I stumbled upon a debate about personal branding started by Geoff Livingston of The Buzz Bin a few days ago with his blog post: I Don’t Care About Your Personal Brand. While I disagree with the overall message, he does bring up some interesting points.

(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.

Author: Trace Cohen

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Companies understand the power of branding. They spend millions of dollars a year making a brand promise to customers that goes beyond the technical and physical attributes of a particular product. They build an identity – one that customers feel safe choosing over the competition.

Corporate branding and its principles can work for you on an individual level. It establishes you as the “go to guy” for your area of expertise. As a freelance web designer, I rarely spent time looking for clients. They usually came to me. “My friend told me you do websites…” they’d say. That’s the power of a brand: it builds an identity that customers feel safe choosing over the competition.

So, what can we learn from corporate branding, and how can we apply it to ourselves?

1. Unique Selling Point

• Corporate Branding. All companies must identify what differentiates their product. Why is it better than other similar products out there? Is it quality? Speed? The customer service that comes along with it? Patented technology? Excellence in design?
• Personal Branding. Identify your own unique selling point. What makes you different? Better? Do you do things faster than your competition? Do you provide superior quality? Do you work more closely with people on a friendly, human level? Do you have a knack for making complex things simple? You may need to do some soul-searching, or even ask a few friends.

2. Competitive Analysis

• Corporate Branding. A company must position itself effectively against its competition. It must analyze how other companies in its niche are portraying their brands, so that it can see what works (and what doesn’t). Then they can then create a much more compelling brand for themselves.
• Personal Branding. Use your competition to your advantage. Look at how other people offering similar services portray their brands. Then build on them to create an even more compelling one for yourself. For example, if you’re an artist, browse artist galleries on the web to see how they’re showcasing their abilities. Then take the best qualities of each one and mix it with your own style.

3. Values

• Corporate Branding. A company’s values guide its decisions. “The boss says we need to lay someone off. Jane suggested letting go of our phone tech support guy. But that wouldn’t jibe with our company value of superior customer service.” Corporate values such as superior customer service lay the foundation for decisions that coincide with a company’s brand promise.
• Personal Branding. Personal values act in a similar way. They are the principles that shape your work habits and the way you interact with other people. Take a hint from your personality traits to find what values are important to you. Are you extremely shy? That may mean you prefer working on a project alone until it’s absolutely perfect before showing it to other people. Your shyness may stem from perfectionism, which says, “This person values the highest standards of quality in all their work.” Identify the values that guide you, then focus on the ones will be most critical to your future success.

4. Impressions

• Corporate Branding. An “impression” is when someone looks at a logo, picture, ad, website, or other visual media related to a company and that image gets embedded in their mind. Each impression strengthens the connection between a company and its brand promise for that person. Corporate branding pushes a company’s image onto as many people as possible, because the more potential customers see the brand, the more they trust that company can deliver on its promise – and the more they think about that company as they go about their day. Impressions aren’t limited to advertising – companies also brand their invoices, newsletters and all communications, using their logo and tagline to strengthen the relationship between their name and their brand.
• Personal Branding. With everyone you meet, strengthen the association between your face and what you excel at. You want your name to be seen in a positive light by as many people as possible. That means every time you post a comment on a blog or forum, every time you send an email, every time you complete a project or presentation, put your name on it. Anonymity is not your friend. Take pride in all your work and connect it back to your brand. The more people come across these “crumbs,” the more you convince them that you can deliver on your brand promise. So include your name, your tagline (what you do and who you do it for) and your contact info in all your work.

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Whether they’re right or not, people form impressions of your personal brand based on the way you write.  It is time you take the necessary steps to improve your image and understand the importance of effective writing.

Readers assume that if your…

• Writing is sloppy: You don’t care about quality.
• Writing is unclear: You can’t communicate ideas effectively.
• Writing rambles on: You have no sense of purpose.
• Writing is formatted poorly: You have no sense of design.
• Writing is not tailored to your audience: You don’t care about others’ needs.
• Writing is too informal: You are immature.
• Writing is unorganized: You can’t convey information effectively.

Luckily, writing clearly and effectively is easier than you think. The following 9 steps will significantly enhance your ability to communicate and improve your image.

1. Decide for whom you’re writing.

Put yourself in your audience’s shoes: What do they want to find out about you? Make sure you give them what they want. Where do they expect to find what they’re looking for? Make sure it’s where they expect it to be.

