I love the work of David Meerman Scott, author of “The New Rules of Marketing & PR“.
Check out this (short but enlightening) article on personal branding entitled, “Marketing Me: How smart digital natives reach potential employers“. A great example of how people can leverage the Internet to market themselves.
Tom Peters wrote an excellent article on the subject of personal branding in which he says, “It’s time for me — and you — to take a lesson from the big brands, a lesson that’s true for anyone who’s interested in what it takes to stand out and prosper in the new world of work. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.”
Now, before continuing, I must tell you that I’m not going to advocate some over-the-top, self-centered, narcissistic campaign for “me, me, and more me. Enough about me, what do you think of me?!” No, it’s something deeper than that.
Managing your personal brand is very similar to managing a corporate brand — one of the most important components of a brand is integrity, or doing what you say you’ll do. At its essence, a brand is simply a promise of the value you’ll receive. So to me, striving for a great personal brand is simply striving to do my best work, to deliver the most value, and to be the most valuable player on “the field”.
Here’s a corporate branding story …
Back in 2006, a Marketing colleague sent an email to a few team members asking, “How much does brand influence the selection process and buyer decisions” and “how important do you think advertising will really be?”
My response: ”I believe the question is not “how important do you think advertising will REALLY be”, but rather, how important do you WANT it to be? Or, in other words, how important is brand to the [company name]? I believe it’s very important because, if done properly, the equity it yields can boost the image/value of [company name] and significantly increase shareholder value. The tricky thing is that building a brand (a) needs a proper strategy and (b) takes time. True brand value only exists between people’s ears. I once heard it put best that branding represents the promises you make; your brand comes from the promises you keep.
Over the long-term, with further industry consolidation and [company name] continuing to build its size, it’s inevitable that our NAME will become more recognized. But when that time comes, will we have made all the right moves to ensure our company BRAND is more well known and in a positive light (in order to have more influence in the selection process and purchase decision)?“
The key takeaways from this article, as it relates to personal brand, are that building a solid personal brand:
- Needs a proper strategy
- Takes time
All well worth the investment in time and effort.
As referenced earlier, the article by Tom Peters challenges you to start thinking like your own brand manager and ask yourself the same question that brand managers at Nike, Coke, and The Gap ask themselves: What is it that my product or service does that makes it different? Give yourself the traditional 15-words-or-less challenge. Take the time to write down your answer. And then take the time to ready 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?“
