In the age of social media we have access to an ever growing number of tools to express who we are. We can Tweet, Friend, DIGG, and Link-In with each other. These tools are so prevalent they’ve become verbs! But have we stopped to think about the pronoun? You, Me, the person we’re trying to express?
Here are the first steps to take in defining your personal brand…
As a former Chief Marketing Officer of a $2 billion business and former P&G’er, I bring to Personal Branding some of the same principles that have been used to build some of the billion dollar megabrands I worked on. I recently presented at the American Marketing Association on the topic of Personal Branding and share my definition of personal branding and why it’s important.
Brand Definition
According to Wikipedia, a brand is the identity of a specific product, service or business. As a brand marketer at Procter & Gamble, we used to describe brand positioning as a combination of 3 factors : 1) Benefit – What does the brand do uniquely well; 2) Reason To Believe: Why we should believe the brand does this well, and, 3) Brand Character – the values the brand represents.
Personal branding is a similar process. As I define it, Brand: YOU is your unique essence and impact in the world. It’s a combination of the same 3 factors: 1) Purpose – value you provide to others, 2) Strengths – your innate talents, skills, passions that allow you to fulfill your purpose really well, 3) Character – the values that you live by.
Why is Branding Yourself Compelling?
In product marketing we brand to differentiate our offering and thus create value for ourselves and others. People are willing to pay a huge premium for Starbucks relative to brewing coffee at home. It is the differentiated branding and experience of Starbucks that creates value for the customer who is willing to part with extra cash for a cup of coffee.
The objective of personal branding is the same – to create value, for ourselves and others. According to Daniel Pink, we all live in a knowledge worker economy regardless of whether we work as entrepreneurs or in a corporate environment. In the new flatter organizations of today and the future, the perceived value of an employee is based on their known expertise and contributions. Are you clear on what your expertise is? Are you reflecting this in your everyday actions?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for this post. I have been in the workforce for over 20 years and successful in the several positions I have held. My last company (French firm in financial markets) eliminated my position along with many others in the lower upper management strata, preferring to believe that any programmer could perform any IT task and that they should report directly to C-level execs. I realize that I could not have prevented these biases regardless of the significant contributions I made to the bottom line.
All of that puts me in a position to determine (once again) my brand, although I had not ever thought of myself as one. Thank you very much for helping me clarify the requirements to determine that brand, now that I have to seek employment as such.
Regards,
Victoria
Thanks for your comment Victoria. Stay focused on your strengths as part of your personal brand. Honing your strengths will bring you greater success than “fixing” your weaknesses. And good luck on your journey.
Henna