E-brand yourself to professional success

It is not about who you know or what you know, but who knows what you know.

Every professional who has a healthy opinion of his or her capabilities will vouch for the statement above. So many of us miss out on growth and income opportunities in our careers only because we did not work on our personal brand equity.

Being successful is all about differentiating yourself from others. To do that you must brand yourself, just as any other entity (whether that be by way of logo or just reputation). There is no way you can present a well-rounded perspective of your personality, drive and positive qualities in a few hours or even a few months. Accumulating due credit for what you accomplish takes branding of some sort.

It is important whether you are an employee of a company, a freelancer or an independent professional. Just as your choice of your barber, tailor, doctor or dentist is governed by their reputation and branding in the local community, prospective customers of your services—whether you are a marketer or a freelance writer or anything else—depends on how well you are known and perceived by your professional acquaintances. Likewise, when you throw your hat in the job market ring, what you convey about yourself matters.

“Before the Internet, it was difficult to be prominent or build a personal brand equity unless you had loads of money for social publicity or came in the news for a real valid reasons. With television and the Internet giving more opportunities for people to come in the limelight and promote themselves for success today, everybody is fighting for their place in the sun. Life has also become more competitive, and there is a need to differentiate oneself to succeed. Therein comes the need for personal branding and promote it through different media. I guess that is probably one of the reasons we are all on LinkedIn!

– Tharikh Babu, Business Consultant, Steria, New Delhi

THE WHY OF PERSONAL BRANDING

There can be several compelling reasons why one needs to work on their personal brand equity including:

A feel of who you are: Similar to a company's brand, it gives people a feel of who you are. This is particularly important in this world of freelancers. Personal branding has always been important, sort of like ‘honour’ and ‘pride’ in the olden days. And then the Internet and media took over, not to mention we can't carry swords or revolvers anymore. The personal brand comes into play more and more as our physical contact with clients and business contacts becomes more brief, and often through some form of media other than in person.

Showcasing experience and abilities: Employees no longer work at the same company for the life of their career, and many don’t even stick to the same professions. The exposure and diversity they experience is very unlike what the earlier generations were exposed to. An online personal brand can thus be a showcase of one’s experience, capabilities and reputation.

Positioning: Most people do have their own vision of how they would like others to perceive them whether or not they are adept at personal branding. When one goes about personally branding oneself, it makes one’s efforts to implement that vision more efficient, and more likely to succeed. Especially when one wants that unique positioning to distinguish them from other people.

Publicity: This is about communicating to others in a believable and convincing manner ‘what it is that one is all about.’ It is not about shouting ‘Hey everybody, I am a Super Hero’ from the top of the roof on a regular basis. It is about creating opportunities for people to see one fly, see them save damsels in distress or watch them leaping tall buildings at a single bound when they do. In other words, getting others to notice what you achieve.
Putting a value to your worth: One always has a perception of one’s own self-worth. And then there is the market reality of supply and demand. Eventually what matters is how ‘scarce’ an item the Personal Brand succeeds in convincing that it is. And thus negotiating the best deal for oneself when it comes to remuneration, bonuses and fee.

Making people like and trust you: All things being equal, people will do business with someone they know, like and trust. Your personal brand, your online identity (as long as it's congruent) is a major way that people can get to know you, like you and trust you.
Putting a spin to self: In a way, personal branding is putting a spin on the self. Essentially, we are all politicians and we are all running for something. How well we spin determines how long we run.

Personal Branding is the most effective way to accelerate awareness of who you are, what you stand for and why others would want to connect or interact with you. Importantly, it flags the specific audience that you are trying to reach and helps them to perceives you in the most consistent, focused and relevant way. With a defined personal brand image and positioning, then everything you do and say can be directed to enhance and grow your identity and credentials among those most critical to you.

THE HOW OF E-BRANDING YOURSELF

Branding yourself does not mean you have to put up billboards of yourself around town. The virtual world is your magic lamp; do the following and see how you stand taller among your peers.

Set up a public profile

The starting point. Go to a professional networking site, LinkedIn strongly recommended, and create an account. There are others too out there, but LinkedIn is by far the most effective and a market leader. It is to networking what Google is to search.

