How Visible is Your Personal Brand Online?

by Pete Kistler • October 28, 2009 • View Comments

The hallmark of a visible personal brand online is the ability to be found through search engines and social/professional networks. How visible are you?

To answer this, we developed a Hireability Dashboard that breaks down the components of your personal brand online and grades the strength of each. The first section we’ll talk about today is visibility. Can you be found?

The visibility portion of the Hireability Dashboard is broken up into tabs: your Google search results, professional profiles, social networks, directories, web 2.0 services you want to protect your username on, and media related to your name.

The first tab, your Google Search Results, makes it easy to understand what someone else will see when they Google your name up to 65 Google results.

Now instead of having to Google yourself to see what’s changed within the first ten results, you can log into your Dashboard and see what’s changed up to 65 reulsts.

You can also confirm items as about you, moving them into a separate column of confirmed items. This makes it easy to understand which Google results are actually about you. We also display the Google result rank so you know if it shows up as the first, second, fifteenth, or thirtieth result.

The next tab in the Visibility section of the Hireability Dashboard is Professional Profiles. Here, we track the professional profiles you’ve created, and suggest others you should join of to make it easier to find you online.

The next tab in the Visibility section of the Hireability Dashboard is Social Networks. Here, we track the social networking profiles you’ve created, and suggest others you should join of to make it easier to find you online.

The next tab in the Visibility section of the Hireability Dashboard is Directories. Directories are like online Yellow Pages for people. Here, we track the directory profiles you’ve created, and suggest others you should join of to make it easier to find you online.

The next tab in the Visibility section of the Hireability Dashboard is Protect These. Here, we track the web 2.0 services you’re on, and suggest others you should join of to protect your username and prevent cases of mistaken identity.

The Next Step

Now that you’ve gotten a taste of some of our tools, it’s time to discover: How visible is your personal brand online? To find out, create a free Brand-Yourself.com account now and start managing your online reputation with our Hireability Dashboard. See you there! Get started now.

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The 5 Senses of Your Personal Brand: Sight

by Trace Cohen • January 19, 2009 • View Comments

Your personal brand is how other people feel about you. Their senses are the touchpoints of your brand.

To the external world, perception is reality.

Millennium of evolution have taught us to survive by making quick, split-second life or death decisions. Our brains are wired to rapidly recognize patterns, then use that information to inform our next actions.

That’s one reason we tend to stereotype groups of people. When we see a distinct group of people doing one similar thing, we identify a pattern. The next time we meet someone new that belongs to that same group (whether they’re the same race, religion, class, age, industry, etc.), our brain lumps them into the previously recognized pattern, and predicts that they will act in the same way. Of course this is plain wrong, but the process is unconscious.

People will have pre-conceived notions about you as soon as they lay eyes on you. Although you can’t stop it from happening, you can use it to your advantage. Here’s how.

Clothes

How would a stranger feel about you if they saw you on the street?

Would you seem:

Professional, clean, organized and wrinkle-free?
Creative, unorthodox, free thinking and experimental?

Think about whether or not your physical appearance is in harmony with your brand. If it isn’t, what’s one thing you can do today to help create the vibe you want? (Shoes, suits, scarves, accessories, etc.). Live your brand by dressing the part to be taken more seriously.

Apartment, House, or Office

How would a stranger feel about you if they saw your apartment, house or office for the first time?

Think about ways to bring your living spaces into alignment with your brand:

Motivational posters
Tapestries
Welcome mat
Name plaque
Business card stack

Website

If you don’t have a website, how do you expect to showcase your skills a wide audience whose eyeballs are glued to their computer screens?

Check out these three posts to take advantage of the sense of sight on the web:

Business Materials

Are the colors, shapes and language on your career toolkit consistent with your brand? Think about how can your toolkit, including your:

Sight informs first impressions

People make snap judgments about your appearance. Although this is unavoidable, you can be prepared. If you dress sloppily, people will notice it and make a mental note of it. On the other hand, if you dress the part, you will be taken more seriously and people will be more likely to listen to what you have to say.

Mastering the elements that define your brand gives you more say in how people perceive you. Just like on the web, people form impressions of you based on the breadcrumbs that they find. The more breadcrumbs they find that support your brand, the stronger they feel they understand you. What can you do today to align the sense of sight with your brand?