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Alisa Miller at CareerOverview.com posted an excellent article yesterday called Forget Facebook: 50 Social Sites for the Serious Student Job Seeker.

Alisa’s post is an excellent source of career-building professional sites (beyond LinkedIn), social sites (beyond Facebook), employment sites (beyond Monster), as well as specific niche sites for finance, science, health and medicine.

We encourage you to check it out for any sites that might benefit you. While you’re at it, see what Career Overview is all about!

What are you waiting for? Check out the article now.

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Geoff Livingston, a brilliant blogger and thought leader, has generated a lot of buzz lately by laying out arguments against personal branding.

Using some of Geoff’s arguments as a starting point, I’d like to share why I believe personal branding is valuable to you, valuable to customers, and valuable to corporations.

First: What is personal branding?

I use this definition of personal branding:

“The process of compellingly marketing yourself - based on what you learn from an extraction process of deep soul-searching - to meet the needs of society in a way that benefits you (via fulfillment and financial success) as well as the specific audience whose pains you are alleviating.”

Geoff argues that personal branding is self-centered.

Looking at the definition above, if you aren’t meeting the needs of a specific audience, then your personal brand has no substance. Remember, your personal brand is “mental real estate” that’s held in the minds of others. If others don’t see value in your brand, then it has no basis for existence in the marketplace. Thus, by nature, personal branding must be others-centered in order to survive.

Geoff asks, “how does ego-centric branding help a corporation?”

Ego-centric branding does not help corporations. Personal branding - a genuine and authentic process that helps put you in a position of power in the job market so you can align your current career with your inherent need for fulfilling work - does help corporations.

In my mind, ego-centric branding means constructing a flimsy and/or fake brand (read: facade) for immediate, short-term gains - like recognition - rather than long-term fulfillment. I consider ego-centric branding the polar opposite of personal branding. In fact, ego-centric branding will probably damage your personal brand - and by extension, your company’s brand.

3 Ways Personal Branding Helps Corporation

Geoff argues that personal branding does not help corporations. I disagree. Here’s why:

1. Strong personal brands improve your company’s reputation.

The people we deal with at companies form our perception of the company as a whole. When your employees’ personal brands align with your company’s brand, customers are left with a better feeling about your business.

Every employee is a potential touchpoint between your company and your customers. If those touchpoints aren’t enjoying what they do, they won’t do their job to their full potential. That means you’ll lose customers. Since personal branding involves actively passing on opportunities that don’t give you fulfillment, a company that hires employees with strong personal brands will end up with a workforce whose interactions with customers are much stronger.

“When it comes to corporate social media programs,” says personal branding guru Dan Schawbel in his post Applying Personal Social Media Techniques to Corporate EMC, “it’s not just about ‘the grand vision’ or the ‘tools used.’  It’s about the people that execute it. The conversations employees have with customers and partners through these tools is what’s important because their personal brand is on the line, as well as the company’s. The more voices you have participating in conversations where they can lend expertise or interact to get feedback the better. At this stage, companies need to accept the important of social media, as a channel to communicate, get feedback, learn and build brand. Your employees can’t sit back anymore or they will be left out.”

Active participation and communication in your area of expertise is just one indication of a passionate personal brand at work. In the end, when your employees’ personal brands align with your company’s brand, your company wins out because all customer interactions will be handled by passionate people furthering the company’s vision and leaving customers with positive experiences.

2. Strong personal brands choose jobs where they are most productive, improving the employer’s bottom line.

Personal branding means staying true to that which gives you meaning. It means aligning your working life with your source of career energy. That way, you will be passionate about the projects you work on, and as a result you will excel because you love what you do. You will get more done in less time, increasing productivity and improving your company’s bottom line.

A customer service rep is who actually committed to their job - since their brand is in harmony with the company’s – will make me walk away with a positive experience, keeping me as a loyal and lifelong customer, and adding to the company’s bottom line.

