4 Personal Branding Tips For Your 4th of July
Filed under: All, Brand-Yourself.com, Personal Branding
It’s that time of the year again when we pay tribute to the patriots and radical thinkers that allowed us to break free all those years ago. So while you’re having fun, wherever you may be, keep in mind that just because it’s a holiday doesn’t mean there can’t be lasting repercussions on your personal brand. So with that in mind, here are 2 tips on what TO DO and 2 on what NOT TO DO.
TO DO #1 - Expand your network:
People at parties and holiday events are usually more friendly and open to talking to strangers, use this to your advantage! This doesn’t mean you need to astonish them intellectually, but anyone that you can add to your rolodex or reference in the future is always beneficial. In networking remember to always give value before asking for value - so bring a big blanket for your friends to share with you without telling them beforehand. This is a great way to meet new people.
NOT TO DO #1- Be careful of the flash:
Not every picture of you online needs to be a professional image. Just be careful of what’s in the picture with you. A picture is worth a thousand words, not just to you but to the professional world as well, and sometimes your memories are just as vivid.
TO DO #2 - Dust off that elevator speech:
Everyone is at the point now that when you go to a social gathering, you ultimately end up talking about work. To build on the point above, if you want to expand your network you will need an elevator pitch or personal branding statement. Not only will this impress anyone you meet but it will also give you a firm understanding of what you do.
NOT TO DO #2 – Don’t be a “Negative Nancy”
You may have heard this term before, but it more or less describes someone who is always skeptical and never supports other people. You don’t want your personal brand to be known as negative! When a person starts describing their job BE INTERESTED and engage them with thoughtful questions. As I mentioned in my last post, being humble and supporting others is a huge part of personal branding.
- Author: Trace Cohen
Trace has always been fascinated with technology and how stuff works. Once he gets his hands on a new gadget, rest assured it will be taken apart and put back together in a matter of minutes. Trace is a hands-on kind of guy whose first love was video games, which he loves to this day.
Personal Branding Interview with Ola Rynge
I recently spoke with Ola Ryange, CEO of The Rynge Group and author of The Rynge Blog. Ola was recognized as one of the top 30 personal branding experts to follow on Twitter by personalbrandingblog.com In this interview we cover how to develop your own personal brand and the importance of personal branding for small companies.
When did you realize the importance of personal branding? What inspired you to become an expert?
Actually my background in Personal Branding has its roots in my own personal development. When I was in college (around 1996-97), a number of events took place that boosted my personal development. I became much more secure with myself and started to understand my core values. I used the definition of personal branding as a framework for working with the evolution of a person.
Your background is in entrepreneurship and startups. Where does personal branding fit in for smaller companies?
I strongly believe in interpersonal relations for building personal brands. And a great part of business creation and growth is networking with clients, collaboration partners, investors etc. By creating a strong brand that communicates trust and confidence, these relations will be stronger. Without trust you will not obtain either customers, partners or an investor. Your brand is therefore one of the greatest assets of your venture and creating a stable business.
How successful has personal branding been in advancing your own career?
It has been very important for my career, as well for my personal life. A concrete example is that I started my first company when I was 17, working with marketing (online and offline) - a company that I have been running on the side until 2006, when I went to focus 100% on developing my business full time. In my day to day work now, my reputation and networking skills are the single most important factor for attracting new clients.
I would like to emphasize that for me, Personal Branding is not about social media or making yourself famous in your area of expertise. Of course these are parts of the Personal Branding process. But the essential part that I think is left out of the discussion today is the importance of returning every now and then to look at who you really are and your core values, rather than a quick-n-dirty “let’s get a twitter account” or “vanity urls” - these are not the most important part of your personal brand.
What are the 3 most important personal branding steps our readers should take?
- Forget about quick fixes. This process takes time, and should not be skipped. Identify your core attributes, values and skills as well as how to deal with attributes instilled in you by society and other elements in your surroundings.
- Personal Branding is interpersonal. Social media is a great tool for a lot of things, but the core of your personal branding strategy should be networking, meeting with people in real life and learning how to communicate in a way that your counterpart gets the feeling and message you want to give him or her. Of course, twitter, LinkedIn etc. are great sources to find people to meet.
- Sharpen the saw. Regularly go through your personal branding strategy, both the part of getting to know yourself as well as your brand marketing strategy to identify changes in yourself and how to continuously improve yourself (known as kaizen in TQM).
Find out more about what Ola does at The Rynge Group and be sure to follow @rynge on Twitter.
Internships in College
College is not just a time to go out and party all weekend and study all week. If you can devote part of your time every week to internships in college you will be far ahead of your peers when you graduate.
College is the perfect opportunity to try a bunch of new career paths while not having to worry as much about the long term commitment.
Many times students don’t know what type of internships they should get while in college so I developed this 5 point guide to help.
Here is a quick guide to evaluating internships in college:
- Time Commitment: It is important to make sure that it is something that you can handle along with your work load and your social life. Internships are a great way to build connections and can help you get a foot in the door but if you cannot perform the tasks that are asked of you through the internship then taking it on may actually hurt you more than help. Do your best to put yourself in a position where you can excel.
