Creating a personal brand is no longer an option in today's career market. Learn why it matters, how to do it, and why LinkedIn is the best starting place.

1. Branding YOU with
LinkedIn
Copyright 2014 Spirit From Suzette Conway at Spirit Spot
Spot™

2. Agenda
 Why build the “brand” of you?
 A process for building your brand
 Branding with LinkedIn

3. Why Build the Brand of You?
 It’s practically a requirement of our current career market
 It makes job hunting easier
 It makes entrepreneurial work easier (speaking, writing, consulting,
coaching, creative freelancing (photography, editing, web design…)
 Prospective employers and customers WILL Google you. What will
they find?
 You can be in control of your brand if you build it intentionally.

4. Some Truths About Branding

5. Branding….
 Is about reputation and awareness
 Should be done consciously; Don’t be a victim of accidental branding
 Takes time and is more than a one time event – it evolves, just like
you!

6. Brands….
 Have a target audience and must be relevant to that audience
 Should stand out and be memorable
 Are best when they are authentic

7. A Branding Process

8. Process of Branding
1. Define your professional goals
2. Clarify your values, interests, and passions
3. List the strengths, talents, skills that support your brand
4. Analyze your potential customers (employers, partners, clients)
5. Analyze your competition
6. Create the components of your brand
7. Create an online presence

9. Process of Branding – Step 1: Define Your
Goals
 What are your goals? Near term, 1, 2 and 5 years
 What skills do you need to acquire to support your goals?
 What is your target role or business?
 What are your lifestyle requirements – telecommute, location,
flexible schedule, semi-retirement?
 Hunker down in one spot for 15 years or try a new adventure every 3
years?
 Innovative, exciting startups or lots of structure and predictability?

10. Process of Branding – Step 2: Clarify Your
Values, Interests, and Passions
 What do you want to spend your time on at work or in your
business?
 What are your Intrinsic Values?
 What are your Extrinsic Values?
 What are your Lifestyle Values?

11. Intrinsic Values
 Variety and change at work
 Helping others
 Experience adventure/excitement
 Take risks
 Feel respected
 Like competition
 Have lots of public contact
 Influence others
 Like precision work
 Want a sense of achievement
 Need to be creative

12. Extrinsic Values
 Want control / power / authority
 Travel
 Monetary rewards
 Be an entrepreneur
 Work as a team
 Fast paced environment
 Opportunity for wealth
 Prestige or status
 Intellectual stimulation
 Recognition

13. Lifestyle Values
 Save money
 Vacation many times a year
 Educational and cultural opportunities
 Live close to sports and recreational facilities
 Be active in your community
 Be involved in politics
 Entertain at home
 Live simply
 Spend time with family
 Live in city or small town
 Time for personal growth
 Be a home owner

14. Process of Branding – Step 3: List your
Strengths
 Adjectives to describe you and your professional behavior
 Talents you are always recognized for, what you do better than most
 Specific professional skills – proj mgmt, training, documentation…
 Choose the top five - what you do well and enjoy most and build
that into your online profiles and branding activities

15. Process of Branding – Step 4: Analyze
Potential Customers
 Who are the consumers of your talents and skills and interests?
Partners, Clients, Employers
 What do you know about their interests, products, business?
 What do they need and want?
 How does that map to what you offer?

16. Process of Branding – Step 5: Analyze
Potential Competition
 How are others in your field, with your skills, positioning themselves?
 How are they different from you?
 How do you add more value?
 What do you need to do to become better than your competition?
Available from LI Profiles, websites, Facebook &
Twitter feeds

17. Process of Branding – Step 6: Create your
Branding Components
Write a paragraph that
 Emphasizes all that you’ve identified – talents, skills, passions,
products/services you deliver…
 Identifies your key value proposition – why you are better than others at what
you do or provide
 Connects to the products/services you offer
 Highlights your positioning -- Local baker or global baking giant, proj.
manager fixing troubled projects or able to manage many projects at once?

18. Process of Branding – Step 6: Create your
Branding Components
Create a tag line
 Short simple statement that summarizes who you are and what you
offer
 Include emotional words, descriptive modifiers, and your function
Energetic content and learning & development expert skilled at
creating products and programs around SaaS and
online subscription-based products.

19. Process of Branding – Step 7: Create a
Presence Online
 People WILL Google you to find out who you are, what you do, what
your reputation is like, if your resume is true
 What will they find?
 Nothing?
 Something that reflects poorly on you?
 What you want them to find…
 What they should find? The big 3 in professional circles…
 LinkedIn profile
 Twitter profile
 Your Blog or Website

20. Process of Branding – Step 7: Create a
Presence Online
 Create a website or blog as your ‘landing spot’
 Build a profile on LinkedIn
 Branch out; put profiles on professional sites, Google+, Twitter
 Create content and share it on all those communities
 Write articles and blogs and gust blogs
 Create and deliver presentations
 Speak and teach
 Create videos
 Contribute to newsletters for professional associations
 Volunteer for and attend events and post about them

