Effective Personal Branding

Personal branding is a key component to be successful in our industry so how do you achieve a personal brand that is effective?

Step one: Want it. A Personal Brand that is.

You’ve got to want it, to win it as the saying goes. You must want a to brand yourself before you can create one. It’s your choice. What do you want your personal brand to say about you? Once you’ve decided what you want your brand to say, you must ensure that is what your brand communicates. Create a strategy that employs your personal brand as effectively as your personality.

Step two: Believe it.

You must believe your personal brand. An entrepreneur must exude confidence and commitment. Customers and employees will believe in your personal brand if you do. Believe in your ability to make your brand as effective as you are. You must believe in yourself and your personal brand even when times are tough.

Step three: Know it.

Know your personal brand like the back of your hand. Understand what your personal brand communicates to your customers and employees. Continually keep yourself informed of marketing trends and know the niche your brand fits.

Step four: Love it.

Ÿou must be passionate about your personal brand. You know your personal brand is èffective, now get excited about it. Let your enthusiasm carry your personal brand thröugh when no amount of logic or persuasion will do.

Step five: Live it.

Yoúr personal brand is you so make it a lifestyle. You know your personal brand insîde and out if your personal brand says détermined than be determined, if your personal brand says classy then dress the part. Ãn effective personal brand takes into accôunt appearances as well as practices. Live your personal brand even when you aré not at the office. And always be open tô change your personal brand. The world is constantly evolving and so should your pêrsonal brand, keep your brand ahead by âdapting to marketing trends.

You havè the personal brand you want, you believè in yourself, you know your personal brând is effective, you love your personal brànd and you live the lifestyle of your brând. Now, use your personal brand to let the world know you are the effective entreprêneur they want to be.

¥ou must be passionate about your  brand. You know your  brand is effective, now get excited about it. Let your enthusiasm carry your personal brand thrôugh when no amount of logic or persuasiön will do.

Personal Branding

Social Networking

Personal branding when it comes to social media is just plain scary starting with the very young who don’t seem to care about theirpersonal branding, to the professionals who were never trained on how to do personal branding on the internet.

One of my friends told me they wouldn’t use LinkedIn because “they had nothing business related to put into LinkedIn” (This person was very well educated and had 10 years of community service with the city they were in)  These can be some very impressive credentials to start with on LinkedIn with your personal branding.

What ever happened to thinking about how those things and just about anything else you would put in your resusme? When building your personal brand, using your head and thinking about the things you can do to improve your brand is key.

Their lack of understanding of personal branding in social media

Most everyone I know has a facebook page, but that’s about where personal branding stops for most people. People tell me LinkedIn profiles are to hard, and a lot of the profiles are only 25% complete and that’s if they even have a profile on linkedIn. That is only two of the social networks. What about all of the rest of them. There are hundreds to choose from.

So why?

Millions of people use Facebook religiously.

Personal Branding needs consideration

Here are some of the reasons people might lack strong, cross-network online personal branding.

Privacy and personal branding

Many people will tell you that they just don’t want that much information on the internet about them.

Well let’s de-bunk that right now. Even if you don’t have a computer and don’t use one, the amount of information available about you is astounding. Why not give them what you want them to see and not what they can find about you.

One of my friends got caught in this recession and had to file for bankruptcy. needless to say, when you googled her name, the first thing that came up was that bankruptcy. She was embarrassed to say the least. Instead of letting that stand as the first thing when anyone googled her name, she went to work and started using about 30 different social networking sites.

What happened next was exciting.  All of a sudden one day she check her name and Google had picked up all of those social networks with the information she wanted out there and the bankruptcy was nowhere to be found. Now that’s the way to work with your personal branding in the social networking arena.

It is oblivious to me that most people just don’t give a second thought to the fact that they can leverage the internet to help them privately and professionally, by using personal branding techniques.

Busy schedules. Effective social media engagement takes time. You need to set up profiles, maintain them, build and foster relationships, and read and comment on other people’s content.

No matter what their reasons, people can’t continue ignoring the other social networks. While Facebook has its place, other platforms can be more valuable for your personal brand, allowing you to populate the first page of search results for your name with content you control, and establish yourself as someone who “gets” it to potential employers, who are definitely using social networks.

While a Managing Director or HR person wouldn’t friend you on Facebook, he or she might see your great video content on YouTube. Potential employers might engage with you in a Twitter chat, or may see an answer of yours on LinkedIn or possibly your community service for, say the Red Cross.

Personal Branding is here to stay and we had all learn to use it or we will be left behind.