360 Articles
Whose Controlling Your Reputation? ©Lida Citroën, May 13, 2009
Developing a personal brand
Everyone has a personal brand – it is your reputation, your legacy, and what others use to assign you value and relevance. Are you someone who can be trusted with confidential information? Do you bring levity and a sense of humor to tense situations? Do your clients feel heard and respected?
Marketing is how we direct our audiences to action – buy now, click here, act soon, call today, hire me – and branding is how we drive them to feel a certain way about us. Branding is all about emotions. Personal branding drives the expectation of the experience of working with us.
Your personal brand already exists in the minds of colleagues, peers, clients, friends and other stakeholders. In some cases, you may have earned a reputation that is inconsistent with how you want to be seen, and find yourself limited in personal and professional growth. If your brand does not match your values, this is a problem.
Your personal brand differentiates you from your competition, attracts opportunities to you and enables you to receive recognition for your accomplishments. Personal branding experts use several tools to uncover, assess, manage and direct desired personal brand perception and brand behavior to produce desired results, including: increased recognition, greater team collaboration, leadership development, opportunities for professional growth and so on.
Focus on Authenticity
Personal branding does not change who you are. Personal brand development starts from the purest position – authenticity. We bring forth the unique value propositions that make you compelling to an audience that must find you relevant. Personal branding removes you from an “everything looks the same” sell, into a competitive position by leveraging your unique passions, interests and strengths and aligning with targeted audiences (clients, colleagues, peers and so on). Focusing on what genuinely makes you unique allows us to grow your brand from a place of strength, while understanding and managing weaknesses.
Discovery
To understand your personal brand, we audit and assess your current state – what do you value, how do you see yourself, what you consider to be your positive (and negative) brand assets and understanding the audience that needs find you relevant (and valuable). How do you desire to be seen and what legacy are you leaving behind? What have been your greatest successes and what were the variables that made that success possible? The discovery process is very internal and introspective. When we start from the core, we can develop a personal brand that is genuine.
Feedback
Next, we test and measure target audience perception against what we think is real. Perception is reality in the minds of our audiences and their perception influences the ability to promote and manage an authentic personal brand.
Feedback is always helpful, although not always pleasant. Without insight, we cannot course-correct behavior that may be limiting our opportunities.
Brand Character
To develop and manage a personal brand, we look closely at the way you live that brand in actuality. Living consistently with your brand values builds credibility. Living contrary to your values creates distrust with your audiences. As humans, we are inherently suspicious and will spot inconsistent behavior quickly. Recovering from brand misalignment and misrepresentation can be costly and time consuming. It is best to live authentically and in concert with your values.
Personal Brand Marketing
Whether your goal is to be seen as a technical expert, a subject matter expert (SME), thought leader, business leader or collaborator, the ways you market and promote your personal brand stem from the values in your brand.
There are numerous tools and resources that we use to help executives and professionals leverage their brands and grow their reputations. For instance, we might look at:
Whichever tools or process you employ to understand and develop your personal brand, you can immediately begin to see the positive results from personal brand development and coaching. Reinforcing a positive personal brand or re-crafting a reputation that’s in despair takes time, care and strategy. Effective brand marketing coaching helps you stay focused and consistently seek opportunities to integrate your personal brand into your relationships at work and at play.
Developing a personal brand
Everyone has a personal brand – it is your reputation, your legacy, and what others use to assign you value and relevance. Are you someone who can be trusted with confidential information? Do you bring levity and a sense of humor to tense situations? Do your clients feel heard and respected?
Marketing is how we direct our audiences to action – buy now, click here, act soon, call today, hire me – and branding is how we drive them to feel a certain way about us. Branding is all about emotions. Personal branding drives the expectation of the experience of working with us.
"Your goal is to brand by design, not by chance."
- Lida Citroen
- Lida Citroen
Your personal brand already exists in the minds of colleagues, peers, clients, friends and other stakeholders. In some cases, you may have earned a reputation that is inconsistent with how you want to be seen, and find yourself limited in personal and professional growth. If your brand does not match your values, this is a problem.
Your personal brand differentiates you from your competition, attracts opportunities to you and enables you to receive recognition for your accomplishments. Personal branding experts use several tools to uncover, assess, manage and direct desired personal brand perception and brand behavior to produce desired results, including: increased recognition, greater team collaboration, leadership development, opportunities for professional growth and so on.
Focus on Authenticity
Personal branding does not change who you are. Personal brand development starts from the purest position – authenticity. We bring forth the unique value propositions that make you compelling to an audience that must find you relevant. Personal branding removes you from an “everything looks the same” sell, into a competitive position by leveraging your unique passions, interests and strengths and aligning with targeted audiences (clients, colleagues, peers and so on). Focusing on what genuinely makes you unique allows us to grow your brand from a place of strength, while understanding and managing weaknesses.
Discovery
To understand your personal brand, we audit and assess your current state – what do you value, how do you see yourself, what you consider to be your positive (and negative) brand assets and understanding the audience that needs find you relevant (and valuable). How do you desire to be seen and what legacy are you leaving behind? What have been your greatest successes and what were the variables that made that success possible? The discovery process is very internal and introspective. When we start from the core, we can develop a personal brand that is genuine.
Feedback
Next, we test and measure target audience perception against what we think is real. Perception is reality in the minds of our audiences and their perception influences the ability to promote and manage an authentic personal brand.
Feedback is always helpful, although not always pleasant. Without insight, we cannot course-correct behavior that may be limiting our opportunities.
Brand Character
To develop and manage a personal brand, we look closely at the way you live that brand in actuality. Living consistently with your brand values builds credibility. Living contrary to your values creates distrust with your audiences. As humans, we are inherently suspicious and will spot inconsistent behavior quickly. Recovering from brand misalignment and misrepresentation can be costly and time consuming. It is best to live authentically and in concert with your values.
Personal Brand Marketing
Whether your goal is to be seen as a technical expert, a subject matter expert (SME), thought leader, business leader or collaborator, the ways you market and promote your personal brand stem from the values in your brand.
There are numerous tools and resources that we use to help executives and professionals leverage their brands and grow their reputations. For instance, we might look at:
- Online social media tools (i.e. Web 2.0 tools -- blogs, websites)
- Online social networking tools such as FaceBook, Twitter and LinkedIn
- Public speaking and promotion as SME to target audiences
- Article creation/placement in key industry publications; post publishing leverage strategies
- Intentional Networking™ -- strategically developing a network of contacts who support, enhance and promote your personal brand
- Marketing and promotional collateral – business cards, brochures, templates and stationery
- Online search engine optimization (SEO) to create market awareness and presence
Whichever tools or process you employ to understand and develop your personal brand, you can immediately begin to see the positive results from personal brand development and coaching. Reinforcing a positive personal brand or re-crafting a reputation that’s in despair takes time, care and strategy. Effective brand marketing coaching helps you stay focused and consistently seek opportunities to integrate your personal brand into your relationships at work and at play.
"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."
- Max Planck (Nobel physicist)
- Max Planck (Nobel physicist)
Building brand equity is an investment, and the return is measured over a longer period of time, in tangible and intangible ways.
