Building your personal brand
By Ernie Mitchell
HTF Columnist
Regardless of whether you are a student, an employee or an employer, you have a personal brand. Your brand is your personality and your reputation all rolled into one.
Personal brand building has always been important but with the proliferation of the Internet and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook personal brand building has come into vogue. Today, an individual with a laptop computer and a high speed internet connection can enjoy a commercial or social brand presence that was only afforded to multi-million dollar, multi-national corporations 20 years ago.
Millions of advertisers and sales people compete daily for the attention or “headspace” of their prospective buyers. Often times, having a well established personal brand is the deciding factor for receiving a positive “yes” buying decision when a potential buyer checks out your credentials with Google or elsewhere. It’s ironic that the Internet, as vast as it is, has made doing business - Conducting Commerce if you will - personal.
What about your personality, your reputation, your brand? In your journey through life are you forging a positive personality and a reputable reputation? The amount of friends, happiness and prosperity you have has everything to do with how the world views your personality and your reputation. Let’s take a close look at the building blocks of personal brand building.
The way society defines the terms personality and reputation can be confusing. When we hear someone refer to another person as having “personality” it’s almost always viewed in a positive light. For instance, when someone is said to have “personality” words like charismatic, outgoing and likeable come to mind. If, on the other hand, if it’s said that a person lacks personality a negative connotation automatically follows as words like, dull, irritating or even repulsive come to mine.
In contrast to personality, when a person is said to have a “reputation” it almost always brings a negative connotation as words like disingenuous and promiscuous pop up. Sorting out how this all got so convoluted with “personality” having positive connotations and “reputation” having negative connotations is irrelevant. What’s important to keep in mind is that people don’t lack personality any more than they lack reputation. Most importantly, we are in total control of how we build and manage our personalities and reputations. This building process is what brand building is all about.
Big companies like Coca Cola, Campbell’s Soup and McDonalds spend millions promoting their “It’s The Real Thing,” “M’m, M’m Good,” and “You Deserve A Break Today” jingles and images. How can we, with our limited resources, build our personal brands?
First: As a cornerstone to building your personality and your personal brand it’s imperative to understand that we canNOT think one way and act another! Contrary to popular belief, your mind is a window to the world. If you are saying one thing and thinking another it’s just a matter of time before your mind will expose you as a disingenuous fraud. The earlier that you get your head wrapped around this fact, the easier life will be.
Second: Pick up a copy of Dale Carnegie’s 1936 all time best selling book “How To Win Friends And Influence People.” Make it part of you’re a-list personal library.
Third: To expand your online presence open a Twitter and Facebook account and cultivate an image and a following. Businesses, small and large alike, are discovering there is gold in social media sites. Prospective buyers, employers etc. are likely to Google your name and check out your Internet presence. A word of caution - posts on social networking sites and forums will immediately show up on Google searches. Manage your Internet image. A picture of you passed out at a party will not be endear- ing to customers or future employers.
Fourth: Practice common sense. To make friends, do friendly things. Do a little more than bargained for. If you’re in business, call customers and thank them for their recent order. All your competitors are competing for your customer’s or prospect’s headspace. Never pass up an opportunity to say thank you and convey a sincere compliment. You can bet the recipient will remember it.
I have an old Vietnam vet buddy that calls me every so often from somewhere on the road. The other day I sent him an email thanking him for his calls and to let him know that I enjoy hearing from him. My email didn’t tell him anything he didn’t already know - but I’m sure he enjoyed hearing it. I also enjoyed sending it.
Ernie Mitchell, Moose Lake Hill, Orr MN, © All Rights Reserved 2010.
