An octopus has eight tentacles, as does the subject of personal branding. Each tentacle has suction cups for sensing and tasting other sea creatures and objects such as coral. Personal branding touches each related topic in a dissimilar way. The personal brand or head of the octopus is the centerpiece for the model, which is you. Each tentacle represents an area that either impacts or is influenced by your brand.
Social media is a channel by which your brand can persuade, entertain or become noticeable to others. Entrepreneurship is how you take ownership of your career and become your own manager. Human resources within any company analyzes personal brands for recruitment purposes, whereas career development is a routine for positioning yourself as favorable to human resources. Public relations, whether through traditional or new media, is an option for notifying others that your brand exists, as well as managing your reputation online. Self-marketing and branding enables you to have deliverables for starting conversations between you and your audience. Forming relationships through networking is how you enable a brand transaction or establish a new opportunity. Finally, search engine optimization is your ability to rank high in search engines, due to other websites appreciation and trust in your website.
I’ve been contemplating this model for months now, after brainstorming the various topics that surround personal branding. I think it’s important to realize that your brand can be manipulated and revised throughout your life and the above categories are items to look into as you progress. Each column in Personal Branding Magazine is built off of this column, to give the full perspective on the topic.
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.
