MarketingProfs.Com 1-2-3 Success! Build Your Personal Brand and Expand Your Success

"But branding is not just for companies or products any more. In the new millennium, everything is a brand. London is the world's hippest city. Route 128 in Boston is "America's Technology Highway," and "Operation Enduring Freedom" is a branded military operation. And Madonna, Martha Stewart and Richard Branson. Brand. Brand. Brand. That's right, branding is for people, too."

"In a world where cities, wars, CEOs, politicians and highways are branded, you need to think about yourself in the same terms. So build and nurture your brand. There are three simple steps. Leading you along one clear path to success."

redux [01.29.02]
John Robb K-Logs and Personal Branding

"There has been a discussion of the issue of personal branding as it relates to K-Logs. While it may seem amorphous and slightly shallow, I can vouch that it actually works. The benefits of running a high traffic K-Log within a company or on a publicly available server (for CEOs in particular) are many. They include:

1) The ability to showcase your thinking. Well reasoned posts showcase your ability to think. If you are a knowledge worker, as most of us increasingly are, this is a must. You need to demonstrate your ability to solve problems and to reason through alternatives in order to gain stature. Want competition for your services? This is the way to generate it.

2) The potential your K-Log will become an important corporate resource. IF your K-Log is a constant source of insight that many co-workers refer to, it enhances your position and makes you a corporate asset.

3) A chance to demonstrate your vision and leadership. This is particularly important for managerial K-Logs for both internal and external audiences. Externally, a personal K-Log provides a CEO the opportunity to demonstrate vision (hopefully with clarity) to a wider audience (how often do most people talk to the CEO of their company or the CEO of the company they buy lots of product/services from?). This allows the company to talk to customers and internal audiences in a way that rises above the marketing hype surrounding most corporate communications. If there was ever a vehicle for clue train status, this is it."

redux [08.14.00]
The New York Times Magazine Me, My Brand and I
[requires 'free' registration]

"There is something, I think, about the Internet -- with its microtargeted discussion groups and virtual celebrities who are famous to 15 people -- that ramps up the possibilities of personal hype. The padded résumé is probably as old as the résumé itself, but with one's own Web site, it is easy to showcase not just your padded resume but also complimentary blurbs from friends and colleagues, thoughtful sound bites, photographs of you with friends, etc. These little self-marketing monuments exist now by the thousands. Two years ago, it was rare for a serious author to have such a site, but now even New Yorker writers have them, successfully creating viral marketing campaigns that were not possible in, say, J.D. Salinger's time. Of course, the strategy isn't limited to published authors. I recently stumbled across a Web site that advised chat-room denizens on how to establish their personal on-screen brand. For starters: "Develop a catch phrase."

It is all part of the "Brand Called You," a sort of life-as-company philosophy articulated by the management guru Tom Peters -- and long since swallowed whole by the career-advice wing of the business press."

Fast Company The Brand Called You

"Start right now: as of this moment you're going to think of yourself differently! You're not an "employee" of General Motors, you're not a "staffer" at General Mills, you're not a "worker" at General Electric or a "human resource" at General Dynamics ( ooops, it's gone! ). Forget the Generals! You don't "belong to" any company for life, and your chief affiliation isn't to any particular "function." You're not defined by your job title and you're not confined by your job description.

Starting today you are a brand."