Personal Branding Handouts by Socialize

YOU2.0: Leveraging Social Media for Personal Branding By Akanksha Goel, Socialize In association with AdWomen Middle East

Personal Branding is the process by which we market ourselves to others. While many may advocate envisioning yourself as a corporate brand, one cannot take the exact approach; after all we need to include the human element. You wouldn‟t really attach a cheesy tagline to your name, now would you? We‟ve included a few tips below to get you started on Personal Branding. We hope you get a better idea as you work through them. Tips for Personal Branding -- By Bhavishya Kanjhan 1. Be consistent with your personal brand. Your name is most likely to be your unique proposition. If you‟ve decided to have a variant of it, stick with it everywhere. 2. Listen and monitor what is being said around your Personal Brand. a. Do regular Google and Twitter search around your name. b. Setup Google alerts to be notified of any mentions of your personal brand on the web. 3. Build a “home-base” – your blog / website. If you don‟t have the resources to build a full-fledged website, get a Tumblr / Posterous / Wordpress account and use that as your home base. Also try creating a Google Profile Page, it‟s easy to setup and lets you link to your other online profiles. 4. Create content around your area of expertise. If you don‟t have time to create content regularly, share interesting and relevant content on your home base. 5. Get a domain name around your personal brand. It doesn‟t have to be a .com – the domain can be directed to your home base. For .ae accounts, consider Instra. 6. Build a detailed “About” page on your home base, with a detailed bio about you and your business. 7. Comment frequently on blogs (both local and international) in the industry of your expertise. The more you participate in conversations, the more credibility you build around yourself. Moreover blogs/websites let you include a link with your comments, these then link back to your home-base 8. Sign up for and maintain a LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn pages are highly ranked on Google and the platform is a useful tool for developing and maintaining your professional network. 9. Get onto Twitter: a. Follow and connect with local and international tweeps. b. Tweet - regularly and consistently – a healthy mix of professional and personal content. The professional is to build credibility and the personal is to build relationships. 10. Similarly setup an account on local social and professional networks too to increase your online presence – inTheLoop.me is an example of a local professional network. 11. Add your professional qualifications and current employment information to Facebook and link it to your professional profile. 12. Fill out your complete profile on all the platforms mentioned above. The more information you fill in, the more likely you are to be found. 13. Keep it consistent – a. Have a similar but not same bio across all platforms. Variants become necessary to adapt it to the style and setting of the platform in question. b. Use the same profile picture across different networks to be easily identified. 14. Tie everything together. Make sure every portal links to the rest of the portals. For example your home base links to your LinkedIn profile, Twitter account, Facebook profile etc. 15. Do not engage in spam/push behaviour – Exercise caution when making connections and don‟t push your business services and products too hard. 16. Instead focus on building real relationships with people across networks. 17. Keep everything you do clean, appropriate and professional. A good rule of thumb is to not say or do anything you wouldn‟t want your mother to see. Looking for examples? Or a way to get started ? Look up: Akanksha Goel / Alexander McNabb See what comes up, and use that as a starting point to start building your personal brand online. MythBusters! Our take on 5 Personal Branding Myths -- By Muhammed Ali Jamadar Personal Branding has grown a stereotype that it can only be used by people who are already successful, well established or have something to sell.Fortunately for the rest of the world, that is not the case. The 5 myths of Personal Branding shall now be scrutinized and proven wrong.

I Don’t Have a Personal Brand – False! Donald Trump‟s personal brand of, „Trump,‟ formulates a powerful idea in a consumer‟s mind. Why? Donald Trump has been able to transcend his persona into his personal brand, making it every bit as menacing as himself. The idea that Donald Trump is a hard businessman now flows through his brand, „Trump‟. Personal experiences and your mental translation of these experiences into personality are all building blocks of your personal brand. Everyone has a personal brand, but not everyone tries to monitor and influence it. Personal Branding is All About You – False! Similar to corporate branding, a personal brand is built based on the positioning in everyone else‟s mind. It‟s not true that if you wish to create a Personal Brand you have to focus only on yourself and your achievements. Your personal brand is manifested through others‟ opinions, so that should be your focus. Serve others. Everyone you interact with becomes a stakeholder in your personal brand. The ability to promote yourself through others will grow as your sphere of influence, visibility and success stories grows. Control over your reputation is shared – do not lose sight of that. Personal Branding is Image Management – False! Image Management is the process of maintaining a shiny exterior, by making aesthetic changes like wearing better suits, donning shinier shoes or clipping on the right cuffs. It is changing your image to better shape perceptions. While this is not a bad thing, if this cannot be backed up by a similar personality and approach to responsibility, it turns moot. Personal branding is self-marketing through your inner capabilities and character. Image management becomes pointless if you do it only to deceive people into believing you‟re capable of something you‟re not. Personal branding is the back office to Image management. Personal Branding is All About Getting a Job – False! If you‟re creating a personal brand targeted at getting you hired, then you‟re going about personal branding in the wrong manner. While targeting employment is not a bad thing, it reduces your cycle to a very short period. The average person does anywhere from 10-15 jobs in his or her lifetime. Employment should be part of the personal branding methodology but not the ultimate goal. Example: Jeremiah Owyang is a celebrated example in the realm of personal branding. As a Sr. Researcher for Forrester Research: Social Computing he consistently built his own personal brand by offering his research papers to anyone through his blog, Web Strategy, free of cost. This helped build his reputation and strengthen his personal brand, which happened while he already had a job. By extensively building his personal brand during this time, when If you can, be first. If you can't be first, he started his own project, Altimeter, he was able to create a new category in which you can be carry forward his brand reputation, which translates first." into clients, to this project. Al Ries & Jack Trout, The 22 Immutable Laws of While using personal branding for employment is Marketing not a bad idea, using that as a focus of your efforts is. Not Everyone Can Be Successful – False! Success should not be limited to how much money you make. If that was the criteria, Forbes & Fortune 500 would limit themselves to the quintessential millionaires. So, how does one define sustainable success? The best way to go about it is to leave the definition of success open ended. That way it becomes relative and let‟s a lot more people be successful. Success could be broadly described as being able to monetize your passion. Through personal branding you can help create an atmosphere around you where you do what you enjoy. What you do then becomes a. „paid hobby,‟ like being a professional sports player or the sort. You end up loving your job, doing it more efficiently, and creating a better personal brand for yourself.

