Posts of Madison Who\\'s Who
Personal Branding - 4 Power Keys
2008-10-24 07:10:20 by Dan English
It’s a great big world that seems to grow smaller by the day. Global competition has made subject expertise
and specialization a hard reality for today’s business professional. So, how do Madison Who’s Who
members increase their personal exposure in an already overcrowded marketplace of illusions and
misrepresentative marketing?
The answer is personal branding. Watch this video…
Object 1
Personal branding is essentially the perceived truth in an individual’s demonstrated and latent talents. It is
restoring a sense of trust in a person’s abilities, providing a comfort in taking a person at their word in a world
where exaggerations and outright lies have become too commonplace. Personal branding helps
corporations and consumers to organize and manage the ever-expanding contacts and possibilities in their
network.
So what is the power of personal branding?
1. Immediate Recognition
The first impact of personal branding is that of immediate recognition. It is an associative knowing, a likening
to understood stereotypes that simplify the various and many classifications of expertise. Your personal
brand will instantly place you into an established category, saving you the time or energy trying to create or
explain your rightful place and potential contribution to the corporate and social community. This immediate
recognition will cut through the introductory red tape involved in networking, interviewing, and even casual
conversation.
2. Associated Trust
The second result of personal branding is that of associated trust. Your brand allows for the immediate
credibility of the brand with which you are associated. This can be of great value for opening doors and
getting to yes. However, with such instant credibility comes great responsibility, lest your brand spiral
downward and change for the worse. Treated with care and respected for its ability to humanize your talents
and intentions, personal branding possesses critical value for your future success. Neglected and
dishonored, a positive personal brand is quickly lost and slowly if ever recovered.
3. Perceived Competency
The third element of personal branding is that of perceived competency. There is a respect for your abilities
and the knowledge that you bring to your professional circumstance that helps to bypass the process of

simple introductory questioning. The benefit of this assumption is priceless to the individual in a typical
workday. Imagine the energy that one would need to expend in countless meeting after meeting proving
their abilities to each audience. Personal brand provides for the exception and sidesteps a process that can
often be tedious and offensive to today’s professional considering the great investment in self through
education and perseverance.
4. Confirmation
The fourth result of personal branding is that of confirmation. As your actions and the experience with each
new employer or colleague continue to line up to and exceed the expectations of your personal band, you
are reaffirming your value in the marketplace.
This confirmation serves to strengthen first, your personal brand, with greater and expanding opportunities
for success, and second, the brand concept itself, with a recognized increase in the potential of the category.
Note that, while the first three powers of personal branding have provided cheap value-adds to your
perceived worth, confirmation is the make or break in which you earn those interpersonal “gimmes”.
This is where the rubber meets the road concerning your future and ongoing brand, where you earns your
stripes to be considered an expert and have an automatically positive perception. If you heed this and
appreciate the truth of the other powers of personal branding, you are that much closer to success.
So, consider the power of personal branding:
• its increasing unconscious effects on decision-makers
• the impact of your actions on networking and community perception
• the care with which you work to establish your brand in an effective and positive long-term manner
• Personal branding shortcuts necessary explanations in a world short on time and long on infinite
information.
• Personal branding provides the individual words which make up the definition of who you are in this
world.
Think of it as “Reputation 2.0″, and look to keep constantly reinventing yourself, contemplating your actions
and the resulting implications on perception as it relates to your personal and professional future. Be aware
and take advantage - there’s no excuse for ignoring this contemporary reality and suffering the
consequences! These are the 4 power keys of personal branding in today’s global marketplace.
Relevant Tags:business networking, online reputation management, personal branding, professional
reputation