Personal Branding 101- You are a corporation
As you venture into the world of Web 2.0 it is imperative to start thinking about your “personal brand.” I feel strongly on the importance of personal branding and therefore will divide this blog posting into a two part series, Personal Branding 101, and Leveraging your personal brand into social sites.
Personal Branding 101:
My former University of Montana professor/mentor/friend Mary Ellen Campbell always lectured on personal branding as an occurring theme all her classes. Mary Ellen stressed thinking of your personal brand as a mini-corporation, and to treat it accordingly.
For instance, when you are thinking of Nike you probably think athletic and high-quality, and Burberry is classy and pretentious, while Wal-Mart is cheap and inexpensive. Like it or not, it’s human nature for people to put each other into theses same categories. How many times have we used similar adjectives to describe our contacts? Is your sister the shy, caring type, your co-worker the enthusiast, your best friend loud and obnoxious, or your neighbor the pretentious jerk?
Most mature individuals don’t try to portray themselves negatively, but our actions speak louder than words—or in some cases our lack of actions. We should strive to build a positive brand for ourselves and lasting relationships will follow, both personally and professionally.
The good news, personal branding was taught growing up by our families and in elementary school. As a result, there is no learning curve as we already know the skills. Overall, it is about being a good person, taking pride in your work, taking interest in other people’s interests and having a positive attitude.
It is hard, however, to practice these soft skills. With the extreme amount of pressure we put on ourselves—from family stress to our careers—it is difficult to think of the bottom line: Being a good person! Remember that we should give our friends, family and co-workers a reason to invest in ourselves. Everyday you should be thinking, “How can my ‘personal stock price’ skyrocket today?”
Below are a list of techniques that help your brand:
- Remember people’s hobbies, not just their names
- Listen! Don’t just talk or think of the next thing you want to say
- Leave your negativity at home, that’s what your loved ones are for. Not too often do you hear company’s complaining about a bad day to the public
- Keep contacts alive, especially with the advent of social Internet there is no excuse to not connect with the people who formed who you are today
- Send thank-you notes
- Spell check!
- Try to make others lives easier, even though this may make yours a little tougher
- Give credit where credit is due
- Try to make everyone feel important and needed