The Four Types of Twitter Profiles – By Muhammed Ali Jamadar (Mali) 1. The Purely Corporate Account The purely corporate account posts corporate related content all the time. The account itself will be named after the corporate brand itself and is used to provide details like company achievements, special offers, news, customer service etc. It is seen as an extension of the firm‟s PR activities. There is no individual whose name is connected to this account, which is seen as a corporate entity. Example: @DuTweets: DuTweets offers latest updates, customer support and regularly posts online coverage of local telecom provider Du. Pros: The account is managed by a team, so you can have multiple heads working on it. Similarly the account can stay active for longer hours, as the team works on shifts. Cons:The account can be viewed as just an extension of a PR campaign held by the corporate, which could result in any updates being drowned out in Corporate White Noise. 2. The Corporate Account with a Persona Similar to the first, this kind of account also provides details like company achievements, special offers, news, customer service etc., and is also named after the brand itself. However the key difference lies in the fact that there is a clear indicator as to who is the person behind the account. This then translates to about 80% of corporate content with 20% personal content. Example: @WildPeeta: The Twitter account of the popular fusion shawarma store is handled by the proprietor, Mohammed Parham, who also uses it as his personal account. He tweets mostly Wildpeeta related issues, but occasionally comments on how his kickboxing classes were. Pros: This kind of account humanizes the corporate entity on the internet, which allows for easier trust building and confidence gathering. Cons: Because it‟s only managed by one person, you limit yourself to human elements like time and capabilities. Also, it raises the question of what happens if the person behind the account leaves the firm 3. Employee With Corporate Association Moving towards the other end of the spectrum of twitter accounts, this kind of account is a personal account where 80% of content is personal and the remaining 20% of the content is corporate related. This is the most common sort of account found on twitter. It represents both the person‟s individualism and also his corporate identity. Example: @mnystedt. Managing Editor of Dubai-based Shufflegazine – an Apple Lifestyle Magazine – and Administrator of EmiratesMac.com, Magnus tweets regularly and frequently about technology news and new gadgets. However he does have a lot of content on his work as editor of Shufflegazine and share links from the website. Seen as an authority on everything Apple in Dubai, Magnus has built a solid personal brand around himself which is strongly connected to Shufflegazine. Pros: A very organic approach to twitter, this is a great way to build a network based community that share personal and professional interests Cons:While a person may claim that, “my views are my own and do not represent my firm,” observers will still translate content into a view held by the firm. 4. Pure Personal Account This account type hosts purely personal content and almost no content related to corporate or corporate brands. While the person may post something about, „work,‟ no specific details are given out, rendering the brand unknown. Example: @NaseemFaqihi. While she is highly opinionated on food, clothes and politics, no one knows where Naseem works. Why? She never says. (We know: She holds a managerial role in an international bank) Pros: No tie to brand, rendering all previous cons moot. Cons:Because you have no branding, you risk reducing the evangelistic opportunities for your own personal brand.

Looking to know more? Here are some resources : The Key to your Personal Brand, By Mitch Joel http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/the-key-to-your-personal-brand/ The Brand Called You, By Tom Peters (Fast Company) http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/10/brandyou.html 6 Personal Branding Mistakes That Can Threaten Your Job Search http://www.cio.com/article/515613/6_Personal_Branding_Mistakes_That_Can_Threaten_Your_ Job_Search 5 LinkedIn tips on effective personal branding http://blog.linkedin.com/2009/04/07/5-linkedin-tips-on-effective-personal-branding/ Personal Branding Is Important, Like It or Not http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/07/13/personal-branding-is-important-like-it-or-not/ Authentic Personal Branding http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/sep2009/ca20090929_228578.htm The Personal Branding Blog by Dan Schawbel: http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/

Socialize Socialize is a social media training and consulting house that teaches and helps businesses attract and engage customers using online platforms and tools. A passionate team of marketing thought leaders and social media insiders, we help companies not only understand what Social Media marketing is, but actually evolve the way they communicate with consumers. We create media-savvy marketing strategies based on superior industry knowledge, a real understanding of the issues that affect both our clients and their customers, and a genuine enthusiasm for what we do. Find us at: One Lake Plaza, 15-01 Jumeirah Lake Towers Dubai 124628 Tel: +971 4 4308575 Fax: +971 4 4308574 Twitter: @SocializeUAE Facebook: facebook.com/SocializeUAE Blog: blog.socialize.ae

Personal Branding Handouts by Socialize

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