Promoting BRAND ME
division president Lynden Riley. INDUSTRY
For most of us, personal branding is something Hollywood celebrities do to keep their face and name in the minds of others. But now we are starting to recognise and
embrace the idea that we are all a brand. Welcome to Brand ME. Personal branding is really about how
we market ourselves both personally and professionally, and most of us are already doing this without realising it. Social media has evolved and is now being used for networking, recruitment and forming reputations, which means today’s professional needs to spend time creating and maintaining Brand ME. Many recruitment agencies and
companies themselves are advertising positions on various social media platforms. The same people are also looking at your personal brand before deciding whether or not to interview you. Building a personal brand can positively impact your career.
WHAT IS YOUR BRAND? When putting together your ideas of what your brand will be, you need really think about the profi le you want to project to others, where you want to be in your future and how your brand will project that. You will also need a catchy brand
statement (your mission and vision in life). You need to defi ne who you are and your particular abilities. Find out from others what they perceive as your strengths, and work them into your statement.
CREATING YOUR BRAND Once you have an idea of how you want to be seen in the world, you need to decide
Boost your career by working on your brand, advises AIOP Victorian
what material you need in your personal branding toolkit. What platforms will you use? Here are a few of the most common...
LINKEDIN: LinkedIn claims to be the world’s largest professional network with 200 million members in 200 countries and territories. Its simple mission is to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. When you join the network, you gain access to people, jobs, news, updates and information. Your profi le shows prospective employers your CV/portfolio, references by way of endorsements, your vision and your networking connections. It also allows you to connect to other people and groups internationally.
TWITTER: Twitter is a great platform to show off what interests you. It need not be a work related, but it is important to remember that whatever you post on Twitter will be available forever – even if you think your settings are private. Use this platform to share ideas and to link to interesting articles or websites or even to your blog. You can also fi nd and follow interesting accounts. Seek out people you know or admire, network and connect to people with whom you would like to align your brand. If you have 100 followers, they in turn may have 100 followers and so on, so use this potential audience to showcase your brand.
FACEBOOK: Most of us jumped on board to create a Facebook profi le but have never really used it to brand ourselves. Most prospective business partners probably don’t want to see your photos of last week’s
pub crawl, so you may want to revisit your page and update it to refl ect Brand YOU. Linking back to other platforms such as LinkedIn allows anyone following your brand to fi nd you, and keeps some consistency.
BLOGS: Bloggers write about themselves and about issues they know about and with which they want to be identifi ed. Your blog need not be anything more than about yourself. By blogging a short well-written and focused article with a strong headline once a week, you will gain followers who will usually share your articles with members of their community. Bloggers often have a strong presence on the internet. Don’t forget to link your blog back to your other social media platforms.
EMAIL: While cutiepie@gmail may be funny to your friends, it is defi nitely not a good option for your branding, unless you are running a children’s clothing company. Keep your email addresses professional and in line with your brand.
CREATING NETWORKS When your brand is up and running, you need to network and showcase yourself. This can be done by joining in the online chatter, posting interesting articles on these platforms, tweeting and re-tweeting. Make the most of your brand by joining
networking associations in your city to meet with like-minded professionals. Make sure you have a Brand ME business card so people can fi nd you and connect and get the conversation started. So what does your brand say about you? INFO
www.aiop.com.au
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