In addition, personal branding improves employee interaction. Awareness of the personal brands in your company allows you to build a stronger network with richer and more meaningful ties. Not to mention the contagious enthusiasm that a strong personal brand brings when in alignment with the company’s brand - and the exponential potential created by putting a room full of teammates together whose personal brands are all based upon a similar vision.

3. Strong personal brands make it easier for companies to identify and hire the most qualified candidates.

As a hiring manager, more than anything else, I want an extremely “self-centered” employee who is ONLY willing to work in a position that aligns with his or her source of career energy. That way, I won’t end up hiring an employee who is unfit for the position. Imagine if every job applicant had a fully uncovered and developed personal brand: I would be able to choose from a group of people who have made it clear that they will get fulfillment - not just a paycheck - from the open position. The more my applicants know about what makes them tick before applying, the better.

JPMorgan Chase is an example of a company that sees the value of a workforce whose personal brands align with their corporate brand. They recently put on a personal branding workshop at Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management. Spreading the message about personal branding helps JPMorgan Chase attract ideal employees and repel non-ideal employees.

My conclusions about personal branding

1. A legitimate personal brand is others-centered by nature (otherwise it will not survive in the marketplace).

I disagree with Geoff Livingston calling personal branding “self-centered branding.” Sure, it begins with a “self-centered” phase (cultivating self awareness and then developing a way to be visible to your audience), but it ends with an others-centered phase (serving a specific group of people with specific pains or needs - a group you can serve better than anyone else). Let’s be very clear: if your personal brand isn’t developed on a solid foundation that provides value to a certain group of people, then your personal brand has no basis for existence in the market.

A brand, as Michel Hogan points out, is the result of what we believe to be true (about ourselves or about a company) and what our actions show to be true. If there’s a gap between belief and action, then the brand is inauthentic and will either die, or be forced to evolve in today’s age of the radically transparent company. The same holds true with personal brands as the Internet moves us toward the concept of the radically transparent employee. An individual who promises you certain value (which is a self-centered action on their part), then makes good on that promise (which is an others-centered action on their part), is in no way selfish. If they fail to deliver on that promise, then a gap will emerge between what you believe to be true and what their actions show to be true, and their brand will be delegitimized.

2. Personal branding is beneficial to three groups: you, customers, and corporations.

If you properly cultivate your personal brand, everybody wins: you win because you work from the heart, become the best solution to a certain groups’ problems, draw energy from working with that specific group, and are financially compensated for it because you provide them value. Others win because they now have someone to turn to whose sole purpose is to specifically help them with their particular pains and problems. And companies win because their applicants are self-selected as aligned with their corporate brand, making it easier for them to identify the most qualified candidates who will boost their reputations and improve their bottom lines.

What do you think?

Blindly accepting any new concept at face value doesn’t make sense unless you understand the arguments on either side. Only then can you decide for yourself whether or not the idea is valid, or if it has any useful application in your life. On that note, many thanks to Geoff for sparking this discussion in the first place. I’m glad the back-and-forth between Geoff and I can provide you with two very different perspectives, and hope you will always question what you read on the web and come to your own conclusions.

If you’re interested in learning about personal branding as a tool to help you achieve career success, dive right in with our introductory post, Everything You Need to Start Building Your Personal Brand Right Now.

It’s now up to you to continue the discussion!

Before you go, leave a comment here and share your take on personal branding. Is personal branding a bad idea? Is it self-centered? Does it help or hurt companies? Is personal branding just a trend in career management that will pass?

I look forward to hearing from you!

- Pete Kistler

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(Mitch Joel at Twist Image responded with a post: Why You Need To Care More About Your Personal Brand. I encourage you to read both posts, the comments, and come to your own conclusion).

To touch upon a few of the key points:

“Personal branding is NOT for everyone.” Personal branding is for everyone who wants to live a happier and more successful life - if you have the drive to follow through with it. Half-assing it won’t achieve much, and might actually water down your brand if you aren’t consistent. A commitment to personal branding is required if you want to see results. Thus, personal branding is not for you if you’re unwilling to commit to it.

