4. It’s what your known for
It’s what people seek you out for
It’s a process
5. It gives you control and power
Showcase your specialty
Build credibility
Connect with the right people
Stay relevant
VISABILTY
Distinguish yourself from the competition
Stand out from the crowd
6.
7.
8. A Job Title
Credentials
As much as it is about you…It’s not about you
9. Delivering value to others
Emphasis on the their needs, not yours
“Helps thought leaders write great books in just 90 days. 300 satisfied clients so far…”
“I love collaborating with revved up, forward-focused Student Affairs Professionals who know where higher education
is headed. Together we create and strategically develop co-curricular programs that differentiate our institution from
our competition.”
“I am a Student Life Coordinator and consultant, specializing in peer mentoring, leadership development and civic
engagement”
13. Study brands weather they be individual people or companies who do it well
(Apple, Disney, Starbucks)
Review your background
Take an assessment
Evaluate yourself
Ask yourself these questions
14.
15. Headline: Tell people what you’re excited about and what you want to do in the future
Summary: Describe what motivates you, what you’re skilled at, and what’s next
Mission based
Personality
Short and sweet
Blended
Accomplishments
Experience: List your jobs, what you accomplished, even include photos and videos
from your work
Education: List your education including co-curricular and extra-curricular
involvements that shaped you
Recommendations: Get endorsed for what you know, what you can do!
17. You are a brand
You are in charge of your brand
There is no single path to success
There is not one right way to create the brand called YOU
Renew you, always!
Hinweis der Redaktion
As we discuss this topic today consider the skills, abilities, talents, knowledge that you are known for.
Also, it’s a process. Your personal brand is not static nor should it be because we are humans. As you continue to evolve, learn, grow, change your brand to reflect that. Right now you may be a newly minted SA pro who is developing skills in advising, student life, and so on. In 2 years you might be an accomplished innovator who implements proven supplemental instruction programs increasing student success in math by 20%. YOUR BRAND WILL GROW AS YOU DO! And it will become more specific as you hone in on the specific one or two things you want to be known for. With that said your brand will likely contain a similar tone or theme throughout life. I will always be an educator – weather I’m a janitor or counselor. I love to teach where ever I am and with who ever I’m with. It’s part of me. Sure the way that it presents itself may change, but like the roots of a tree some pieces of our brand run so deep that we are steadfast in our commitment to that part of ourselves.
When it comes to developing your own brand people often perceive it to be this linear thing that happens in a specific sequence, but what it really looks like is a jumbled mess. And you are never really their. Branding doesn’t have an end point. Developing your personal brand is cyclical, you will return to the various stages of branding time and again. And that’s a good thing because it means that you are growing.
The wonderful thing about your personal brand is that it does not confine you to a job title, credentials or degree. Personal Branding allows you to tell your own story, using the key words and lingo associated with your industry. It’s absolute freedom and that is why I love it!
To be more specific, PB is about figuring out the value that you deliver to others, emphasizing their needs. For example…
Think about your own area or the area you want to be in. What expertise do you have that is useful to them? How can you go about branding yourself for that expertise? What do you need? (Skills, Experiences, Connections)?
Now that you are bought in lets talk formula. Who doesn’t love a formula. There are four ways to developing your personal brand.
Discover it…who are you, what have you done that you would like to do more of?
Create it…What is your story? What social media platforms should you be on? What committees, groups or associations align with your brand? What twitter chats are happening in your field? Who is blogging about your field and how can you contribute? What opportunities are out there for you to present? Is their a local chapter of a national association. For example, our very own Scott Tres is presenting at CCDA this Friday – our state branch of NCDA. Through this he is in essence branding himself an expert or go-to on his topic. He’ll likely exchange business cards with other influencers in the state and his name will be out there. What am I saying? Start creating content and social and physical presence.
Communicate it…Get on social media. First, take an inventory or your social profiles, what are you saying about yourself already through your posts, comments, likes, retweets, follows? Does this align with your brand? Do you need to create a separate, professional presence? How discoverable, and visible are you? Gain visibility with relevant ### This is were we will focus on LinkedIn
Maintain: An example of this would be to create a content posting strategy for your social networks, to regularly participate in something like #sachat, to continuously self explore and be a life long learner.
Get on Social Media
What’s your story
Find your tribe
Review your background – what have you done? What have you enjoyed? What themes are noticeable? What would you like to do?
Evaluate yourself – review performance evaluations, LinkedIn recommendations…what has been said about you that might be useful to developing your brand? What have people consistently complimented you on?
Creating your personal brand boils down to your online presence. Today, we are going to focus on LinkedIn although there are many other platforms that allow you to communicate your brands. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Blogging and even snapchat are branding tools.
Profile picture, headline, customized link, summary, experience, education, projects, publications, recommendations, skills.
Headline does not equal job title.
The headline is possibly the most important part on your LinkedIn profile. It is your 120 character hook to people finding you in a LinkedIn search, it should be about what you do as opposed to what you are. It should be memorable and enticing enough for someone to click on your profile and not your competitors.
When recruiters use LinkedIn to identify candidates for their open positions, the first piece of data that comes up is your name and your headline. There needs to be some call to action for the recruiter to click through to your full profile.
Be your own best sales person
Mission based – starts with a broad description of what you do, then gets more and more specific. This is a great choice if your goal is to engage with a variety of people. For example, an advisor might say something like “Every college has students with hopes and dreams for their life. They need professionals in place to engage, inform, and partner with students to help them realize their potential. I am the conduit between the college and student.” Then it gets more specific with daily tasks.
Personality – hook people with a story that demonstrates one or two key personality traits. This type of summary focuses more on soft skills than on hard skills. It’s ideal for people who are networkers and less-experienced in their field. If you have limited experience then this type of summary will let you flesh out your character traits to help people learn more about you.
Short and sweet – smart choice if your looking to make it easy for people to see what your qualifications are and the type of work you specialize in. It’s also good for job seekers as it allows you to get in a lot of keywords. When I was job searching last spring I used this to type of summary to built credibility very succinctly for my audience. Getting in the keywords also upped my LinkedIn views as recruiters were able to find me. I was also applying via the IN button and short and sweet is what they are looking for.
Blended – think of this as a blend between Mission and Personality. It’s a straight to the facts approach with a little bit of personality. Using this approach start with your most recent position and a couple work accomplishments, then add sum fun facts (i.e. when I’m not on the job, I love hiking with my dog, working my way through every recipe in the family cookbook and indulging my love for seeing new places.
Accomplishment – another cut to the chase approach that tells potential employers or clients exactly why you deserve the job, as well as the high caliber of work they can expect rom you.
Doesn’t matter which one you chose as long as its well-written, thoughtful and honest.
