Sunday, June 26, 2016

5 steps to build your Personal Brand




From PeopleMatters, Shibani Belwalkar offers 5 steps to build your personal brand.  She starts by recommending you identify your passion and then align your brand with your personal values.  She writes:

Identify your Passion

What makes you tick? Call out your strengths and label them. Get as close to the basics as you can and be eloquent about what it is you believe you have on offer to the world. Several attempts could be made before you can zero in on what really defines you. But what is important is to believe in the fact that you had a purpose in life before anyone had an opinion about it! Start where you are, use what you have and do what you can. Keep characterizing yourself. Precise, concise and consistent. 

Scale your Values to Articulate your Identity

Once you have defined yourself, you need to articulate your identity with your values. The Greek Philosopher Heraclitus had said that ‘Character is fate’. After all, if people like you, they will listen to you, but if they trust you, they will do business with you. Reputation matters tremendously. Admit mistakes if you make them. Work with all stakeholders to create mutually beneficial solutions to forge deeper relations. The base of all interactions should be Trust, Respect and Humility, fundamental human values. Every interaction should reflect your values.  Brands don’t just live on the page anymore.  They are living breathing things. It is important to build your brand that is aligned with your values so that your actions are aligned with the message you are putting out there.
Read the full story at  5 steps to build your Personal Brand.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

How To Build Your Brand Online


When you have developed your brand, you may want to build it online.  Fortunately, FreeWebsite.com  developed the following infographic to help guide you in building your brand online. 


If you have trouble reading it, it also appears at How to Build Your Brand Online as part of Job Search Infographics


Sunday, June 12, 2016

How to Build a Brand of Awesomeness


Mackwebsolutions.com has prepared a great infographic on how to build a brand of awesomeness. Start with defining your goals and don't forget to measure and analyze your results.





For more infographics, see Job Search Infographics

Sunday, June 5, 2016

What Does Your Brand Stand For?




While developing your personal brand, you might think about what kind of character your brand is.
eswstorylab prepared the following infographic that summarizes twelve basic types of characters.




If you have trouble reading this here, it also appears at What Does Your Brand Stand For? as apart of Job Search Inforgraphics with other infographics.

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Your Digital Footprint And The Permanent Job Search





From Talent Culture, Andrew Heikkila discusses hows your online activity affects your brand and your ability to find a job.  Your digital footprint plays a significant role in determining your pesonal brand.  He offers 7 recommendations to clean up your online activity:

  1. First, Google yourself. See what pops up. If your name is common, add variations including your hometown and high school. If anything that you wouldn’t want an employer to see pops up, contact the site and ask them to take it down.
  2. Beef up your privacy settings. Think of them as the new business clothes of the real world.
  3. Remove risqué content. This one is most essential for high school and college graduates, but everybody on the job hunt would do well to give their “photos” section a once-over.
  4. Delete your inactive profiles. They make your footprint look sloppy and serve as nothing more than security risks.
  5. Check blogs and forums too. While your social media profiles might look pristine, those two or three unscrupulous AngelFire blog posts from ten years ago might still be around.
  6. Use a pen name. There’s nothing wrong with having hobbies not considered “business professional.” For the most ardently adventurous, romping-ly risqué, and wonderfully weird subjects… consider a pen name.
  7. Stay vigilant. Concerts, bachelorette parties, weddings, and nights in Las Vegas won’t stop happening just because you got a new job. Just make sure your media is under control, and you won’t have to scrub again.