2. Get to the point.

Writing is most effective when it’s simple. Your reader doesn’t want to follow you down a garden path. Almost anything can be clarified by putting it into fewer words.

3. Keep it skimmable.

Accept the fact that your reader is going to skim-read your content. Not because they don’t like you, but because that’s how people read text online. They should be able to grasp everything you have to say by reading only the first sentence of every paragraph. Always state your main point before you give reasoning that leads to it.

4. Use short sentences.

Simple writing is the single best way to communicate more effectively. If you were taught that longer sentences convey greater intelligence, you were taught wrong. The less extraneous words you use, the better you communicate.

The amount of time required to process a sentence with n words is n^3. If you cut the length of a sentence in half, it will be 8 times easier to read.

5. Don’t sound stuffy.

Only use a Thesaurus for words that express an idea more accurately or more succinctly. If you use one to make yourself appear smarter, you’ll end up sounding even less intelligent. Don’t try to sound sophisticated or formal either, or you’ll come off as stuffy.

6. Avoid immature lingo.

Avoid swear words or street slang and your writing will be formal enough.

7. Play the Devil’s advocate.

Is there anything that can be misunderstood? If so, change it so that it can’t be.

8. Proofread, proofread, proofread.

Fix grammar, spelling and punctuation. Then have two other people go through it for mistakes.

9. Keep formatting simple.

Make sure anything that catches your reader’s eye draws them to your main points. Use bulleted lists to convey information quickly. Use bold headings to help the reader decide which section will tell them what they need to know.

Go through your website pages now and see how much you incorporate these nine points. How many are you using? By working them in to your writing process, you will enhance your ability to effectively communicate and exude a personal brand that stands for quality and clarity.  It is important that you are working constantly to improve your image.

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Defining and expressing your personal brand is one of the most effective ways to take your career efforts to the next level. Here are 5 quick tips to get started:

1. Craft an effective email signature

Time to complete: 5 minutes

Set your email program to automatically include your full name, what you do, how to reach you, and a link to your website at the end of every email. Here’s how to set a signature in various email programs.

An example of a brand-building email signature:

Johnny Kuidzu
Sushi chef extraordinaire and caterer of fine Asian cuisine
http://www.JohnnyKuidzu.comemail: johnny@JohnnyKuidzu.com
cell: (315) 392 1234

Strangers will immediately understand what you’re all about, know how to reach you, and you’ll strengthen your brand awareness.

2. Create a catchy slogan or tagline that sums up your value

Time to complete: 10 minutes

Slogans are short, catchy, and easily remembered. Make one that sums up your passions, strengths and goals. For example: “Johnny Kuidzu – Sushi chef extraordinaire and caterer of fine Asian cuisine.”

Use your tagline in all communications (emails, blog comments, your website etc). Make sure it captures who you are for people who haven’t met you before. Be bold and specific.

3. Create a profile on multiple directories

Time to complete: 5 minutes per directory

Set up a profile on the following directories:

• Zoominfo
• Ziggs
• Naymz
• Ziki
• ClaimID

Make sure each profile includes

• Basic information about yourself
• Your tagline
• A link to your website

This will greatly increase the number of relevant search results when people Google you, leading them back to your personal site. Each link to your site will also increase its PageRank. The higher your Page Rank, the higher your site’s position in Google searches.

4. Upload a professional photo that exudes your brand

Time to complete: 3 minutes

A clean-cut, smiling face connects with viewers on an emotional level, leaving a longer-lasting impression. Post your photo on your “About Me” page. You want to be more than text to your readers – be a real person. Remember: if you don’t include a photo, you’re only branding your name – which thousands of other people share!

5. Comment on blogs relevant to your niche

Time to complete: 10 minutes per comment

Provide a personal experience or insight that adds value to someone else’s blog entry. For instance, if you’re into gadgets, comment on Gizmodo blog posts. Proofread before submitting comments – you can’t go back and edit them.

Conclude using your full name, what you do, and a link back to your website. Your comments will increase your visibility within your field and come up in Google searches for your name. The link back to your website will strengthen your PageRank by increasing inbound links.

These five things are easy to do and have a huge payoff. If you have time, I suggest doing them right now:

1. Craft an effective email signature
2. Create a catchy tagline that sums up your value
3. Create a profile on multiple directories
4. Upload a professional photo that exudes your brand
5. Comment on blogs relevant to your niche

Until next time, this is Pete Kistler wishing you success!

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