“Don’t use personal branding as a means of ’self promotion.’” Don’t waste your personal brand on a fake image just to try and get your few moments of fame. This will only hurt you in the long run. Authenticity is the name of the game. As we said in a previous post: “Your personal brand emerges from your search for your identity. It powerfully and clearly states what you want based on your values, vision and strengths. It promotes yourself based on who you are, what you stand for, what makes you unique, what your purpose is, and what value you offer to your specific audience. It is a path to self-awareness, joy and self-esteem. It is NOT creating and marketing a made up image - that’s the exact opposite of personal branding. Personal branding is 100% authentically YOU.” So don’t spend time on personal branding until your efforts stem from your genuine source of career energy.

“Ask yourself: does your personal brand offer any VALUE?” You can join every social network and have as many friends as you want, but if you don’t add any value, you’re wasting your time. Make legitimate connections with everyone you meet, not just “Thanks for accepting my friend request.” Engage people in thoughtful discussion. Your personal brand defines why you’re the best solution to a certain audience’s problems, so what value to you provide them?  In short, don’t try to strengthen your personal brand without constantly creating content and value.

Consider these three points (the commitment required, the need to align your brand with your authentic self, and the value you provide) before starting your personal branding efforts.

Please feel free to leave comments here on how you feel about personal branding. For a breakdown of what personal branding is, see our post: Everything You Need to Start Building Your Personal Brand Right Now.

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Need to know how to write a professional bio on yourself? You’re not alone. Bio writing is difficult. It forces you to prioritize what’s most important about you. It’s an intimidating task to boil down your entire professional life into one paragraph that’s clear, concise and that works for you.

Luckily, you don’t have to start your bio from scratch. Before writing your bio, let’s dissect Dan Schawbel’s. If someone is already doing things right, why not learn from them? Personal branding guru Dan Schawbel’s short bio is an excellent example of a brand-building, professional bio that works for him. I’ll break it down, piece by piece, and show you what you can learn from it.

1. LEARN BY EXAMPLE

Dan Schawbel’s Bio:

“Dan is the leading expert in personal branding for the generation-y audience, with an award winning and world recognized Blog, a TV podcast series that he directs, Awards that he gives out, and a Magazine that benefits the American Cancer Society. He has written over 20 publications for major magazines and online resources and has been featured in Fast Company Magazine and Yahoo! Finance and is EMC’s social media expert. He is also establishing the first 360 degree personal branding website, DanSchawbel.com, creating a new standard for career development. Recently, he has redefined personal branding by establishing a collaborate wiki, which he is using to acquire knowledge from all the leading experts to establish a single definition for personal branding.”

2. ANALYSIS OF DAN’S BIO

Let’s break down Dan’s bio now, one piece at a time.

“Dan is the leading expert in personal branding.” This immediately tells you Dan’s niche, without hesitation and without confusion. When you’re writing your own bio, be crystal clear about what you do from the get-go. Your first sentence should have people nodding their heads with along with you… ahh okay, so that’s what you do.

“…for the generation-y audience.” This makes it very clear who Dan’s audience is. Personal branding focuses on achieving success by making yourself the best solution for a particular audience. It would be difficult for Dan to say he’s the leading personal branding expert in the entire world. It’s much easier to be an expert for a certain group of people - for Dan, that’s Generation Y (today’s twentysomethings). Who is your ideal audience? It could be individuals (the disabled, the elderly, women in their twenties, etc.) or groups (cancer researchers, failing not-for-profits, green startups, etc.). Choosing an audience helps you attract more ideal opportunities that better align with your long-term goals. That way, everybody wins.

“…with an award winning and world recognized Blog, a TV podcast series that he directs, Awards that he gives out, and a Magazine that benefits the American Cancer Society.” This sentence highlights Dan’s professional accomplishments. What have you done that directly backs up your first “what I do” sentence? Include your most important achievements, but be picky because you don’t have too much space.

