Personal Branding and Social Networking

Personal Branding Tips plus Social Networking and Marketing

Brand Me

Article by Bradley Hess

Define yourself. When beginning this is the first step in branding yourself you need to realize that you are very good, even an expert, at what you do. You surround yourself, either in your job or in your circle of friends, with others who are experts in what you know. Then, you begin to believe that everyone knows what you know and you see yourself as average and begin making mental statements such as “What do I have to offer that is different or unique? Everyone knows what I know.”

WRONG.

You have friends, neighbors, and associates that come to you asking for your help and advice. Or perhaps asking, “can you teach me how to do that?” What kinds of questions do they ask you? Ask yourself this powerful question:

“What sort of things are people asking me when they ask ‘Can I pick your brain for a minute?’”

Fire You Financial Advisor suggests the following to stimulate ideas on who you are and how you can stand out:

“Do you have a certain skill where someone said ‘Can you teach me that?’ Or, have you overcame a certain experience, such as death of a loved one, divorce, financial ruin, raising children, passed a training, etc? Sometimes, we discredit our own uniqueness because ‘it’s just our life.’ However, there are others that have questions or problems that want answers that YOU can offer.” They go on to suggest you ask yourself the following questions:

“What was I being asked to teach or do when someone asked “Can I pick your brain for a minute?” What skill/hobby did a person ask me to teach them? What difficult experiences did I overcome? What do I constantly get compliments on that I downplay? What “quirky” things do I do?”

Be known as the expert in one thing — stand for something! Find your niche, something you are passionate about.

Create a signature look. Something people will recognize immediately. I’ve often told people if you were to find a piece of product literature on the ground and the brand or logo had been torn off, would you know who created the piece? If it came from Apple Computer you would. They have their signature look to everything they create. You can too.

This could be your unique name or a unique nick name. A friend of mine has a very common name and has become an expert in social media. He created a signature and calls himself “SocialSam”. Laurie Pehar Borsh from Laurie Pehar Borsh Personal PR Productions has a simple logo she always associates with her name.

Maybe your signature look is a tagline. My son has a tagline or mantra of “No food, only music the doctor says!”. Yes, he is a musician. For others, their signature look is their attire or hair. For others it is a greeting. An Irishman I know always answers the phone or greets people in the morning with “Top of the mornin’!” This is his signature.

Maybe it is as simple as a unique business card. A good friend of mine just handed me his new business card that looked and felt like a circuit board! What is unique about what I do, what I love, what I know?

Step back from yourself and ask yourself, how do others see me?

Become well known for one thing – you’ve got to stand for something or you stand for nothing. Find your niche. This is NOT the time to play it safe. Doing just enough to blend in to the crowd will get you just that, you’ll blend in and when someone needs your advice or expertise they will not be able to find you. Creating a personal elevator pitch with your “who” and “do what” statement followed by your “why” statement will keep you on track and focused on your goals. Without clearly understanding your personal brand, it will be difficult to stand out and be found when someone is looking for you.

Your “who” and “do what” statement is a very simple thought about yourself. Keep it simple and easy to understand. It answers the question “who are you and what do you do?” concisely and in a fashion that is memorable.

For example, which says more and has more impact:

“My name is Jack and I am a business consultant”.

Or

“I’m Jack. I help business owners and sales professionals grow their clientele.”

Simple, yet powerful. You answer the question of whom you help and what you help them get or do. Depending on what type of professional you are, your “who” and “do what” statement should include the following elements:

- As a business owner this statement should express who your target market is and what problems you solve for that market

- As an employee this statement should express what problems and obstacles you tackle for your managers and bosses.

- As a salesperson this statement should express who your target customers are and what problems you solve for them. It should also express what goals you are helping your boss achieve through your sales expertise

Here is another example. “Telecom Senior Executive who took a startup to 0MM annual sales with MM EBITDA in less than three years.” This directly speaks to a potential client or employer and says who you are and what you can do for them backed up by a history of success.

