1. Personal Branding
Ref: 0051
Why you need to build a Personal Brand
to benefit you and your organisation
If you’re reading this, then you’re probably the kind of person who already knows that
professional resumes have transcended the boundaries of a sheet of paper. They’ve
transcended beyond our LinkedIn profiles and seeped into everything that we do…
because much of what we do (and what happens in the world) is online.
Information about you is online whether you put it there yourself or not. There are Pipl and
Spokeo profiles that can give the heebie-jeebies even to people who are quite certain that
they do not exist in an online space… and those are just online white pages. Combine that
with industry news, social media profiles, and public records… and someone can find out a
good amount about you and your interests. Think you can benefit by NOT being online? That
may indicate that you have not done anything worthy of recognition within your industry- and
that’s not usually a positive perception either. You very likely exist online and therefore
already have an online reputation (a lack of an online presence says something, too).
You can let that reputation go unchecked or you can manage it. Many people argue
that you should manage it- and for very good reasons.
Because during this particular time of social media evolution and frequent Facebook
change-ups, your organisation needs you to have a personal brand.
An online reputation is often called a personal brand. For many people – especially
professionals who do not work in marketing– the idea of having a personal “brand” feels
somehow insincere or contrived. It’s not. In fact, the best personal brands are authentic and
transparent. Personal branding means knowing what people are saying about you, being
diligent and conscientious, and helping to paint an accurate picture online.
And (contrary to a possible knee-jerk
misconception associated with the word
“brand”), personal brands aren’t always self-
serving. In fact, when it comes to
professionals, including the non-profit
sector, developing and maintaining a
strong, personal brand can be an
incredible asset for your organisation.
Professionals with strong personal
brands carry their social missions into
their online identities and can be
incredible assets for telling the kinds of
stories that spawn change.
Page 1 of 3
For further information on this handout and the consulting
and coaching programs available please contact:
Image Group International
Asia Pacific Head Office
T: (+61 3) 9824 0420
www.imagegroup.com.au
E: info@imagegroup.com.au
©2012

2. Thanks in large part to the rise of social media, the traditionally-stark line between peoples’
“personal” and “professional” lives has become blurry online. An overview of some
professionals who are successful in not only representing their organisations in an online
space, but in moving those organisations forward in online engagement through their own
personal brands. Though we always represent the organisations for which we work, some
organisation professionals go beyond merely “spreading the word” about their cause by
actively blogging, tweeting, and engaging audiences online to strengthen both their own and
their organisation’s brand. There are a lot of great resources out there to help you establish a
personal brand. But why do it?
Here are four, important ways that personal branding and becoming engaged online
helps strengthen your organisation in the long run:
1. Personal branding increases your organisation’s reputation, a key discretionary
motivator for visitors. A good way to increase an organisation’s positive reputation is to
align it with someone who already has a positive reputation. The brands strengthen and lend
credibility to one another. If a person working for an organisation is perceived to have talent,
then the organisation is perceived to have talent. A goal of personal branding is to manage
your online reputation and paint yourself (ergo, your organization) in the best light possible.
Brand management is reputation management and visibly increases the organisation’s
financial bottom line.
2. Personal branding allows the organisation to reach more targeted audiences with
increased credibility. All organisations have these specified audiences and it is up to the
organisation to know who these people are, where to find them, and what these people like
to do so that they can be most effectively engaged. Effective, broader marketing strategies
target these current and perspective clients. However, maintaining a personal brand
alongside the organisation allows you to engage other audiences or more closely target a
subset of your high propensity client. This may be an audience of industry professionals (if
you’re the CEO), an audience of mummy blogging friends (if you’re a mummy-blogging PR
rep), or an audience of Gen Y socialites (if you’re the well-connected intern)… You get the
picture. In other words, building a personal brand allows you to connect more personal
friend-circles with the things that excite you about your profession. In this way, professionals
are important evangelists for the causes for which they work. Word of mouth marketing is
powerful, and positive messages to the inner-circles in which professionals are personally
involved allows the organisation to reach a targeted group with more built-in credibility.
3. Personal branding increases opportunities for transparency and provides an
alternate avenue for engaging storytelling. Just look at how some top CEOs are using
Twitter; they do it with their own style and authenticity… and that’s why it works. They lend a
tone and message to their organisation. This can be an especially terrific asset if your
organisation has a more formal, less-personal informational Twitter account. Tweeting about
your day-to-day life shows audiences online that the organisation’s leader is a living,
breathing, relatable human being with hopes, dreams, desires, a sense of humour, and
sometimes-terrible spelling skills, however remember, avoid anything that will potentially
damage your personal brand. A professional with an online presence can also be an avenue
for telling engaging, personal stories. Putting a face, or a storyteller, to a story can make a
big difference. A quick favour to branded professionals who engage on their organisation’s
Facebook wall: disclose your relationship with the organisation in your comment, or it looks
like you are playing us as fools. Love always, the online community who will chalk up
“untrustworthy” points for organisations that try to play us (whether they mean to or not).
Page 2 of 3
For further information on this handout and the consulting
and coaching programs available please contact:
Image Group International
Asia Pacific Head Office
T: (+61 3) 9824 0420
www.imagegroup.com.au
E: info@imagegroup.com.au
©2012

3. 4. Personal branding can inspire earned media. Twitter users are three times more likely
than other social media platform users to be critics (think Yelp reviewers) or creators (think
mommy bloggers). From that perspective alone, personal branding with relation to your
organisation has a huge benefit: instead of one, faceless account Tweeting for a cause,
online advocates can tweet from their personal accounts, increasing opportunities for earned
media. This is strongly connected to reaching new audiences and increasing reputation.
Earned media often functions like word of mouth marketing— it is media for which the
organisation did not have a monetary transaction. It is often organic and timely.
Having advocates online, whether they work for the organisation, creates opportunities for
securing earned media. Branded professionals can be seen as go-tos; THE thought leaders
for information on industry information. This happens organically and it can be heaven for the
organisation if online employees are advocates of the mission… but it can backfire real fast
with staff members who may be online and are unaware of the important role that they play
in word of mouth marketing for the organisation. (A solution here? a social media policy).
In sum, earned media is an important aim for online engagement, and developing a personal
brand can help your organisation increase the likelihood of spreading word of its mission and
inspiring this kind of media.
What can professionals do to get started on a personal brand? There are a lot of terrific
resources out there. This isn’t even the tip of the iceberg, but it sure is a good place to start:
 Use social media to build your personal brand
 Get to blogging (there’s some tough love, there) You can get started on free platforms
like Wordpress, Blogger or Tumblr
 Use LinkedIn
 Hop on Facebook (just in case you aren’t there already…)
 Link all of these accounts together so that you are accessible on all platforms and
easy to find
 Comment on blogs and forums within your community and answer questions
 Build your “community”
 Make sure your brand is genuine
 Start public speaking; if you are nervous hire a coach to help you through
 Work with your personal brand image coach to grow and leverage your personal
brand online
Page 3 of 3
For further information on this handout and the consulting
and coaching programs available please contact:
Image Group International
Asia Pacific Head Office
T: (+61 3) 9824 0420
www.imagegroup.com.au
E: info@imagegroup.com.au
©2012