In yesterday's New York Times they had a great article on the importance of selling yourself and promoting yourself for the purpose of getting ahead, competitively differentiating yourself and your business, and being top of mind with your customers or clients - in essence, helping build your own personal brand.
The article and its experts caution that this is not to say that professionals should promote themselves 24/7 because that can result in inauthentic, "canned" monologues but rather be prepared to flip the switch at opportune moments with stories that captivate, engage and inform. The key is to be an active participant in any interactive dialog and be genuinely interested in listening to, and prompting others, in conversations.
In comes down to building your personal brand, as well as business brands, and managing your brand development and evolution. Every encounter, every phone conversation, every meeting, every report, every PowerPoint, every email - basically every interaction - is an opportunity to build or deconstruct your personal brand. What is it that you want to be known for? What type of environment to you want to be a part of and help create? Answer those questions clearly and then be sure to act with consistency - and you'll see your visibility widen and expand in ways you may have never imagined.
Like any branding process, getting your messages/stories down cold is a key practical step for any self-promotional effort. Peggy Klaus provides a 12-item checklist, adapted below, in her book Brag: The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It that gets you thinking about what stands out for you and your business efforts in terms of successes, interests and other defining traits:
1. What are five of your personality pluses?
2. What are the ten most interesting things you have done or that have happened to you?
3. What do you do for a living - and how did you end up doing it?
4. What do you like/love about your job/career/current business?
5. How does your current job/career/business use your skills and talents, and what projects are your working on right now that best showcase them?
6. What career successes are your most proud of having accomplished?
7. What new skills have learned in the last year?
8. What obstacles have you overcome to get where you are today, both professionally and personally, and what essential lessons have you learned from some of your mistakes?
9. What training/education have you completed and what did you gain from those experiences?
10. What professional organizations are you associated with and in what ways?
11. How do you spend your time outside of work, including hobbies, interests, sports, family and volunteer activities?
12. In what ways are you making a difference in people's lives?
2 comments:
I happened upon your blog about Personal Branding... great article! That led me to review your other articles on Brand. All nicely done and very informative.
I am a Certified Brand Strategist and the Managing Partner of The Brand Establishment, a training organization for Marketing firm principals, whose mission is to educate firms on how to not only build their own brands, but also the brands of their clients.
Thanks for publishing such smart information on the value of developing a brand. There is so much out there confusing Brand Development with Branding .... and those two initiatives are worlds apart.
Thanks Rosemary for your good words and I'll check out your website.
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