Personal Branding and You
It was a little more than a decade ago that I heard the term “personal branding” for the first time. Tom Peters used it in an article titled “The Brand Called You” that appeared in Fast Company magazine in 1997. I didn’t think much about it at the time.
A few years Peter Montoya interviewed me for the first edition of his book, The Brand Called You. Even then, the concept was only the faintest of blips on my issue radar.
Things are different today. Several articles are published every month on personal branding. Google comes up with over 100,000 blog posts and almost a million web pages when you hunt for the term.
When a term is being thrown about that much, you know there is bound to be lots of conflicting advice. Here’s my take on what you need to know about personal branding and pointers to some solidly helpful resources.
Your personal brand is what people think of when they hear your name. It is also the impression those people will have if they try to find out all about you, the way a prospective employer will.
You have a personal brand. You have no choice in this. Your only choice is about what to do to influence what people think about you.
The web, especially social media, make it easy for people to find out lots of things about you. Not all of that may be accurate. Some of it may be unfair. But that’s life.
So, what can you do to make your personal brand exactly what you want it to be? Here are two great resources.
Dan Schawbel is today’s most visible guru on personal branding. He’s just added a post to his blog that’s titled: “Personal Branding for Dummies.” It’s a good place to start.
Wendy Mason at the Wise Wolf Talking blog also has a great post titled: “Your Personal Brand – A Checklist – 8 Questions to Ask.”
Start with either one of those, and remember to come back here to Momentor for good advice on all things career.