A Personal Branding Exercise: Tell Me More… About the Brand Called “You”.
The concept behind branding has changed. Branding doesn’t begin with your advertising agency, or your social media campaign. Products and services are brands, but so are you. In fact, branding begins with you – your story, expressed in a way that’s authentic and compelling.
So: is your story authentic and compelling?
Be careful with your answer.
Guess who decides if you are authentic or not?
It’s the same person that decides on “compelling”.
It’s not you. It’s your audience.
You are a brand, whether you like it or not. And your branding is either good or bad. You don’t have the ability to “opt out” of personal branding.
To be effective at personal branding, you have to understand the concept of “Tell Me More…”
Think about the tools you use to tell yourstory: your website, your twitter account, your company collateral, or even your resume.
The reaction you receive depends on your branding.
Personal branding really depends on your ability to create exchange: an exchange of ideas, an exchange of words... or even: an exchange of your talents that results in a paycheck.
The principle behind personal branding is “Tell Me More…”
Branding means different things to different people. It’s too simplistic to think of branding as simply broadcasting, because (let’s face it) you can write or say anything these days. I hate to tell you this, but blogging about somethingdoesn’t make it true.
For your personal branding, you’ve got to consider consistency in your conversation.
In other words, does your URL match up with IRL? (that stands for “in real life”)What do you stand for, in real life? And your electronic one, as well?
Sophisticated storytellers think about more than just their tale; they consider the audience’s reaction.
Creating an online brand IS the modern equivalent of storytelling – but that story is now a conversation.
What’s the story behind your personal branding message? And how are you creating the conversation?
After all, when it comes to personal branding, remember this one fact:
Whoever tells the best story, wins.
How powerful is your personal branding? Do you present yourself well on LinkedIn? What makes your message strong, and whose personal branding do you admire most?
This post was originally featured on Westfall Online and was shared with permission from the author.
