Branding

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INTRODUCTIONWhat Is Branding? ...........................................................................................3 Make a Good Impression ...............................................................................3

Displaying Your Brand .....................................................................3

BRANDING - THE 5 STEPSSTEP 1 : Know Yourself ....................................................................................5

Who Are You? ....................................................................................5Realize Your Unique Value ................................................................5

Questions ..........................................................................................6

STEP 2: Distinguish Yourself ...........................................................................7Get Clear on How You’re Different ....................................................7

Questions ..........................................................................................7

Take the Three-Adjective Test .........................................................8

STEP 3: Communicate Your Brand .................................................................9Create Your Personal Branding Statement .......................................9Communicate Your Personal Branding ............................................9

Samples of Professional Branding Statements.............................10

Questions ..........................................................................................10

STEP 4: Use Social Media to Build Your Brand ..............................................11Take Control of Your Virtual World ....................................................11

Questions ..........................................................................................12

STEP 5: Ask for Feedback ...............................................................................13 Feedback Strategies ..........................................................................13Feedback from Your Colleagues and Peers .....................................14Feedback from Your Manager or Mentor ........................................14

LAST WORDS

Checklist for Developing Your Personal Branding ........................15

What’s Inside

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Branding

What’s Inside

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What Is Branding?Branding is defined as the process of uncovering and marketing core competencies to meet a selected audience’s needs. Branding is not a new concept. Thirty percent of the world’s 100 most valuable brands were developed before 1900. If you are a large corporation, branding usually means a full-flight media campaign designed to give billions of “impressions” to the public. Most of us are exposed to more than 3,000 marketing messages a day.

Make a Good Impression

When the brand is you, you have the same challenge to give “impressions” to your selected audience. Your audience can be the people you work with, an interviewer, members of your network or social networking sites.

Personal branding is a global trend that has become increasingly important to all career-minded individuals. It is the process by which you discover what makes you unique, identify your skills and abilities and then communicate your personal branding message to your selected audience. Your personal brand must be authentic; it should be more than an elevator speech or a couple of current buzzwords. It should be who you are and how you appear to current and potential managers.

Displaying Your Brand

What you need is a brand to make sure you are portraying yourself in a way that achieves your objectives. In this case, it’s an internal position. Your skills, competencies and driving principles are key components of your brand. They are about more than just your job.

You are already reflecting your brand in ways such as your:

Resume

Experience

Skills

Behaviors

Image

Social media profiles

Introduction

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BRANDING - THE 5 STEPS

What Message and Image Define You?How many times have you been asked what you do? Do you feel like people really understand what you do or what makes you unique? In most companies, we tend to be known by our job title or area of specialty. In internal interviewing and networking, this could possibly present a challenge if you’re looking to move in to an entirely different role.

To be successful in today’s organization, you need to go beyond job title. You need to clarify exactly what you do, how you do it and for whom beyond a job title. Communicate this through your personal brand so you and your target audience will know exactly what you are capable of.

What You Can Expect

The steps that follow will help you look closer at your personal brand and make it work for you. Following is information, tips and techniques. We’ve also included some key questions to ask in each of the steps. These questions are designed to give you clarity, ensuring that your brand positioning gives a strong, positive, cohesive view. And, of course, we include a few examples to inspire you through the personal branding process.

Know Yourself

Distinguish Yourself

Communicate Your Brand

Use Social Media to Build Your Brand

Ask for Feedback

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BRANDING - THE 5 STEPS STEP 1

Know YourselfWho Are You?

What is your brand and how would you define it to someone else? Your brand should be authentic to you, relevant, unique and something that can evolve as you grow as a professional.

When applying for an internal position, your personal brand has the potential to help you get noticed. Simply put, it is being known for something valuable (such as managing projects, cutting costs, growing sales) and being able to deliver.

Here are some ways to discover and uncover your personal branding message:

Think about your talents and explore ways in which you can incorporate them into your everyday job.

Become more self-aware by noticing your unique skills when you’re performing certain tasks.

Notice those times when you’re performing at your very best and make them part of your personal brand.

Realize Your Unique Value

The first step is to define who you are (and even who you aren’t). Your purpose, point of view, and values are key components of your brand. This step is about more than just your job; this definition is integral to your career and your life.

Branding yourself requires being honest and genuine. When done correctly, personal branding is something that should come very naturally. It’s about you being you and staying true to yourself to help you grow your career. You will build your respect in a company if you know the unique value you provide and how to connect that value to a company’s overall mission.

Your value should imply that you’re important to your company – no matter what position you hold. Hiring managers will look at your overall brand, including things as simple as being friendly and getting along with others.

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Know Yourself – Questions

Here are some questions to reflect on to contribute to your understanding of your current brand. By answering these questions, you are setting the stage to apply what you are learning to your personal branding.

Some of these questions may give you pause. If you don’t know the answer, reach out to someone who knows you. You might be pleasantly surprised at their insight!

Ask yourself these questions to make sure that you are building yourself a powerful brand.

Absolutely essential to ask:

How do you describe yourself?

