A brand is defined as the story you think of when you hear the name; Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, etc. Also when you also mention such a name you will associate them with words like Quality, Ease of use, Technology, Cool, High Performance and so on. These are all personal branding key terms.
What is Personal Branding?
Your personal brand is the story people think of when they hear your name.
- Great engineer
- Make it happen, person
- One of Stanford Universities best and brightest
- I’d work with her anytime
- He’s always ready to help a new hire
- I’ve seen and respected his work on several papers
- She always puts the company first
How a personal brand is built
Your personal brand is built over a period of time by you, your managers, and your peers. Through your history, social interaction and engagement, etc.
See the table below:
How to make brand Analysis
- Design your “ideal” brand statement and write it down.
- You control 95% of achieving it.
See the table below:
How to measure brand performance
- Identify “actual” brand achievement to date (it’s okay to have missing pieces).
- Make a commitment to achieving the brand “ideal”.
- Run branding experiments to find what works.
- Put together an action plan and time frame then monitor progress.
- Update and modify yearly.
- Then keep track of your brand progress using Google trend.
Lessons from Brand Analysis
- People – People will never experience you objectively – Your brand precedes you.
- First Impressions Count – Your community forms lasting brand impressions quickly.
- Build a Unique Brand – Your brand is a source of competitive advantage.
Networking and Personal Branding
Build a more powerful personal brand through networking.
Why you should leverage networks
- It creates a web of influence
- Networks are essential to being effective at work.
- It provides information.
- They are a source of influence
- They facilitate the alignment of goals.
Building and Maintaining Networks
Building networks is work and requires conscious effort and must be maintained in other to yield result.
The key concept of networks
- Networks must continually be maintained. They are not a one-time event.
- It should be targeted, not ad hoc.
- Networks must be built before they are needed.
- A network’s power is directly proportional to the effort you put into it.
- Quality networks are used to make things happen.
- Defective networks are political.
- Not all attempts at building networks will be successful – be prepared for rejection.
How to strengthen your network ties
- Give and receive help
- Ask for help
Note by offering help, you join new networks.
Common views on Networking
- Networks must be consistent with an organization’s culture
- Networking and competence are not mutually exclusive
- It is viewed differently in different cultures
- Networking is a critical skill for managers