Personal Branding For Dummies

Personal Branding can be something as simple as a title or label: General Contractor, Nurse, CEO, or Stay at Home Mom.

These “tags” allow others to immediately know something about who we are and what we do. As adults, most of us identify ourselves by our jobs or what we do. We understand others in these same terms as well.

We are known by these tags until we choose to provide more insight or information into who we are and what we find important. In this next level of branding, we might provide additional information to communicate what we might like others to know:

• General Contractor – Environmental and Green Building
• CEO of a National Case Management Company
• Stay at Home Mom providing educational daycare
• Nurse in a hospice center

You can see how just a few more words communicate a great deal more than we imagine. We used to talk about elevator speech in terms of marketing services, products, or oneself. With the technology and communication outlets available to us today the elevator speech is raised to new and exciting levels.

What you chose to “put out there” is seen by so many more people than an elevator speech could reach – that it is unfathomable! The Internet allows for the distribution and receipt of so much information that it can be confusing and overwhelming. However, if you are aware of yourself and your goals, you can use it to your advantage.

Add a few words and you can communicate even more about who you are, what you want and/or your goals:

• General Contractor – Environmental and Green Building, specializing in retrofitting existing homes
• CEO of a National Case Management Company with in-depth knowledge of hospital systems
• Stay at Home Mom providing educational daycare in nurturing, home setting
• Nurse in a hospice center providing support to cancer patients and their families

How powerful a few more words can be! Add to that the immediate and far-flung distribution via internet (e-mail, social networking, website posting, search engines and the like) and you have an exponentially expanded elevator speech that can connect you instantaneously to those seeking your information, knowledge, or product/service.

The key is to keep in mind once you have stamped your brand in as many places as possible to benefit you and your goals, it is difficult or impossible to remove! Think long and hard about how you want to be perceived. Who are you? What message do you want to send? What are key tags that identify you and your goals?

Above all… edit yourself. The Internet, in general, and social networking sites in particular have made it almost too easy to communicate anything. The ease and speed at which someone can update a tweet or a status provides an instant forum for uncensored words to collect and fester if you are not careful!

You can alter your brand gradually and, over time, shift it if need be, but a ill-word or misstep may not be so easily dealt with if you are not careful…

With alll that said, brand yourself well at any level you choose, give it some thought before proceeding, but do so on some level sooner rather than later!