What are you known for? What is your reputation?

Do you have a personal brand? Does it reflect who you are?

What makes you different from your peers?

What ways do you provide value?

How do you communicate your value?

Why do you do what you do? What provides your motivation?

What do you find when you Google® yourself? Does that match who you are?

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STEP 2

Distinguish YourselfGet Clear on How You’re Different

You are different from others – but how? Is it your experience? Do you have a particular knowledge or skill that makes you different? Do you have an approach that is unique? Are you described consistently by others as the “calm in the storm”? Super friendly? A fearless leader? This is not the time to be humble. Even if you can’t think of how to describe what you are good at, think about what others consistently say about you – something they appreciate or admire.

Creating your personal brand is also about defining what you want people to say when describing you. It becomes the words to create your central message in a way that others remember and repeat it. Think about your special talents and explore ways in which you can incorporate them into your personal brand.

Consider for a moment the ways that marketing brands distinguish themselves. There is usually a single phrase you can instantly apply to them.

That’s your goal – to distinguish yourself with your personal brand message. Personal branding is a practice of creating a description that differentiates you from other people.

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Distinguish Yourself – Questions

What career or business attributes would you say people recognize you for? We are looking for the things that make you stand out from the competition. Here is a short list of personal branding questions you can ask yourself:

The best word or phrase that describes me is…

What’s the one word or phrase I imagine comes to mind when my co-workers think about my career or business attributes?

What’s the one word or phrase I imagine comes to mind when my boss thinks about my career or business attributes?

How do people benefit by working with me?

What do I have to offer my colleagues, boss or company?

What is the difference between me and others professionally?

How do I stand out from the competition?

What is the WOW factor in me that others notice?

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Take the Three–Adjective Test

Think of the three adjectives that best describe you at work. For instance: dependable, loyal and friendly. Do your three words match how you would describe yourself at home?

Now, try asking co-workers and outside friends the three words that best describe you. Compare all the reactions.

If there is an adjective in there that you don’t like – especially if it’s a common theme – you should address reshaping the brand that you’re delivering.

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STEP 3

Communicate Your BrandTell Others Who YOU Are

Create Your Personal Branding Statement

The job of your personal branding statement is to “grab” attention, not tell your entire story. You have 10 seconds to make a positive first impression with this statement. Writing a personal branding statement is like creating a branding statement for a company, product or service. Your goal is to write a statement that is uniquely you and create a memorable “hook” as to your unique expertise. It should represent who you are on the inside expressed authentically on the outside.

Your statement is one to two sentences, answering the following:

What you’re best at (value)

Whom you serve (audience)

How you do it uniquely (your unique sales points)

Your personal brand statement is not a job title. It’s also not your personal mission statement, career objectives or even life purpose. Your personal brand statement is memorable, punchy and solution oriented. It works just as well at a networking event as it does in an interview.

Communicate Your Personal Branding

The way you communicate to others will reinforce your brand, so it’s important that you share your personal branding statement. You might think of it as your personal mark or logo.

Consider adding your branding statement to the following:

LinkedIn® and other social media profiles

Tagline to blogs

Personal websites

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Value What you’re best known for

Audience Whom you serve or want to impress

Your Unique Sales Points How you do what you do

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Samples of Professional Branding Statements:

Whiz of a Sales Executive: As an executive risk taker, I drive business to the next level. Application of enthusiastic confidence generates new customers and competitively positions products. I consistently overcome obstacles and generate product loyalty while increasing profits and global market recognition.

Helpful Customer Service Representative: I leverage my knowledge of company products and mastery of online technology to facilitate customer inquiries. The ability to solve problems for individuals comes naturally to me and results in maintaining stellar quality scores throughout my career.

Motivated IT Project Leader: A highly-motivated, experienced IT professional in visualizing, developing and leading website development in marketing and e-commerce. Leverage connections with diverse project teams to create dynamic external and internal Web presence. I consistently focus on relationship building to drive project management results.

Science Marketing Specialist: Recognized for 20+ years of success in linking science-based achievements with decisive market leadership to build high-performance organizations with significant financial rewards. Led strategic and operational breakthroughs in proactive health informatics and communications technologies, evidence-based prevention and care management products and cost-effective healthcare delivery systems.

Communicate Your Brand - Questions

Questions that can help prompt you while writing your statement:

What value would you say you provide?

What problems do you easily solve for others?

What makes you unique?

What is your unique selling proposition that singles you out from the competition?

Who is your target? How can you get their attention with a short “headline”?

Who would benefit the most from your unique selling points?

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STEP 4

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Use Social Media to Build Your BrandTake Control of Your Virtual World

In the age of social networking, a strong brand displays to the world who you are, what you’ve done and where you exist online.

Create a profile on social networking sites such as LinkedIn®, Facebook® and Twitter®.

Create a profile on any internal company-sponsored social networking site.

Using tools such as Twitter®, Facebook®, LinkedIn® and Google®, it’s easy to develop an interpretation of yourself online. Make sure it’s the brand you want to deliver.