“…He has written over 20 publications for major magazines and online resources and has been featured in Fast Company Magazine and Yahoo! Finance and is EMC’s social media expert.” This showcases Dan’s “credibility boosters” - items that build a strong argument for his authority in his field. What credibility boosters (awards, certifications, memberships, etc.) might make you a more attractive job candidate in your bio?

“…He is also establishing the first 360 degree personal branding website, DanSchawbel.com, creating a new standard for career development.” This shows what Dan is doing to stand out in his area of expertise. What things (side projects, past work, etc.) have you done that differentiates you from your peers?

“…Recently, he has redefined personal branding by establishing a collaborate wiki, which he is using to acquire knowledge from all the leading experts to establish a single definition for personal branding.” This demonstrates how Dan is contributing to his niche. Are you doing anything novel or innovative in your niche that might make you more memorable to readers of your bio? If so, be sure to include it.

3. THE NEXT STEP

This analysis is a good starting point to think about how to write your bio. The next step is to read our second post in this series: 8 Tips to Write a Professional Bio.

Good luck!

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What is a Personal Brand?

Your personal brand is your unique value articulated in a compelling, genuine, consistent and visible way. Your personal brand is held in the minds of others: it is how people feel about what do you do, why do you do it, who you do it for, and why you’re different. Your personal brand is your single most powerful tool in attaining career success. It answers the most important question about you: Why are you your audience’s absolute best choice for what you do? It applies many principles of corporate branding to you as an individual.

A strong personal brand makes people go out of their way to work with you and refer you to their friends, colleagues and clients. It establishes you as the “go-to person” in your field. It communicates a clear, consistent and compelling message that attracts the kind of people and opportunities that make your life fulfilling.

The goal of developing your personal brand is to differentiate yourself from the competition, and to attract ideal opportunities that put your abilities to work in a way that gives you meaning. It is the best way to manage your career today because it makes you irreplaceable to your particular audience.

Why Uncover and Develop Your Personal Brand?

Personal branding is a journey towards a happier and more successful life. It emerges from your search for your identity. It powerfully and clearly states what you want based on your values, vision and strengths. It promotes yourself based on who you are, what you stand for, what makes you unique, and what your purpose is. It is a path to self-awareness, joy and self-esteem. It is NOT creating and marketing a made up image - that’s the exact opposite of personal branding. Personal branding is 100% authentically YOU.

People often describe a strong personal brand as a magnet that attracts clients, job offers and opportunities. That’s because personal branding shows a specific group of people you are the only solution to their problem. You are not just better than your competitors - you are the only choice for a certain group of people with a particular need.

In a nutshell, your personal brand communicates:

1. Who do you serve? What group of people is your audience?
2. What do you do best?
3. Why do you do what you do? What motivates you and gives you meaning?
4. How are you different from your peers? What makes you the only choice?

How Do I Develop My Personal Brand?

Personal branding begins with some soul-searching to ensure your brand is genuine and authentic. The first step is to identify what gives you fulfillment in life. What drives you? What are you passionate about? What kinds of activities give you meaning? What do you love to do? These questions help articulate the “what drives you,” or “why” part of your personal brand. It reveals your intentions genuinely and clearly. When people know the source of your career energy, they feel better about putting you in charge of their needs.

Next, identify what you do best. How do your your passions intersect with your skills? What are you great at? What could you do all day without getting bored? What abilities do you have that consistently impress other people? These questions help articulate the “what you do” part of your personal brand. This is the need that you solve, and the reason that employers will pay you (or why clients/customers will refer you to their friends) to solve their problems.

Next, identify what makes you different from others in your field by examining your values. Do certain values drive your work ethic, such as beauty, integrity, humor, creativity or quality? Examining your values helps articulate the “what makes you different” part of your personal brand. Your values play a large role in differentiating you from your competition and provide a reason to choose you over your peers. When your values resonate with a potential employer or client, you will connect on a deeper level.

