Is personal branding just another catch phrase or is it something you need to be taking notice of?
Most people who are looking for a service or product these days will Google it. If they come up with something of yours what impression will they get?
A phrase I heard recently about personal branding is that it is “an indelible impression that is uniquely distinguishable”
My co-conspirator on this blog, Phil Begnett, produces little videos called ‘Optimisitic Monday’ and they’re attracting quite a following. He has won more than one piece of work because his personality shines through and people think he’d be fun to work with. He gets a lot of stick from other video producers because Phil believes that for Social Media, ‘catching the moment’ is more important than elaborate lighting, sets and scripts and he teaches people how to make their own video clips to get their message out there quickly and easily.
We all have a personal brand whether we like it or not. In a network of people who’ve got to know you you’ll be described to others as genuine, talented, boring, a bit tricky, reliable, weird, funny, straight talking, generous, etc., etc., depending on the impression you leave.
The trouble is, our networks now extend way beyond the people who have got to know us over time and they need to make decisions about us based on what they see on-line.
Tine Roche who attended our blogging workshop and runs Cambridge Cookery School told us that she enjoys Giles Coren’s writing in The Times and so decided to follow him on Twitter @gilescoren. What she found there was a lot of foul mouthed ranting that completely changed her opinion of him.
Do you know what your personal brand is? More importantly do you know what you’d like it to be and do the two things match?
See How to Discover Your Personal Brand for ideas