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The mysterious art of creating the perfect personal brand ….

28 Jul

A personal brand is a funny creature, part reality and part  manufactured.  It’s purpose is to create an image, to which one then has to live up to.

We’ve come a long way in the few years that this has started to become part of popular culture, we’ve seen celebrities come and go and they are no longer just the actors and actresses.  A great example of the degree of the change that has occurred is in the rise of the people who are famous simply for being famous – who have no discernible talent, skill or knowledge but who have a knack (perhaps that’s a skill after all!) for being in the right place at the right time and being seen with, and around the right people. (more…)

It’s all about YOU!

22 Jan

Yes really, personal branding is guess what ….. all about YOU!    Ok, so you realise that or you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog post would you?  But do you really know who you are?  No really, who are you, who is the person that you are showing on LinkedIn for instance?

The reason for the questions above is because I come across so many people who don’t really know who they are and as a result are not really doing themselves any favours when it comes to putting a profile together.   So where do you start?  Well, you could start with the present.  The reason for this is because it is the present that matters when it comes to a personal brand, of course what you have done in the past and the vast amount of experience you have had matters a huge amount, but it matters because it informs the present.  In other words, you probably wouldn’t be doing what you are doing now without having gone through your past experiences, even if you jumped ship into a completely different career.

How this translates online means that your summary reflects your CURRENT STATE – the things you are interested in, what motivates you, what drives you, your goals, dreams and aspiration NOW.  It also should reflect the successes you have already achieved as well as those you are hoping to achieve in the short to medium term.

Don’t forget those all important key words too, you know the ones that reflect the expertise you have, that you draw on everyday in order to undertake the role you now have  …. At the same time don’t dismiss your past experience, just because it was a different career path, it has never been truer than today to say that all of your experience is relevant, but only in context of how it is used now.

Once you realise that LinkedIn is not just another online CV storage facility, but a real, live thriving community that can help you to achieve your goals you’ll start to value the person you are today, and not the person you were five, ten or even twenty years ago.  It is the present that matters, but your present is built on the experiences of your past!

LinkedIn Made Easy, the ebook that accompanies this website, is full of hints and tips to help you make the most of the opportunity that is the LinkedIn community, you can buy it now, for just £4.99.

Personal Branding Blogs

13 Jan

Welcome to 2010, yes I know that I haven’t posted anything on the site since before Christmas, but I promised myself Christmas off after all the hard work that went into the challenge.  I’ve also taken a few days off over the last weekend and so am really only properly back to work today ….  I have to say that it’s lovely to have been in a position to take the time off, especially with the weather we have been having in the UK recently.  But now it’s time to get back to work.

As you have probably guessed by now, LinkedIn can be used for many different purposes, the main one of which is Personal Brand Building (in my opinion of course!).  There are however, so many conflicting opinions on how to go about the task of personal branding, and my take on it is just one of many, that I thought a post listing some of the key blogs in this area might be of use to readers.

Personal Branding Blog was started by Dan Schawbel in 2007 and has been providing advice, suggestions and a regular magazine ever since.   Dan’s mission is to teach you how to create your career, command your future, learn how to position yourself for success and in the process become known for your passion and expertise.  In my opinion, one of the best personal branding blogs around!  Just as a matter of interest, if you do a search on Google for Personal Branding blogs, Dan’s blog returns no less than six of the listed organic results, rather like the results I get for LinkedIn Made Easy!

The Personal Branding Blog‘s first post was an short comment on personal googling – AKA using google to search for yourself – you should try it sometime, it’s fun :-) .  Since then William Aruda has demonstrated with passion, everything you need to consider when you are taking a peek at using personal branding to build your career and lifestyle.  Use it with caution though, it can be addictive and I can spend hours just surfing around for interesting snippets of information.

Rob Cuesta’s ‘The Business Growth Blog‘ began life in January 2007 and has grown ever since.  791 links in and an Alexa ranking of around 49,000 mean that Rob is a key man to watch.  What he says matters, what he doesn’t say is often even more important.  Note the comments he makes about Networking (in the traditional sense that is) and his comparison to Schrodingers cat – those that know me well will know that I’m interested in this sort of thing.

The quality of your email address

23 Dec

Let’s say you have a website for your business and you are selling a product or service that requires people to have confidence in you and your product or service.  Let’s also say that your email address is something like phil759hc@yahoo.co.uk , what sort of impression do you think that might give to people who are contacting you?  I know that for me, I’d always think twice about whether I actually engage with someone whose business won’t even run to a personal email address. (more…)

YOU are your personal brand

18 Dec

One of the big areas for expansion in Internet Marketing is likely to be that of the Personal Brand.  Today, we can no longer rely on a job for life with just one company and we need to be constantly updating and adapting our sets of knowledge and skills, not only to allow us to work but also to keep pace with the changes in technology. (more…)

Creating helpful and descriptive headlines

13 Dec

When people find you in searches on Linkedin, or when you are being active within the Group discussions or in Linkedin Answers; the first thing they see is a little box that has your name, your photo (assuming you’ve chosen to add one) and a ‘headline’ or baby bio.   Unfortunately what most people do is leave their job title in their headline and there is nothing LESS likely to attract attention than something that doesn’t say anything.  However, you do have the option to change it and change it you should. (more…)

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