Next, identify your audience. What kind of people do you love working with? Do you prefer young children over adults, environmentally conscious people, small business owners, musicians, or the developmentally disabled? These questions help identify the “who you serve,” or audience portion of your personal brand. Personal branding is all about becoming the best at something for a certain group of people. Who will those people be?

Next, put these answers together in a compelling and genuine way. Now that you’ve done some soul-searching and laid the foundation of your brand, it’s time to show people why you’re the answer to their problems. Work on developing a polished way to talk about yourself that attracts the kinds of opportunities that bring you meaningful work. This will unify the multiple independent aspects of your brand into one clear, compelling and cohesive statement. (A future blog post will specifically address how to bring your brand together and communicate it in a compelling way, resulting in your personal brand message).

Integrate your personal brand into all aspects of your career. Your resume, bio, cover letter, web presence, interview stories, business card and email signature should all reflect the values and language used in your personal brand message. This builds brand awareness with everyone you come into contact with and increases the likelihood that people come to you with opportunities related to your brand.

Create a home online for your personal brand. People immediately go to Google for a reference check, whether they just met you at a networking event or want to hire you. That means you need to establish a web presence for your brand. Your web presence should revolve around your personal website, which should ideally be www.[yourname].com. Your website acts as the online hub for your brand. It is where people searching for you in Google will get a true taste of you who are, where readers of your business card, email signature, social network profile, etc. will go to find out more about you. It is your chance to wow and emotionally connect viewers your brand. It is your first and most important impression, and your best chance to win over new visitors from the get-go.

Increase your rank in Google results when your named is searched. The technical term for this step is Search Engine Optimization. Learn how to increase the position of your site in Google search results to increase your brand’s visibility and make it easy to find you online.

Consistently communicate your personal brand through multiple channels. You should be posting comments on blogs, submitting tips on forums, answering questions on Q&A databases, writing book reviews, adding value to wiki articles, participating in social networks and posting original content (articles or media) related to your field. Go to conferences and events related to your area of expertise, meet people will similar passions and work on projects that excite you. These actions develop your brand’s presence within your niche, and demonstrate your passion and active participation in your field.

Establish credibility within your area of expertise online. The best way to gain credibility online is to create on-brand content related to your field. Starting a blog, contributing to other blogs or writing web articles/e-books/newsletters useful to members of your niche are excellent ways to establish yourself as a thought leader in your area of expertise. Offline, start a business, write a book, join professional organizations, take courses and get certified in areas that will increase the influence of your opinion.

Actively developing your personal branding means laying the groundwork now for a happier and more successful life later. It is a genuine process of figuring out what you want to do, who you want to do it for, and then making yourself known to those people as the best solution to their problems. If you haven’t started building your personal brand, the time to start is now. Here are some quick and easy first steps to get you started.

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In school, you’re (hopefully) taught the importance of writing for your audience. Whether you have to write an essay for your sophomore English professor, or write a research paper for a peer-review panel, everything you write has a specific audience. Keeping your readers top-of-mind whenever you write is vital to getting your ideas across successfully.

You audience determines:

1. What you say (what information you include)
2. How you say it (your writing style and tone)
3. Where you say it (where your communication ends up)

Your audience not only affects what you say on paper, but also what you say on the web. You should be thinking about the people who will be looking for you online to better decide what to put on the web about yourself.