Being on LinkedIn is like being at a business conference, and a meeting, and a job interview - all at the same time. 24x7. Someone, somewhere is looking at you through your profile – the part where you post relevant information about yourself after creating an account. It has almost become standard practice to check one’s profile (if they have one) on LinkedIn whenever a professional acquaintance is created. As a professional, someone is looking at you, whether you want them to or not. While they are at it, you might as well put your best face forward. Through your profile. So make sure your profile is well dressed for the occasion.

When you create your profile, keep the following in mind:

Vanity URL: LinkedIn allows you to have a URL with your name as a part of it like http://linkedin.com/in/rohitkachru. Get it and point people to this link.
Your professional ‘headline’: Its like a tagline below a brand. Make yours with no less an impact than Nike’s ‘Just do it.’ In a few words say what you do. Be creative; go beyond ‘Senior Manager – Logistics with a chocolate company.’ Try something like ‘I ensure your date gets her chocolates.’ Every time your name pops up, your professional headline tags along. Make it wink at people; tempt them to come to you.

Summarize your professional experience and goals: This is the part likely to be read most by those looking at your profile. In a few lines write about what you are all about – your professional experience, your goals and a mention of what you are doing at LinkedIn. Don’t hesitate to cover what you are looking for or are interested in. Treat it like it is your 30 seconds in the spotlight.

What specialties do you have in your industries of expertise? If you have some special experiences or skills, this is the place to mention it. Just saying ‘Newspaper Designer’ may not be enough – be specific about the systems you are most adept at and the creative elements you can be trusted to handle.

And the same goes for any profession you are in – engineering, healthcare, software, sales, etc.

Work Experience: Not only does this convey where you have worked in the past and in what capacity, but also provides an opportunity to connect with current and past colleagues who have the same companies mentioned on their profiles. It also makes reference checks easier.

Education: Like your career information, telling the world about your educational background can also be important to those wishing to associate with you professionally. And it also helps you connect with those you went to school with.

Websites: If you have any personal and work websites or blogs, you can provide ready links to those from your profile. These can also be links to your portfolio, RSS feeds, photo galleries, videos on YouTube or any other web resource.

Interests: Do you have personal interests like photography, bungee jumping or volunteering at a community school? Or professional ones like freelance writing, life coaching or corporate blogging? Talk about these – people reading your profile would be interested to understand your overall personality better.
Set your public profile to full: Most sites give you the option to display how much you want seen publicly. Let people know as much about you as you can share. Openness helps build trust. This will also boost your search engine rankings.

Recommendations: Taking the concept of references on one’s CV many steps further, LinkedIn allows people who know of your experience and capabilities as a professional to put in a good word – right in your profile. The feature has been found useful by those wanting to run a quick check on someone and to seek further information and opinions from those who have posted the recommendation. While this may not suffice for someone wanting to research a person in greater depth, it does work in situations where just this level of screening is adequate.
Work on your network: Make sure you have the right kind of contacts to show for yourself. The people you know matters to the people who would like to work with you.

Keep your profile updated: People who have an interest in you may be visiting your profile from time to time - make sure it is always up to date. You don’t want it to have some vital recent developments missing just when it may have been important to have those up. Your profile is like a dynamic CV, and beats any of those static, outdated ones posted on job sites or left with recruiters. People have expectations from your profile. Make sure they are not disappointed.

Increase your visibility

“By adding connections on LinkedIn, you increase the likelihood that people will see your profile first when they are searching for someone to hire or do business with. In addition to appearing at the top of search results (which is a major plus if you are one of the 52,000 product managers on LinkedIn), people would much rather work with people who their friends know and trust.”

- Guy Kawasaki

Successful entrepreneur, global investor, best-selling author and columnist, USA,

Quoted from http://blog.guykawasaki.com

LinkedIn tells a lot about a person

“A person’s CV says very little. By seeing the profile of a person on LinkedIn, one can get more details about work history, education, summaries, etc. More importantly, the recommendations help as do their contact list. A person’s contact list is of vital importance and you can easily make out how well connected he is. It also shows:
The kinds of professionals on the list he knows and the industries they represent.
The range of industries where he has a foothold because of the contacts.
How good he is at meeting/knowing/networking with people of different ages and capacities.

