Building a Personal Brand

Dan Schawbel has a new book out, Me 2.0: Build A Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success. Branding as a business concept is nothing new. But in the Internet age when it's becoming increasingly possible for individuals to stand out, people really need to pay attention to their "personal brand". Companies aren't interested in retaining employees for life anymore. If anything the trend is toward companies being one day run by an army of independent contractors. There are already virtual companies out there made up of a group contractors working together on a project.

Add to that mix the current economic situation. People are losing their jobs and trying to find new ones among incredibly stiff competition. It's not enough any more to just qualify for a job. You have to market yourself for it.

I've not had a chance to read Schawble's book, but if this article is a sample, it should be good reading indeed. Plus there's likely the added bonus of dual application. If it works for the individual, many of the strategies should work for businesses too.

Here's an excerpt from the article in which he discusses conducting situational analysis:

You can’t leverage social media for career success unless you know where you stand today. This includes taking a good look at your life, what your current responsibilities are, the amount of resources you currently have and your career position. For instance, if you have two children and a full-time job (two children is probably another full-time job), you won’t be able to spend ten hours a day building a community using social media tools. If you’re twenty years old and your parents are wealthy, then you will have more time to invest in your online brand and you may have extra cash to help market yourself. Also, you may have a strong or a weak professional network, which can either support your brand or hinder it moving forward.

When it comes to your career, you need to decide if you’re looking to go to graduate school, start a company, or get a full-time job at a company and climb that corporate ladder. These decisions will impact how you use tools to communicate what you do, who you serve, and how you want to be positioned relative to everyone else, along with your goals and mission.

I may have to add this book to my list of reading.