Here are 4 questions to ask yourself whenever you write something on the web:

1. Who will end up reading this? A Facebook message to a friend can be as unprofessional as you want. That type of communication is private and secret. However, there are now tools that let employers search your Facebook wall. That means your friend Greg may not be the only person reading your wall posts anymore. Always keep in mind who might read your writing. Remember: when you post something on the web, it’s almost always permanent.
2. How much time does your audience have? The less time your viewer has, the more concise you should be. Often, visuals like graphs and diagrams convey information more effectively than long paragraphs. Saying more with less is a highly valued skill in the work world.
3. What information is your audience looking for? Think about the information your audience wants to find. On your Facebook profile, new friends want to know which interests and activities you have in common. At the same time, employers look at your wall to see interests or activities that back up your work experience or make you a more well-rounded candidate. Prioritize your audiences and choose a course of action that best suits your long-term goals. For example, if you know your potential audience includes the hiring manager of your dream not-for-profit, you may want to focus your profile on volunteering activity as opposed to less pertinent items like sports.
4. Where will your audience look? The Internet gives us instant gratification on a silver platter. In fact, if people can’t find what they’re looking for in a matter of seconds, they will give up altogether. That means that whenever you write, make sure you’re posting to the places your audience is looking. The less time they spend searching, the more likely they’ll end up reading what you wrote.

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What can you learn from Nike?

One of the most famous slogans of the century applies to you: you need to build a brand on the web, and soon. Many people are scared to build a personal brand because they’re unsure how to go about it, or have unrealistic expectations about how long it will take to see results. But the only way to find out is: just do it.

Personal branding is not an overnight process. However, simple things do give immediate results, like  posting on blogs and forums.

Personal branding does not take hours a day. The first day will probably take the longest, but after that it is smooth sailing. You want to start off with a list of blogs, forums, news sites, authors, and industry leading websites that you are going to follow and become an active member of. Active member is the key phrase. These are areas to which you are going to be contributing worthwhile content back to the world. Once you have this list of a few for each everyday you should set aside 15 minutes and for that time it is your responsibility to read newly published material and respond to it.

There is no putting off until tomorrow in personal branding because you have already started by the mere fact that you are alive. The online community has millions of people participating daily, some are passive some are active. The “Just Do It” mentality that Nike advocates is that mentality that you need to take on.

Once you have taken the initial step it is important that every week you reevaluate your list, add new items, take off less valuable ones, and work to constantly expand your network.

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How well branded are you? One way to find out is to put metrics in place - something you can measure your brand against.

The easiest way to start analyzing your personal brand is through Google.

First, do a Google search for a leader in your field. Try searching for their name, plus:

• [First Last] +blog
• [First Last] +forum
• [First Last] +article
• [First Last] +author

This will give you an idea of their online brand: what they’re doing, and where they’re doing it.

Next, do same thing for your name. This allows you to compare yourself to them to see how well you’re doing. Where are they showing up that you aren’t? What kind of content are they post?

The next step, which is vital, is to set goals for yourself. If you want to be a leader in your online community, you need to first understand what defines a leader, then take action to shape yourself into one. Goals help you assess how well you’re doing.

You may want to set a goal like:

• I will post one new article on a website in my niche every week
• I will comment on two blog posts in my niche every week
• I will read the latest bestseller in my field and write a review on Amazon.com once a month

Start small and work your way up. It’s really easy to gain momentum if you set concrete, achievable goals. The more you start achieving your goals, the more you will be motivated to continue and raise them.

Remember, your brand is the perception that others have of you. On the web, perception is reality. So start getting out there in front of people and demonstrating your value in a memorable way.

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The latest issue of Personal Branding Magazine, published by personal branding phenom Dan Schawbel, has just been released. Here’s a quick description from Dan:

“Volume 2, Issue 2 is a call to action. Now is the time for building your personal eBrand. Laggards will be lost in a Google cloud of dust, while early adopters will rank #1 for their name. Stop watching everyone else steal your gold (your THUNDER) and get involved today. Many people are scared to develop an online presence, yet it’s the only way you can safeguard your brand and have ‘job security.’ This issue will highlight Gary Vaynerchuk, who will passionately force you to get involved in the GOLD RUSH. As you read each page, you will gather the knowledge needed to not let these opportunities pass you by.”

Check it out and get the free sample here! The full issue will be released November 1.

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