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Be Cognizant of your Online Personal Brand

03 09 07 - 16:41 - Bookmark this post

This is a guest post by Dan Schawbel, publisher of Personal Branding Magazine and owner of the world acclaimed Personal Branding Blog.

Personal Branding has become a hot topic in the world today and is more relevant than ever before. With the rise of social networks and the demand for reputation management, Personal Branding is a must for just about anyone. It's important to recognize how we are being perceived online and who is viewing our pictures and bio's.

 I define Personal Branding as an individuals total perceived value, relative to competitors, as viewed by their audience. By branding yourself online, through blogging or social networks, others are judging you based on your content. This can either help you or hurt you in the long run, but it does open up the doors to new and exciting opportunities. You may think that joining Facebook or Myspace is a standard practice these days and that it may not hurt you, but think again. Placing an explicit photo on either of these networks cause hurt you in any interview or network building event.

Everyone is starting to use Google as an engine to prescreen candidates, verifying their credibility and stature on these type of websites. It's important to note that how you brand yourself online will be reflected in the Google results for your name. For instance, if you type in Dan Schawbel, you will receive my blog, LinkedIn account, magazine and blogs that have praised my work. If you have people that are speaking negatively about you instead of praising you, that will be seen as well. Remember that social networks such as Facebook rank high in the search engines, which means that you need to protect yourself and your Personal Brand. Facebook should be used to engage with friends, while LinkedIn should carry your professional contacts. Either way, you should enlist privacy controls when working with these networks.

Here are 3 Personal Branding tips:

1. Plan and strategize before you select a social media vehicle to put your content on.
2. Use pictures and written work that shines you in a positive light and seek feedback when necessary.
3. Monitor all sites that have your work on them occasionally to ensure accuracy.

As a Personal Brand Strategist I help clients with their online AND offline branding (both need to be integrated) and I agree completely Dan with your tips. Using social media is great but even better… bring it all together in an online professional portfolio where you showcase your brand with images, proof of performance stories, your bio, interests, values, your social conscious, your CV and more. In this online environment that YOU have created you project your brand at its best showing the TOTAL value to your audience ….of course always with authenticity. You come “alive” online in one environment instead of your target gathering “bits and pieces” scattered about in cyberspace. Still use social media but, IN ADDITION, as these all have limitations, bring it on home…as they say…come alive online…in ONE online environment that says it all!
Bernadette Martin - 04 09 07 - 09:45

Dan, nice intro in the field of personal branding. I find myself thinking about this more and more since my life gets more online. One extra tip: If you use microblogging tools like Twitter or Jaiku, be aware that these services also get a very high Google rank. Not to say you shouldn’t use them, for me personally they enrich my social life online and also reflect my own personality in different ways than just a professional one.
Frank Meeuwsen - 14 09 07 - 12:56