Personal Branding: Not Like Cattle Branding

Personal Branding: Not Like Cattle Branding

A couple of weeks ago, I had a mini family reunion with my sister and brother along with our spouses/love interests. We don’t get together very often, so it was a fun evening as we filled each other in on the latest happenings in our lives. Of course, work always seems to come up in conversations, and inevitably, my particular chosen profession is always misunderstood. Because I live and breathe things like online marketing, seo, and webmastering, I tend to forget that not everyone is familiar with all the terminology.

So when I brought up the subject of personal branding, it was a little surprising that my normally loud, raucous family went totally silent. Quizzical expressions and dumbfounded looks surrounded the table. Finally my sister spoke. “Personal branding?”, she asked. “What is that? Like branding a cow?”

I sighed. “No, Sis,” I said. “It’s NOT like branding a cow. It’s like a product brand. You know, like Coke is a brand. Or Walmart is a brand. If Gary (my brother) decided he wanted to be known as the Louisiana Real Estate guru, he would market himself that way, establishing his own personal brand as Gary, the Louisiana Real Estate Guru. If he marketed himself well, then he would become well-known, and everyone would know that HE was the Louisiana Real Estate Guru. That’s what personal branding is. Marketing yourself.”

Although I’m not sure they completely “got it”, it was a good enough explanation to allow us to move on to safer topics that everyone could participate in – like how our local college baseball team was doing this season.

Personal branding is on my mind lately because Dan Schawbel’s book, Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success is now available at Amazon.* Dan is the guy behind the Personal Branding Magazine, and as I’ve mentioned before, I’m a staff columnist for that magazine. So of course, I’ve been looking forward to seeing Dan’s book get published. I ordered it before it was even published, so I could be one of the first to have it. It arrived on my doorstep (ok, in my post office box, actually) a few days ago. I’ve devoured it since then.

Although I won’t be recommending the book to either my sister or brother because they are at the tail end of their careers, I am recommending it to each of you. If you read this blog, you should read Dan’s book. If you have any interest in furthering your career (even offline), you should read his book.

In fact, Dan’s main focus in Me 2.0 is that of young people embarking on careers, and using the power of personal branding to get the jobs they want and be successful in their chosen careers. This is especially useful information right now, when so many are laid off. Competing for a job has gotten a lot tougher because so many people are desperate for work. How you market yourself can make all the difference in whether or not you land the job you want. The book does a great job of showing how to market yourself before, during, and after a job interview.

Of course, I work from home, so I’m not particularly interested in resumes or interviewing. But the world of freelancing and online marketing involves lots of personal branding as well, and if you are involved in ebusiness in any way, you need to understand personal branding. Your reputation is on the line every day in the ebusiness world, and your personal brand is your reputation. How you manage your brand’s reputation is critical to your online success.

Luckily, the advice Dan gives in Me 2.0 works just as well for me and you as it does for the recent college graduate looking for that perfect job. The concepts of personal branding – marketing yourself – extend to all of us, regardless of what kind of career we’ve chosen.

Here’s a little of what you can find in the book:

A 4-step process for building a powerful brand (discover,
create, communicate, maintain).
Tips on using social media tools for personal empowerment, confidence building, and professional networking in order to attract jobs directly to you, without applying!
Tested advice on how to create an online and offline presence for
career protection and self-promotion.
Over 40 expert quotes from leaders including Don Tapscott, Guy Kawasaki, Penelope Trunk, and David Kirkpatrick of Fortune Magazine, among others.
More than 70 research reports, 3 personal case studies and examples to give you a broader perspective on the topic.

I personally bought this book because I know Dan’s advice is always excellent. I know that he knows this topic inside and out. I trusted that the few dollars I would spend on the book would be worth it, and I was right. Dan’s own personal brand is that of a personal branding expert, and there’s good reason for it. Anyone looking to market themselves – for online or offline careers – would be smart to read Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success. It can make a huge difference in your future career plans.

If you are interested in the things I’ve had to say over the years on the topic of personal branding, you might want to check out the branding category here on my blog. Needless to say, I’ll continue to post on this in the future as well, because it’s an important topic to understand if you want to be successful in an online business.

Disclosure: Affiliate links may be used within this post for products I recommend. They in no way affect my judgement of said products, nor do they affect the price of the product.