Read the full story at Your Digital Footprint And The Permanent Job Search






Sunday, May 22, 2016

5 Branding tips from the Presidential Election







From Inc.comName.Kitchen offers 5 branding tips gleaned from the presidential election, including using a variety of domain names.  My two favorite tips are: 
2) Go for feeling over facts
Many companies fear that an emphasis on entertainment will detract from the seriousness of their message, but experts say they need to get over that. "We like to tell ourselves we are thoughtful, rational, careful and deliberate,” says Alec Beckett, creative director of Nail, an advertising agency in Providence, RI. “If anything, we’re the opposite: impulsive, emotional, even irrational.” That means that, often, what draws in consumers is not a reasoned argument about why one option is better than another; it’s about what makes them feel better.
On the GOP side, Beckett credits Donald Trump's success to the fact that, "He’s not selling a thing, he’s selling a feeling," which is largely anger against the establishment. On the Democrats' side, Beckett considers Bernie Sanders's "America" spot, which has garnered more than 3.3 million views on YouTube, "the most effective piece of campaign communication I’ve seen. It has no content--it doesn’t say what he’s for or what he’s against--it just evokes a really nice feeling.” 
The lesson for companies, Beckett believes, is that “when you’re just trying to get people's attention, go for a feeling" rather than pitching the specific virtues of your product or service. 
... 
4) Don't just broadcast: Engage
Remember that the point of digital platforms is to create the opportunity for dialogue. “It’s not about putting out your talking points,” says Horizon’s Olson. “It’s about saying something relevant to an issue and then inviting people into a conversation.  
Consider voter.guru, a new website that tracks candidates’ public statements and voting records to help users determine who they should vote for. Launched with backing by Horizon, some 6,000 people per week are taking a 14-question quiz that helps match their viewpoint to candidates’ platforms, says co-founder Ben Krakow. Naturally, the results are easily shareable on social media. "Think of it as a simple yet nuanced dialogue between voters and the candidates' platforms and voting records," Olson says.
Of course, oftentimes digital dialogues are anything but nuanced. When businesses invite engagement they open themselves up to comments of all kinds. That means you have to be prepared for negative responses, and have a smart strategy for responding.
First, says Etori, resist the urge to hide; instead, respond as quickly and as sincerely as possible (while, as he says, resisting the practice of certain presidential candidates to respond by attacking your critics). The next step is to be accountable. Even if you have a social media team that normally handles your posts, make sure they reflect your voice and truly take responsibility for whatever went wrong or was miscommunicated. Step three is to step back. "Get in front of a complaint or other issue at the beginning and then let it go," says Etori. "You don't have to keep apologizing over and over."  
Read the full story Slick & Smart: 5 Digital Branding Tips from this Election Season

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Tom Peters: The Brand Called You




In 1997, Fast Company published an article by Tom Peters called The Brand Called You.  This article started the movement to personal branding.  While everyone knew that they might have a reputation, Tom developed the idea that you should proactively shape your own reputation.  From this article came the industry around personal branding.  Tom started it all when he wrote:

Starting today you are a brand.
You're every bit as much a brand as Nike, Coke, Pepsi, or the Body Shop. To start thinking like your own favorite brand manager, ask yourself the same question the brand managers at Nike, Coke, Pepsi, or the Body Shop ask themselves: What is it that my product or service does that makes it different? Give yourself the traditional 15-words-or-less contest challenge. Take the time to write down your answer. And then take the time to read it. Several times.
If your answer wouldn't light up the eyes of a prospective client or command a vote of confidence from a satisfied past client, or — worst of all — if it doesn't grab you, then you've got a big problem. It's time to give some serious thought and even more serious effort to imagining and developing yourself as a brand.
Start by identifying the qualities or characteristics that make you distinctive from your competitors — or your colleagues. What have you done lately — this week — to make yourself stand out? What would your colleagues or your customers say is your greatest and clearest strength? Your most noteworthy (as in, worthy of note) personal trait?
Go back to the comparison between brand You and brand X — the approach the corporate biggies take to creating a brand. The standard model they use is feature-benefit: every feature they offer in their product or service yields an identifiable and distinguishable benefit for their customer or client. A dominant feature of Nordstrom department stores is the personalized service it lavishes on each and every customer. The customer benefit: a feeling of being accorded individualized attention — along with all of the choice of a large department store.
So what is the "feature-benefit model" that the brand called You offers? Do you deliver your work on time, every time? Your internal or external customer gets dependable, reliable service that meets its strategic needs. Do you anticipate and solve problems before they become crises? Your client saves money and headaches just by having you on the team. Do you always complete your projects within the allotted budget? I can't name a single client of a professional services firm who doesn't go ballistic at cost overruns.
Your next step is to cast aside all the usual descriptors that employees and workers depend on to locate themselves in the company structure. Forget your job title. Ask yourself: What do I do that adds remarkable, measurable, distinguished, distinctive value? Forget your job description. Ask yourself: What do I do that I am most proud of? Most of all, forget about the standard rungs of progression you've climbed in your career up to now. Burn that damnable "ladder" and ask yourself: What have I accomplished that I can unabashedly brag about? If you're going to be a brand, you've got to become relentlessly focused on what you do that adds value, that you're proud of, and most important, that you can shamelessly take credit for.
When you've done that, sit down and ask yourself one more question to define your brand: What do I want to be famous for? That's right — famous for!

Read the full story at The Brand Called You