21. Process of Branding – Step 7: Create a
Presence Online
 It takes time. Do this over the course of 6 months
 Do a little every few weeks
 Reuse content and leverage what you’ve already done in the past
 Revise an old article
 Turn the article into a presentation, put it on slide share and LinkedIn
 Find a place to deliver that presentation
 Have someone record the presentation, post it on YouTube or Vimeo, share
the link on all your networks
 Write a blog post, link to it in your Twitter and LinkedIn feeds
 Look for similar blog posts – comment on them and link to your post to share
your views on the subject

22. The Result?
 If you Google “Suzette Conway” you won’t find pictures of my Cabo
vacation, parties at the club, or bad reviews of me.
 You will find:
 LinkedIn profile (in top 2-3 results!)
 Google+ profile
 Facebook references
 Twitter profile
 My own website (suzetteconway.com)
 References to my involvement in ATD
 References to my presentations
 An alumni newsletter with an update about me
 Blogs I’ve written or commented on
 Slideshare presentations
 Articles I’ve written on the Author Learning
Center
 Press releases announcing my hiring at a
publishing company

23. The Result?
 You CAN do this.
 I did most of this within 6 months and then grew it from there
 Learn to promote yourself
 Ask for reviews
 Ask speaking hosts to post about your presentation on their site
 Don’t be afraid to share what you create or even just comments on it or news
of what you are up to.
 Volunteer
 Ask for associations to let you write for them (blogs, articles)

24. That’s too much.
I’m scared and confused.

25. Start with LinkedIn
 SEO almost guarantees your profile will show in top search results for your
name
 > 80% of companies use social media to recruit
 People research brands, products, services online before they buy or hire
 It’s the world’s largest online professional network -332 million members in 200
countries (up from 175 million in 2013) --- 2 new members every second
 Corporate talent solutions are used by 92% of fortune 100 companies (up from
80% million in 2013)
 4 million company pages (up from 2 million in 2013)

26. Create a Strong LI Profile
 Everything in LI hinges on it
 A 100% complete profile is
40% more likely to receive
opportunities
 Already at 100%? Review
and update it regularly
How do I do this?

27. Create a Strong LI Profile
100% requires…
 Your industry and location
 An up-to-date current position with description
 Two past positions
 Your education
 A professional-looking photo
 Your skills (min of 3)
 At least 50 connections
 Profile freshness – be active!

28. Create a Strong LI Profile
Other Profile options:
 Title / Region / Industry
 Professional summary
 Work experience
 Volunteer experience
 Education
 Certifications
 Link to slideshare presentations
 Projects you are working on
 Skills list
 Additional Interests
 Honors and awards

29. Build Your Network
 Connect with people you know and people LI says you know – LI
Knows Best!
 Import your contacts (connections >> add connections)
 Search for connections by name – school mates, co workers,
professional association contacts, neighbors, past co-workers, kid’s
parents, volunteer connections
 Join groups that interest you

30. Ask for Recommendations & Endorsements
Endorsements Recommendations
Casual Formal
Checklist Requires thought
Anyone can add them Ask only from those who know you well
Start: List your skills in order of priority , max
Start: Make a list of who to ask
of 50
Less important because LI prompts people
to do this and it’s done w/o thought
More important because it requires time and
effort from people who know you well
Can only endorse 1st degree so you must be
a 1st degree for others to endorse you –
build that network!
Can only recommend 1st degrees – build
that network

31. Start Helping
 Share content
 Sign up for the PULSE (Interests >> Pulse) Notifications and let the
news come to you
 Blogs and websites you already follow (for me it’s trainingmag.com and
elearningguild.com)
 Follow companies and schools and repost their stuff
 When a friend’s status changes to ‘unemployed’, offer to introduce
him to your contacts
 Provide a recommendation or endorsements for a contact
 Recommend a contact to a recruiter looking to hire

32. Start Showing Off
 Ask for recommendations
 Answer a question in a discussion group
 Start a discussion in a group
 Comment on books & articles you are
reading and ask for thoughts…
 Ask a professional question
 Post an update – events you attend, wise thoughts you have, job
openings at your company…
Wear your
cape. Show
‘em you’re a
Super Hero!

33. Start Showing Off
 Take classes, get certified, do continuing education - meet people,
keep your skills up, shows your interest in staying current, makes you
more marketable
 Volunteer to speak at your college or high school alumni or civic
group. They’ll post it in their online calendar and newsletters
 Create ONE presentation on something you know; Put it on
www.slideshare.com; link it to your LI Profile

34. When You’re Ready…
 Create a vanity URL for LinkedIn for better SEO on your name
 Create a website or blog a a ‘landing spot’, add it to your LI Profile
 Create content and share it on all those communities
 Write articles and blogs and gust blogs
 Create and deliver presentations
 Speak and teach
 Create videos
 Contribute to newsletters for professional associations
 Volunteer for and attend events and post about them
Post it all on
your LI
Profile

35. QUESTIONS?
FIND ME…
ON LINKEDIN:
HTTP://WWW.LINKEDIN.COM/IN/SUZETTECONWAY
ON TWITTER
@SUZETTECONWAY
Copyright 2014 Spirit Branding YOU with LinkedIn
Spot™