Personal Branding isn’t about black hat SEO tactics. It isn’t a magic wand to cure unemployment either. It is a strategy for communicating the unique set of skills, personality and value you deliver as you traverse the treacherous terrain of the new economy.
It all started with the popular article by Tom Peters in Fast Company “The Brand Called You.” But what does personal branding really mean and why is it important? If you read Tom Peters’ article you will begin to understand.
Don’t Fight It. It works!
There are some career professionals, recruiters and other experts that claim your personal brand doesn’t matter. Maybe the term is misleading or is not interpreted correctly.
If your personal reputation didn’t matter, then why would an internal candidate get hired over external candidates? Why would employee referrals be so important? Why is it that CEO job postings seldom, if ever go public? The answers lie in the power of someone’s personal brand. Personal branding is much more than a slick tagline or elevator pitch; it is the reason people get jobs.
Defining and Refining Personal Brand
I took part in this week’s Job Action Day along with over 20 other career professionals. This is Quintessential Careers’ fifth-annual Job Action Day and it is dedicated to empowering job-seekers to create, build, and enhance their personal career brand. Miriam Salpeter and I have joined together to make it more palatable. VIV-id is the term we feel better encapsulates the essence of personal branding. It stands for Virtual Individual Verified-id. Miriam’s post re-explains what personal branding is!
There is more to this post so head on over to US News & World Report’s On Careers.
Do you have a personal brand or do you think it is a bogus concept?
Hannah Morgan speaks and writes about job search and career strategies. She founded CareerSherpa.net to educate professionals on how to maneuver through today’s job search process. Hannah was nominated as a LinkedIn Top Voice in Job Search and Careers and is a regular contributor to US News & World Report. She has been quoted by media outlets, including Forbes, USA Today, Money Magazine, Huffington Post, as well as many other publications. She is also author of The Infographic Resume and co-author of Social Networking for Business Success.
