Personal Branding Weekly
From working with a career coach to great email etiquette techniques, last week’s Personal Branding Blog posts focused on being authentic, building a brand and even reviewing the political landscape and personal brandings.
Here’s the articles you might have missed:
- Cool, Clever Trends Help Personal Branding! by Deborah Shane
- If I Were to Start Over, What Would I do Differently? by Jun Loayza
- Resume Personal Branding Best Practices Part 1 – Crystal Clear by Phil Rosenberg
- What’s Wrong with Romney’s Personal Brand? by Nance Rosen
- 3 Personal Branding Lessons from the Presidential Candidates by Heather Huhman
- 3 Reasons to Partner with the Competition by Elinor Stutz
- Writing versus Content Curation for Personal Branding Success by Roger Parker
- “Expect Delays” Even When There is No Sign by Aaron McDaniel
- When it’s ‘Safe’ to Say, ‘Hey Boss, I’m Looking!’ by Skip Freeman
- Be Authentic – To a Point by Katie Konrath
- I Need Your Help: Sharing a Personal Branding Struggle by Manoush Zomorodi
- Personal Branding Redemption by Oscar Del Santo
- Five Personal Branding Tips for Musicians by Erik Deckers
- 5 Rules of Thumb for Proper E-mail E-tiquette by Michael Spinale
- A Career Coach: The Catalyst for Your Success! by Beth Kuhel
This next week – check in with us to see some great posts on reducing friction and how to ‘spin’ negative news to positive word of mouth.
Be sure to provide feedback on :
- Resume best practices
- How to communicate if you’re not a communicator
- Growing recognition
- How to make your LinkedIn profile summary do the best it can for you
See you during this next week, too!
Moving from We to Me
After years of working as a corporate executive you now long to be an entrepreneur – does this sound like you? It’s a great idea that needs careful planning and measured steps. Till now you were known as an expert within your organization- as a part of your organization. Now you have to be known as “what you are“. All your years of experience and expertise have to be put together and delivered to the world as a brand called “You” – not your company.
The first and most important step is impression management. This is a continuous process of creating and managing your image to your prospective customers. This will include presenting your skills to your professional circle in such a manner that people get a favorable idea about yourself. The motive behind impression management is to create an identity for you and a way to be remembered in the most positive way.
It is important to find out what your strengths are and to use them for your own business. You can make up for your weaknesses by having a partner or a mentor who may be good at things which you may lack. The most important thing in doing something yourself is to cultivate your image and project yourself as a “go to” person in your industry.
What’s common about the people you currently serve
Discover a niche for yourself. A niche is what you do so well. That means you have to be knowledgeable and really understand how you serve your client’s needs. In building your own brand you have to ask several questions of yourself. Does your knowledge and skill experience fit the image of your brand? Do they build confidence and trust with your prospective customers?
Building rapport is important to continue the conversation with a customer and discover your common frame of reference . You will find there are plenty of people who are willing to recommend when you when they like you. Through rapport you can open up a new world of opportunities.
Be open and genuinely interested in others. Maintain an up to date data base of your contacts remember their birthdays or special events- send them emails or articles relating to your special interests and build your potential customer royalty that can help you to expand your professional circle. Join industry associations, become socially active.
Here are some easy ways to do that
Be visible : Create a blog or a website for yourself. A blog or a website is a great place where you can advertise yourself and your services or product. Create Social media profiles like Linkedin,Facebook, Twitter.
Create a portfolio – this should showcase all your experiences and expertise that will be useful to your prospective customers. Create newsletters with information that you think will be of interest and useful to your prospective customers. Send your portfolio and the newsletters to your selected mailing list. If people find them interesting and useful they will become genuinely interested in your services.
Be pro active. Do not expect that people will automatically come to you. Go out – find and meet new prospective customers. Build your own professional and business circle from your colleagues, clients and others in the industry who know who you are and appreciate your talent and expertise. You might have earned a good reputation in your organization. You have to pull it all together and market it to your business or professional network to move from “We to Me”
Author:
Maria Elena Duron, is managing editor of the Personal Branding Blog, CEO (chief engagement officer) of buzz2bucks.com – a word of mouth marketing firm. She helps create conversation, connection, credibility, community and commerce around your brand. Maria Duron is co-founder and moderator of #brandchat – a weekly Twitter chat focused on every aspect of branding that is recognized by Mashable as one the 15 Essential Twitter Chats for Social Media Marketers.
