Personal Branding In Personal and Work Situations

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I get asked by a lot of press, friends, former colleagues and blog readers about how I maneuver my personal brand, from my full-time position at EMC and everything I do outside of work. People always wonder how to brand yourself in certain situations, while still remaining true to yourself, your talents, personality, etc.

I want to go over how I represent myself and my company in a few different settings and why it’s important to do so. This post is focused primarily at those who have full-time jobs and run a business or several projects on the side. If all you have is a full-time job or your own business, then this won’t really apply to you. College students don’t have to be concerned with this post either.

Personal branding at work

When you are at work, from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM or however long your hours are, you need to put your company first, yet let your projects benefit your brand. If the media calls upon you when you’re at work, then you must use your title and corporate name, when the journalist asks how you want to be cited, especially if the article is relevant to your company and position.

When it comes to networking at work, use your corporate business card and during your introduction, lead with what you do at your company, not your blog, etc. You can always mention what you’re doing outside of work, but focus on your full-time job first. If your company is paying for you to go to a conference, then the same rules apply. When you’re on their time, they should get some credit and acknowledgment for the money they are investing in you.

Personal branding outside of work

Not to confuse you, but when you aren’t at work (off-hours), you still represent your company. The difference here is that you don’t have to actively talk about your company and can focus more on your other projects. When you go to a networking event, feel free to use your personal branding business cards.

Depending on your situation and what you feel makes you more interesting and “brandable,” decide whether leveraging your corporate brand will help you outside of work. If it doesn’t, then spend more time on everything else.

Picture of Dan Schawbel

Dan Schawbel

Dan Schawbel is the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm. He is the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success (St. Martin’s Press) and the #1 international bestselling book, Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future (Kaplan Publishing), which combined have been translated into 15 languages.

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