Furthermore, the type of questions one asks and the type of answers one gives speak a lot about the person in terms of depth of knowledge, hunger for growth, farsightedness, risk taking ability, etc.”

- Rahul Chopra, Globe Hi-Fabs, India

Set up a blog

Get yourself one; these can be set up in minutes on free platforms like Blogger and Wordpress. You can also get a domain with a custom name, even your own, which is a good idea. Talk about one subject you feel strongly about — it could be about your professional expertise, public interest issues, travel, a hobby or anything else. The blog will speak a lot about you.

A personal website

It could be an extension of your blog or a separate one. Let it be like your online CV covering academics, career path, testimonials, photographs, achievements, skills, published works, links to your blog and work-related sites and other relevant information. Make sure your website and blogs are well designed — select neat templates and inviting colours. Don’t be flashy for the sake of it.

Write for publications

Look for any available opportunities to write for websites, newspapers and magazines — people will notice you and this will add to your profile. Media outlets are always open to accepting columns from experts and knowledgeable professionals.

Be on social networking sites too

Show yourself to be multi-dimensional on platforms like Facebook and Orkut. These sites, unlike professional networking ones, are more about your personal side like your hobbies, holidays, family and friendships. Let others get to know the personal side of you – it matters to build closer professional relationships.

Show yourself to be an expert

There are many online forums where you can participate in Question and Answer sessions. Join the ones where business subjects are discussed; again, there is none as powerful as the one on LinkedIn.com. When you share your knowledge, people start recognising you for your expertise in your area of work — and you don’t know who may want to connect with you and send an opportunity your way.

Network, Network, Network

Develop relationships with as many people as you can, with diverse backgrounds and not just relevant to your own industry. Everyone has a contribution to make. And the Internet, especially through social networking sites, allows you to do so without moving away from your desk.

In touch, 24X7

“I have connected with many friends across the globe who are today in positions of influence; this may have been impossible without LinkedIn as they were otherwise outside my social network for many years. I have also connected with many interesting people within the industry. Every connection need not lead to business, but it gives you access to some superstars in the industry resulting in lots of learnings and knowledge sharing. It is not always possible to meet with these people face-to-face due to time and location constraints, but on LinkedIn you are in touch 24X7.”

- Sanjay Sarma, Co-founder and CEO, Design Worldwide, India

ADVERTISE YOURSELF

Doing just all of the above will be a waste if you don’t tell the world about your online identities and presence so they can check you out. Try these proven but mostly less used methods:

Your business card: Let it mention links to your profile, blogs, personal websites and addresses on the net. If it gets too cluttered, highlight only the most important.
Your email signature should also carry all these links; there is no problem of space here unlike in a business card. Every time someone gets a mail from you, let them link further to you at the click of the mouse.
Promote your blog: Make sure you promote your blog using methods already covered earlier.
Check yourself on Google: Search for yourself from time to time, and see where you figure on Google. Go for do-it-yourself or professional Search Engine Optimisation — these are structured ways you can use to boost your rankings. There is enough guidance on the net to tell you more about this.

“In my experience, personal branding is critical for small businesses and independent service providers. It is less important in large companies since customers contract with the company and not with the person. For example, a company would hire McKinsey less because of individuals and more because the firm is well reputed.

With small companies and service providers on the other hand, personal branding is critical. Just as your choice of your barber, tailor, doctor or dentist is governed by their reputation and branding in the local community, prospective customers of your services—whether you are a marketer or a freelance writer or anything else—depends on how well you are known and perceived by your target audience.” – Vijay Menon, Consultant, Bangalore

CREATE A BRAND WHEN YOU DON’T NEED IT

Don’t set out on a branding exercise only when you need to switch jobs or meet any other career goal. For best results, do so when you don’t need it, because opportunities usually come knocking without an appointment and you should make it easier for them to find you.

Using the resources available on the internet gives you a chance to brand yourself and become more visible to the world that matters.

Remember, personal branding is going to happen with or without you - if you choose not to participate then it will become more and more difficult to compete with those that are visible and congruent. It is really hard to know, like and trust you if people cannot get to know you first. If you don't define yourself in the virtual world, then your personal equity will be left to the whims of the search engines to rummage one for you.