You have a brand already, whether
you have devoted time to it or not and whether you want to have one or not.
Your brand is how you dress, your mannerisms, your online presence, et cetera.
Developing your brand is simply a matter of consciously managing others’
perceptions of who you are. Since this is an ongoing process, this week we will be discussing how to maximize your brand in the shortest time possible.
Let's start by defining your current brand and being aware of where you are in the process of development. You could be like Robin, who is just discovering the concept, Colee, who is developing her brand, or Heather, who is trying to unify and maintain her brand.
No matter where you are in the process, you need to first identify your personal branding statement and matching tagline, or a phrase from your statement that sums it all up. Then you'll need to get specific and choose your target audience, what colors and typography you'll consistently use, any consistent graphics you want, and most importantly - what variation of your name you will use across all platforms.
If you want to get fancy, you can also sign up for free services to monitor your online presence that can notify you anytime your name is mentioned online. Defining your brand now will save you a lot of time later.
No matter where you are in the process, you need to first identify your personal branding statement and matching tagline, or a phrase from your statement that sums it all up. Then you'll need to get specific and choose your target audience, what colors and typography you'll consistently use, any consistent graphics you want, and most importantly - what variation of your name you will use across all platforms.
If you want to get fancy, you can also sign up for free services to monitor your online presence that can notify you anytime your name is mentioned online. Defining your brand now will save you a lot of time later.
After you have defined your brand, you need to start implementing this on all of the documents you share with others - your business card, resume, cover letter, references, social media profiles, et cetera. It does you no good to go through the work of creating brand guidelines if you don't follow through with them.
Beyond normalizing everything, you need to remember to make each document specific for your audience. Your online profiles should include all of your relevant experience, aka experience that relates to your personal branding statement.
However, when you apply for a job, your materials should include relevant experience to the job. But remember not to leave holes in your resume - employers don't like gaps in your job history. If you want to take it a step further, you can also think of creating a video resume.
Beyond normalizing everything, you need to remember to make each document specific for your audience. Your online profiles should include all of your relevant experience, aka experience that relates to your personal branding statement.
However, when you apply for a job, your materials should include relevant experience to the job. But remember not to leave holes in your resume - employers don't like gaps in your job history. If you want to take it a step further, you can also think of creating a video resume.
Now that we have the basics, here's where the major time-saving tips come in.
A main component of your personal brand in an online portfolio, and you don't need any website coding experience to create one. Use simple and free services, such as FigDig and even Wordpress, where you can easily integrate a blog into your portfolio and kill two birds with one stone.
And for social media, use an aggregate service that will allow you to check and post updates on all of your social media profiles from a single location.
A main component of your personal brand in an online portfolio, and you don't need any website coding experience to create one. Use simple and free services, such as FigDig and even Wordpress, where you can easily integrate a blog into your portfolio and kill two birds with one stone.
And for social media, use an aggregate service that will allow you to check and post updates on all of your social media profiles from a single location.
For
examples of well-done personal branding campaigns, visit Social Mouths.
Posts
Great post!! You did nice research for this blog post. Love all the links you incorporated for further reading. Well done!
ReplyDeleteThanks professor! It's somewhat ironic, though, because I've lost track of the hours I spent when I started consciously developing my personal brand a couple years ago because I didn't employ these techniques. I wish I knew about them before!
Delete