How Critical is Personal Branding and Why?
2008 August 18
Personal Branding: Revision 2 / 20080115.10D.47543 / SML,
originally uploaded by See-ming Lee 李思明 SML.
I'm going to be writing an article on Personal Branding for Personal Branding Magazine.
Personal Branding is a huge topic. Dan Shawbel tells me the theme of the next issue is "The Gold Rush to Personal Branding." So we're going to be focusing on the idea the those who establish their brand first will be the big winners in this economy.
But we all know that just putting something out there won't exactly make you a strong brand.
So do you need a "personal brand" and if so why?
Who needs a personal brand?
Why have a personal brand?
What's the return on investment for your personal brand? In what ways does it really pay off to have one?
What's the most important idea around personal brand that everyone is missing?
3 Responses
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Ivana,
Great questions. I have two kids (17 and 11) and I so believe in the future of personal branding on the Internet that I have already purchased their names. The thought being the URL could lead to a landing page with a mini bio and then links to all of their others sites: Linked In, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, etc. As employers begin to include “googling” prospect’s names as part of their research for filling positions, having a STRATEGIC brand presence on the web will become more and more important.
We may be connected with a company (employee or Owner) but our personal brand…what we stand for, what we are passionate about, what we write about on the web, will say far more about who we are as individuals than our job title or our employment history.
That’s why it is so critical that kids today understand the ramifications of what they write on the web as it will be there – REPRESENTING WHO THEY ARE – when they are 40 years old.
There won’t be the unsubstantiated rumors about whether or not they inhaled, because the pictures and text will be there to prove the point one way or the other.
I recently began Twittering and noticed the number of well respected business people who leave tweets about personal activities that perhaps are contrary to the business image they’d like to project. I’m amazed by that fact.
We may also feel the desire to start a blog about a personal passion or hobby – with the Internet inconnecting our every written thought – we have to think twice about what we connect our personal brand with because it can effect the way potential employers or customers think about our ability to be successful.
Lordy-loo – this is a hot topic with many layers. There is freedom of speech and yet – do we intentionally temper our web speech to ensure it matches our personal brand?
Lots to think about. Thanks for letting me rant.
Deborah
Do You Have a Personal Branding Strategy for the Web?
Ivana Taylor at Strategy Stew is looking for your opinion on whether or not creating a personal brand is important.
Nice question to bring up – I focus on Employee Evangelism and that is a big part of it. Companies that do not have a personal branding strategy for every employee are missing out on a lot of exposure.
How can someone connect with your company if they cannot see the people that work behind the wall?