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Posted: Friday, May 29, 2009 - 1:56:43 PM by Chris Bilotta Managing The Brand Called You In their book, Managing Brand You, authors Jerry S. Wilson and Ira Blumenthal offer some excellent personal branding tips built around the idea that says your brand is: PROMISE + EXPERIENCE = RELATIONSHIP.
Your brand is your promise to a specific person or group that is based on their actual experience with your brand. Many people try to be all things to all people. When doing this, you may be meeting some of the needs of a lot of people, while not meeting the needs of those who really matter. Ultimately, you want to become a brand that people must have. You want to create such a strong personal brand that others insist on working with you. You become invaluable because of the loyalty you create based on the skills you deliver and the value you provide.
 Posted: Friday, May 29, 2009 - 11:54:14 AM by Craig ToedtmanWhat Does Google Say About You? 45% of recruiters eliminate candidates based upon what they find in search engines. It is important to know what the public "view" is saying about you, and periodic "google searches" with your name as the subject are extremely important. Be proactive to ensure that a positive image is presented at all times. Emphasize your positives - and push the negatives to the extreme pages.
Posted: Thursday, May 28, 2009 - 9:04:27 AM by Chris BilottaBuilding Your Personal Brand From Todays Women In Business, an interesting article talked about building your personal brand by commenting on other blog posts. While you can and should leave blog comments that say "thank you" for the resources or ideas shared in a blog post, your own blog comments should enhance your reputation as an expert or trusted advisor in your chosen field. You must give serious consideration to how your comments will portray your brand. Pay attention to these tips for building your online personal brand through blog comments.
- Consider your motivation - What is your intent? If you can’t add to the dialogue and enhance the debate in a professional and positive manner, don't comment
- Think before you write - consider carefully the tone of your comment and what you want to say. Remember whatever you write will elicit a feeling and reaction in who ever reads it - not just the blogger
- Check your spelling - the care and attention with which you reply to a blog comment and checking the grammar is worth the time and effort. Why negatively impact your personal brand through rushing the comment?
- Do not self promote - blog comments are not the place to self promote your experience, products or services. If you do, you may find the business blog owner deletes your comment
- Think quality not quantity - posting a considered and well thought out comment on one or two blogs each week is far more likely to get you noticed and build a positive reputation and brand than posting many blog comments of just a sentence that don’t add to the conversation.
Posted: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 - 9:04:04 AM by Chris BilottaDumbed Down Resumes A recent article in the WSJ Career Section discussed the “dumbing down “ of one’s resume to avoid looking overqualified for jobs that don’t match their career level, experience, or accomplishments. This is not an advisable approach. Your resume is an important part of your overall marketing materials (including cover letters, elevator speech, and personal website) that are meant to convey who you are. To get the job you really want and deserve, you must constantly be communicating your unique value proposition and skill set. While these economic times and tight job market may force a person to consider altering their resume or not disclosing pertinent information in the hopes that they may be considered for a lower level job, in the long run, it’s much more desirable to stay true to your personal brand and continue to consistently execute your job search strategy.
Posted: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 - 10:47:00 AM by Chris BilottaThe Social Networking Era Clara Shih, the author of The Facebook Era recently gave an interview on Personal Branding and discussed what the Facebook era is and what social networks mean for personal branding.
The Social Networking Era is the technology, business, and cultural transformation in people’s behavior, relationships, and expectations that has come about because of the widespread adoption of social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
The previous Internet Era was marked by the World Wide Web of information and the power of linking content. The Social Networking Era is defined by the World Wide Web of people emerging across these sites and the power of trusted online identity and knowing who is connected to whom and how.
Shih makes the point that social networks have become necessary and powerful for personal branding. Necessary because it is now standard operating procedure to learn about someone by looking them up on Facebook and LinkedIn. Having no presence or worse yet an unprofessional one on those sites is a quick way to be written off.
Shih notes that social networks are powerful for personal branding for a few important reasons: trusted identity, social validation, and as a forum for broadcasting information.
- Trusted identity: Social network profiles provide a trusted and widely agreed upon template for communicating your brand — for example, your photo, employer, school, interests, and hobbies. Before, putting this information on your website, email signature, or other communication seemed narcissistic. Now it’s socially acceptable to share this widely.
- Social validation: Social networks provide opportunities for social validation, such as public recommendations on LinkedIn and comments/wall posts on Facebook. Before, testimonials and communication between two individuals were largely private. Now, they are largely public.
- Forum for broadcasting information: Social networks starting with Facebook created a distribution channel for broadcasting news and updates about individuals. To effectively establish a personal brand, you need reach.
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