Tips for Identifying, Building and Managing Your Personal Brand

Community Manager — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 13:31:00 GMT

Who are you?

It is a timeless question.

The Caterpillar posed it to Alice in Wonderland. The Who made it an anthem of their generation. And most of us would likely admit to asking it to ourselves from time to time.

But knowing who we are is more than just a personal matter. As business management expert Tom Peters observed in his seminal 1997 Fast Company article, The Brand Called You:

We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.

As Peters noted, over the last two decades, we have changed the way we work. For most of us, normal business life now consists of regularly switching jobs and occasionally shifting careers. One constant in this steady stream of change is our personal brand - the unique constellation of skills, interests, traits, passions and perspectives that we bring to our work.

According to Dan Schawbel, author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success , personal branding is an ongoing "process by which we market ourselves to others." It is also a constant process of learning how others perceive us. You know you are doing a good job of branding yourself, Schawbel says, "when self-impression is equal to perception (how you describe yourself is how other people describe you)."

The personal branding process starts with a good bit of candid self-scrutiny. Being as clear and specific as possible, you should identify:

Who you are - What do you consider your greatest personal and interpersonal strengths? What are your most notable personality traits?
What you do - What are your greatest professional interests and passions? What do you offer through your work that is remarkable and has measurable and distinctive value? What are you most marketable skills? What are you most proud of in your professional life?
Who you help - Who benefits from your work? How and why do you help these people? How do they benefit from working with you (as opposed to someone else)? What would they identify as your greatest attributes?

If you need some additional guidance, here are some great online resources on identifying, building and managing your personal brand:

Just as personal branding is an ongoing process, we consider this an ongoing dialogue on a very important topic. We welcome your comments, questions and experience shares about personal branding and look forward to continuing the conversation here and throughout the Beyond Folders Community.

by Carly Fadako

Do Not Be Invisible at Work

Community Manager — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:55:00 GMT

You cannot make it as a wandering generality. You must be a meaningful specific.

Become Your Own Advocate

This is a well-known quote from author/motivational speaker Zig Ziglar. While open to multiple interpretations, for me, it resonates as a call-to-action - a call to make our unique accomplishments known so we can stand out in the crowd.

This can be a challenging call. As an initial hurdle, many people find it hard to self promote because they are shy or think it is too egotistical. We need to get over this hurdle quickly because, in our tough business climate, knowing and touting the brand called you is more important than ever. This is especially true for those of us who - by choice or otherwise - work away from our managers and co-workers most of the time.

Here are some tips for gaining that much-needed visibility for you and your professional accomplishments:

Check in informally. Whether by email, IM, phone, video conference or Twitter, reach out to your boss and teammates on a regular basis to update them about projects you are collaborating on. Send links to articles and other online resources that can help them accomplish tasks or solve problems. Of course, you should keep informal check-ins in check so that the team stays on course and people know that you value their time and attention.

Arrange face-to-face meetings. To the extent possible, request to meet with your manager and team members in person at least once a year at the company's headquarters or in another convenient location.

Share your schedule. Using online collaboration platforms like Basecamp, OfficeMedium or CubeTree, you can easily let others know where you are, when you are working and what you are working on. If you want a more pared-down - yet still versatile - collaboration tool, try an online calendar from Google or Yahoo .

Speak up! Do not shy away from sharing your achievements and expertise. Write a blog or guest blog post, contribute articles to trade publications and participate in conversations taking place in your field on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. If your company hosts forums or discussion groups, become an active participant.

By taking affirmative steps to stay visible, you can nurture and safeguard your career. If you have any tips for keeping yourself and your work accomplishments on the radar screen, please share them with us.

by Candie Harris

Beyond Folders : communication skills, personal brand

Tips for Identifying, Building and Managing Your Personal Brand

Do Not Be Invisible at Work