- Relevance to your area of expertise: There are two theories about how much your internship should relate to your area of expertise. Some believe that you should only take on opportunities that are in your field while others think branching out is a good way to lean about other areas. I am a proponent of the latter because broadening your understanding of how everything functions is a good career move. It makes an employee more versatile. You also never know how things are connected so while a job may not seem to fit with your career plans it may, in fact, be closely related. I would not dismiss an opportunity simply because it is not in your specific field.
- Organization type: Startups are where you learn the most. In no other type of organization are you able to try a variety of different tasks and actually make a difference to a company. In a startup you are part of a vibrant and growing team. You have the ability to do what you love to do and you will never have a dull moment. Big businesses are great for upward mobility and job stability (for the most part) but you can quickly get lost in the shuffle and turn into just another number.
- Type of work: Getting someone coffee 5 days a week does you no good. You want a position in which you can learn new material every day. Working under someone with more experience can be very helpful, but also make sure you are always looking for ways to improve. This aspect of evaluating internships in college is similar to the time commitment. You want to be challenged but you don’t want to sign up for something you know you cannot do.
- Compensation: I hesitated when including this item on to this list. Compensation should be the least of your worries when making a decision about internships in college. There is a difference between an internship and job. Internships are designed to help you grow; they are there to allow you the ability to gain experience and get a significant advantage over your peers. While compensation is nice, giving up a great opportunity in an area that you are passionate about because of the amount they will or will not pay you is not a smart career move.
Remember that the type of internship that you decide to take on is a reflection of your personal brand. In the corporate world everyone wants to see some experience. If you have a way to stand out against the sea of college graduates with a 4 year degree and limited work experience you are a significant step ahead.
Internships in college are the best way to jumpstart your career.
- Author: RJ Sherman
Personal Branding Interview with Thomas Drugan
I recently spoke with Thomas Drugan, co-founder of Naymz and author of “Not Just Your-Space: The College Student’s Guide to Managing Online Reputation“. Thomas has been involved in online marketing for over ten years, and considered a pioneer of the personal branding/online reputation management industry. In the interview, we discuss the importance of personal branding,the necessary steps to manage your online reputation and some humorous stories of personal branding gone wrong.
You co-founded Naymz in 2006, after years of working in online search marketing. What problem or mission does Naymz address?
Naymz launched when Blogging and MySpace were all the rage. Individuals were publishing an unprecedented amount of information about themselves and others online, without fully understanding what consequences that publicly available content might have. As more personal information was becoming available online, others began to see search engines and social networks as a means to conduct background checks.
We began to build out Naymz as a platform to help individuals monitor and build a good online reputation.
We shifted our focus to professionals and added a “social networking” layer to Naymz in the summer of 2007. Since then we have added many features and enhancements similar to other leading social networking sites while continuing to make personal branding a core focus.
Your E-book discusses this idea of monitoring your image. What are the basic personal branding steps someone should take to manage their online identity?
- Assess what information is already out there about you by using search engines and checking social networks.
- If there are web pages out there that don’t position you in a favorable light that you control, remove or update those pages.
- If there are web pages out there that don’t position you in a favorable light that you can’t control, ask the owner/administrator to remove it.
- Next, become your own Personal Branding agent. Get a professional photo taken of you. Write a well crafted biography and post it to all of your profiles. Update your resume. Write blog posts, white papers, or articles which provide thought leadership on whatever industry you are in. Get endorsements and recommendations on sites like LinkedIn and Naymz. Post a video interview of you on YouTube. Comment on others blog posts using thoughtful and insightful responses.
- Finally, you should always monitor your name online. Create a Google Alert for your name. If you want a more comprehensive tracking check out Trackur.com, SocialMention.com or ReputationDefender.com.
Your eBook includes a few horror stories of personal branding gone wrong. Any favorites?
We had a client in the San Francisco area who was dating three women at the same time, and none of the women knew. One of them had an inclination he was cheating on her and started a blog. It quickly rose to the first position in Google for his name. Within a few weeks, the two other girls found this blog and posted their stories and ruining this guy’s reputation. There were several other woman who dated this guy in the past who joined in on the fun.
In your opinion, what are the MOST important personal branding steps a recent college graduate should take to make his or her online presence stand out?
- Absolutely make sure his/her Facebook, MySpace, or other recreational social network they use is cleaned up before starting the interview process. According to a CareerBuilder study from last year, 1 in 4 hiring managers used search engines to screen candidates. One in 10 also checked candidates’ profiles on social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook. College was a lot of fun, but one photo or dumb status update can ruin the chance for a new graduate to land that perfect job. Remove those questionable pictures or status updates, or make them private.
- College grads should also build a presence on social networks like Naymz, LinkedIn, Xing, and other professionally focused networks. These profiles typically rank well in Search Engines and will give the appearance that a college grad takes his/her professional brand seriously.
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