a personal brand do more than accept it, they embrace it. One of my favorite personal branding examples is Matt Cutts from Google. His personal brand is very recognizable to people in the Internet industry. Google benefits greatly from Cutts’ personal brand because he is so effective at conveying who he is as a person and as a Google engineer. Another good example is Scott Monty of the Ford Motor Company. Scott heads up social media at Ford. He is an active blogger and he is very active on Twitter. He delivers great content about Ford enhancing their reputation while he has built his own reputation as a social media strategist.
If it frightens you that your employees may leave once they develop their personal brand then I argue you have other problems to address. Such insecurity will fail you in an age of marketing on the social web. A strong personal brand will benefit you and your employees assuming other pieces of healthy employment are in place.
Personal branding is the new media version of reputation management. You can’t fight it. Embrace it for all its value. Personal branding does not have a line item in your marketing budget but it is a marketing asset. It takes time to develop and maintain. But, there is a strong argument for the opportunity cost of not allowing employees to develop a personal brand. One way or another they will do it. You may as well encourage them to do it in a mutually beneficial way.
Bernie Borges
@berniebay
Are You Building Your Personal Brand - To learn more about this author, visit Bernie Borges's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Fast forward to 2009 and our reputation isn’t even called that anymore. Now it’s called our personal brand. There are real dangers in not understanding the concept of a personal brand and how to develop and manage one. There is also a danger for employers to attempt to thwart employees from building their personal brand. The truth is an employee who builds a good personal brand has two benefactors: him or herself and their employer.
To build your personal brand start by filling out your online profile on social networking sites including but not limited to Linkedin and Facebook. If you’re willing to devote the time to Twitter, then go there as well. If you’re willing to devote more time to it create a Flickr account with photos and a YouTube channel where you aggregate videos about your favorite topics.
It’s critical to understand one point though before you set out to build your personal brand. Whatever you put online stays online. And, your personal brand is you both professionally and personally. If you think you can build a personal brand about your 9 to 5 life and a separate personal brand about your evenings and weekends life, think again. The web has converged our lives into one platform.
How can you help your staff build their personal brand while also benefiting your organization? Start by embracing this concept because you will both benefit. Next, set out to build your own personal brand if you haven’t already. In most cases, whatever you do to build your personal brand you should encourage your staff to consider, though in their unique way. It’s important to know the area of expertise of your team members and encourage them to build personal brands around those strengths. Start with the basics described above by creating a footprint on the social web by getting them actively engaged in social networking sites. Make sure their profile is completed entirely. Upload a good picture of you that is current. Once you’ve filled out your profile you’re just getting started. Then, start connecting with people you know directly or indirectly. Use the Search feature to find people you used to work with or went to school with or are from your home town and connect with them. In LinkedIn you connect with others. In Facebook you friend others. In Twitter you follow others.
Chances are you’re already using at least one of these mentioned social web platforms. That’s great! But, are you building your personal brand with them and encouraging your staff to do the same? Perhaps, your staff has a head start on you and they’ve been bugging you to get started. You’ve resisted either because you thought it is for kids or because you think you don’t have the time. Well, Mr. or Ms. CEO, I’ve got news for you. Many of your peers are already there. Your absence is obvious. The train has left the station. Get on board!
Once you have your social profiles completed, how often do you upload content to your personal profile or to industry social sites? How often do you recommend others in your network? How often do you answer questions in online discussions? How often do you ask questions? How often do you check each of these platforms – once per month? Once per week? Daily? Hourly? In order to develop your personal brand you must be active in the online social platforms.
Here are some tips to consider in building your personal brand on the social web:
• Be visible: Stay active in which ever social web platform you choose to participate. When you are active you will be noticed more and you have more opportunity to engage with others.
• Be interesting: Whatever your subject matter expertise you probably have ideas to express. Think of creative ways to express your thoughts. Ask questions meant to get people thinking. Remember that often what is obvious to you is probably not so obvious to others. Don’t be shy about expressing your points and stimulating new conversations.
• Contribute: Similarly share your insights. We live in an economy where our content is our marketing. When you have good content to share, by all means share it! You’ll get recognized for it. Don’t be surprised if you get invited into more conversations, or invited to speak or write because you have contributed good content.
• Push the envelope: This one requires discretion especially if you are employed (as opposed to being self employed) or you are the CEO. You don’t want to create controversy which can have a negative impact on both you and your business. Using discretion you can be provocative and thought provoking with your ideas or methods of getting things done.
• Be real: This is critical. The social web is not a place to act or be someone you’re not. You may get away with it for a little while but not for too long.
• How do you want to be found? If you do a Google search on “personal branding” the number one listing (in early 2009) is a blog called Personal Branding Blog by Dan Shawbel. Develop your personal brand around something specific that you can use as your unique value proposition. Even if it doesn’t boil down to a single phrase like this example, you can still become known for something like “the gal you want to hire if you need to launch a new product in the (fill in the blank) industry.”
To promote your personal brand promote your presence on the web. Start with the simple tactics such as including links your social web profiles. If you have a blog, include graphic links to each of your social web profiles and invite people to connect to you.
Building your personal brand is too important to ignore. Businesses who understand the value of a personal brand do more than accept it, they embrace it. One of my favorite personal branding examples is Matt Cutts from Google. His personal brand is very recognizable to people in the Internet industry. Google benefits greatly from Cutts’ personal brand because he is so effective at conveying who he is as a person and as a Google engineer. Another good example is Scott Monty of the Ford Motor Company. Scott heads up social media at Ford. He is an active blogger and he is very active on Twitter. He delivers great content about Ford enhancing their reputation while he has built his own reputation as a social media strategist.
If it frightens you that your employees may leave once they develop their personal brand then I argue you have other problems to address. Such insecurity will fail you in an age of marketing on the social web. A strong personal brand will benefit you and your employees assuming other pieces of healthy employment are in place.
Personal branding is the new media version of reputation management. You can’t fight it. Embrace it for all its value. Personal branding does not have a line item in your marketing budget but it is a marketing asset. It takes time to develop and maintain. But, there is a strong argument for the opportunity cost of not allowing employees to develop a personal brand. One way or another they will do it. You may as well encourage them to do it in a mutually beneficial way.
Bernie Borges
@berniebay
Are You Building Your Personal Brand - To learn more about this author, visit Bernie Borges's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Bernie's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Joint Ventures ebook Positive Thinking Relational Software Meditation Guide Federal and State Laws |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Marketing Blogs
Top Marketing Blogs of 2010 | |
 |
Top 50 Debt Blogs
Learn To Get Out Of Debt | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