This will prove to be an important facet of even an internal job search. Most hiring managers can check out your profiles online to get a more complete picture of the employee and person you are.

Consider what’s on your profiles:

LinkedIn®: A LinkedIn® profile is a combination of a resume, cover letter, references document and a moving and living database of your network. Use it to create your own personal achievements and connect with networking contacts.

Facebook®: More than 160 million people have profiles, and the work you’ve done on personal branding can be an important part of your profile. Be sure to include a Facebook® picture of just you, input your work experience and fill out your profile completely. Turn on privacy settings so that only “friends” can view your profile. Also, turn on the privacy options that disable people to tag you in pictures and videos. You might want to use your Personal Branding Message you’ve developed as the tagline in your profile.

Twitter®: Watch your tweets because all information is shared openly by default. You do have the option to set your profile to private, which will hide tweets from only those who haven’t been cleared as a follower.

Consider all the other places you show up in the virtual world. Google® yourself to find out what impression you are giving – make sure it is reflecting a good internal showing.

Personal Websites

If you’re in a profession where a portfolio is expected, you should have your own personal website to show off your work. These are especially important for architects, art directors, photographers, illustrators and graphic designers so they can showcase the work they’ve done. Otherwise, a personal website is really not necessary.

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Use Social Media – Questions

What do you find when you Google® yourself?

What does your virtual brand say about you?

Do you have a LinkedIn® profile?

Are all your social media profiles updated?

Have you set your privacy settings where needed?

How many LinkedIn® connections do you have within your organization?

Are you networking with all the right people?

Do you follow blogs in your organization (if applicable)?

If you have work to showcase, do you have your own website?

Have you reached out for recommendations on LinkedIn®?

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STEP 5

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Ask for FeedbackHow Do Others Perceive You?

Your personal brand image – the value that others perceive you possess in your role in the workforce – is something you can develop, shape and control. Remember, a “personal brand” is synonymous with your reputation and refers to the way other people see you. What do you represent? What do you stand for? What words or thoughts come forward when someone hears your name? It should be part of your personal branding efforts to find out the answers to these questions.

Large companies use focus groups, customer feedback and other sophisticated methods to judge whether or not their brand is having the desired impact. One excellent way you can test the value of your personal brand is by asking for feedback. There are many forms of feedback to get valuable input on your personal brand – most involve asking questions of people (and yourself) to test the value of your personal brand.

Feedback StrategiesHere are three strategies that will help you elicit and use feedback:

Determine Your ReadinessBe sure you are prepared to hear others’ opinions of your brand. How do you know when you’re ready?

Check the following and see how many apply to you:

You’ve done as much work as you can and now need feedback.

You’re willing and able to hear opinions that may not match yours.

You know something is off but are not sure what.

You know what is missing and want feedback to confirm your thoughts.

Design the Feedback Process To solicit the feedback you want, ask yourself these questions:

What is your goal? What specific feedback do you want?

What kind of feedback do you want?

Do you want the feedback in person or written?

Here are some simple brand evaluation questions to ask of others:

Do I have a personal brand and if so, what is that brand?

If you introduced me to someone, how would you introduce me?

When you think of me, what special traits do you believe I have? Give me some examples.

Determine What Is Useful Once you have feedback, ask “How can I use what I have learned?”

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Who Do You Ask?

Feedback from Your Colleagues and Peers

One way to solicit valuable feedback is to ask colleagues and peers how they perceive your personal brand.

Depending on your style, it can be via email, telephone or in person.

Tell them you’re working to understand your current personal brand and their input would provide great insight.

Of course, make sure you are respecting any internal guidelines within your organization.

Feedback from Your Manager or Mentor

Recruit your current manager as your ally in the internal job search process.

Ask him/her to consider your brand and for ways you could improve it.

Also, seek out someone who you would consider your mentor, whether in the organization or not. If they’ve proved helpful in the past, you can count on an honest answer.

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Last WordsSo that’s an overview of Developing Your Personal Brand. How would you describe yours? What do you want to be known for? What sets you apart?

Your personal brand image and branding statement are critical parts of your business identity and reputation. The core branding message you deliver is the basis from which your other tools in job search are developed.

Now is the time to write an extraordinary personal branding statement that will speak for you and your talents.

Take a moment to consider this checklist.

Checklist for Developing Your Personal Brand:

Do you have a brand positioning statement that clearly defines the attributes that make you unique and better qualified than other job seekers?

Do you track, quantify and report your key accomplishments to your network of contacts?

Have you defined your area of expertise?

Do you have a network of contacts who know your personal brand value and are able to discuss it?

Is your personal brand consistent with your values and accomplishments?

Do you know what makes your personal brand unique?

Do you know how to deliver your brand message and showcase your accomplishments online and in person?

Is your personal brand clearly presented on your resume and social media profiles?

Does everything about you support your brand message?

Do you ask for feedback about your personal brand from trusted friends and colleagues?

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© Lee Hecht Harrison, LLC. All rights reserved.No part of this book may be reproduced by photocopy or any

other means without written permission of Lee Hecht Harrison, LLC