Now tell me, why do you do it anyway? Why do you get up every day to help them get what they want? My favorite interview question is “What gets you out of bed every morning?” An alarm clock is the wrong answer! I’m not looking for a specific answer but rather to discover the passion driving someone’s life. Your “why” not only drives the choices you make, but it also affects how others connect emotionally to what you do for them. The why is reflected in everything you do. It completes your personal brand.

Michael Port, Entrepreneur Magazine has this why statement: “Because I want to help people think bigger about who they are and what they offer the world.” He goes on to say “I can go one step further and turn my why statement into a tag line to spread my personal brand and increase my sales potential: ‘The guy to call when you are tired of thinking small.’ This expresses the most fundamental, deepest part of my character.” Michael Port, Entrepreneur Magazine – January 2010

Guy Kawasaki, The Art of the Start, inspired by John Doerr, says

“The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning—to create a product or service that makes the world a better place.

“Does the product or service you are pursuing change lives for the better? Change the world we live in for the better? Offer something incredible previously out of reach of the average person?”

If what you are doing provides one of these benefits or similar benefits and fits your personal “why” you are on the road to success. Your brand is beginning to take shape. Your personal brand is built on a solid foundation.With your “who”, “do what”, and “why” statements in hand and in your heart go forth and “make meaning”.

About the Author

For this and other articles by Brad Hess, please go to http://www.mymark.com/articles. MyMark, LLC is a media rich professional social networking website that gives you the tools to use social media optimization to enhance your search engine optimization and generate revenue. Visit http://www.mymark.com/ today to set up your free account!

What is personal branding?

Article by Tola Ajayi

In the past few years personal branding has been discussed exhaustively throughout the Net. The difference between today and over ten years ago when it was first mentioned by Tom Peters, is the rise of social technologies that have made branding not only more personal, but within reach.

From the corporate brand (BMW), to the product brand (BMW M3 Coupe) and down to the personal brand (car salesman), branding is a critical component to a customer’s purchasing decision. These days, customer complaints and opinions are online and viewable through a simple search, on either Google or through social networks. There is no hiding anymore and transparency and authenticity are the only means to survive and thrive in this new digital kingdom.

Many people think that personal branding is just for celebrities such as Paris Hilton or Britney Spears, yet each and every one of us is a brand. Personal branding, by definition, is the process by which we market ourselves to others. As a brand, we can leverage the same strategies that make these celebrities or corporate brands appeal to others. We can build brand equity just like them.

Personal branding is basically the way you market yourself to the world. Your personal brand is what other people think of you. In some ways it’s outside your control, but you obviously have some influence over it.

Personal branding is unavoidable. As others interact with you, they’ll automatically form mental associations that connect you with certain labels, often within the first few seconds. You can’t avoid being labeled, and other people can’t avoid labeling you. It happens automatically because our brains are wired to recognize patterns and form associations. The labels people attach to you become part of your personal brand.

If you type an email, you’re branding yourself. If you have a conversation with a friend or family member, you’re branding yourself. How you dress, what you eat, and how you talk all contribute to your brand. Think of your brand as the summation of all the associations about you that are stored in people’s minds.

Brand interaction

It’s expected that your internal brand and your external brand won’t completely coincide, and that’s OK, but those incongruencies can create interesting interactions that help you grow in unexpected ways.

For example, people sometimes send me emails indicating they find me a bit quirky or strange. That’s how they see me, but it isn’t really how I see myself. However, I can understand why people see me this way because I’m really curious about a lot of things, I like to learn through direct experience, and I especially enjoy creative undertakings. So while I don’t try to be intentionally quirky, I must admit that is a side effect of my general approach to life. By understanding that this is how others see me, however, I can acknowledge it up front, such as by poking fun at myself for undertaking yet another strange experiment, even though it doesn’t seem that way to me. When I do something strange and don’t acknowledge the strangeness, people can feel disconnected from me, but when I show that I’m aware of their perceptions, it keeps us connected. find out : what is personal branding

About the Author

tola ajayi is a writer by trade and he enjoys writing on a wide range of topics