Actionable advice on how to communicate your personal brand online, including 3 KEY PRINCIPLES of personal branding, plus instructions for how to UPDATE, PARTICIPATE and MONITOR your personal brand online.

LINK to printable shownotes: https://talkabouttalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/68-COMMUNICATING-YOUR-PERSONAL-BRAND-ONLINE.pdf

CONTENTS

* Summary

* References & Links

* Transcript

SUMMARY: Communicating Your Personal Brand ONLINE

Personal Branding = Proactively Managing Your Identity

* Personal branding is reputation management or impression management. Ideally your personal brand transcends both personal and professional contexts.

* Managing your personal brand encompasses two main tasks:

* identifying – articulating your unique personal brand

* communicating – both online and offline, both explicitly and implicitly

* Managing your personal brand is similar to managing your credit score:

* Whether or not you proactively manage your credit score (your personal brand), you have one. Just as institutions can access your credit score, individuals are aware of your personal brand.

* The implications are significant. A poor credit rating (negative personal brand) diminishes opportunities. A healthy credit rating (ideal personal brand) opens doors.

Preliminary Ideas to Develop your Unique Personal Brand

Start with a blank sheet of paper.  Answer these prompts, then transcribe your thoughts into a digital document that you will keep updated.

* How do you want others to think about you? How does this compare to what others currently think about you? Highlight job titles, personality traits, adjectives…

* Consider your past: Think back to when you were 7-8 years old. What made you unique back then?  Has that changed? What failures did you learn from? Do you have a “transformation story”? What are some of your most impressive past accomplishments?

* Your current status: What do others think about you? What is your current identity? Role? What are you currently focused on that excites you?

* Your future: What is your dream? What do you want your legacy to be?

* What makes you unique compared to others in various contexts? Compared to your graduating class? Compared to your peers at work? Compared to your friends?

* Start a list of keywords: the words or phrases that become a core part of your identity, including your roles, your unique personality traits, or your areas of expertise.

3 Key Principles of Personal Branding

* When communicating, be generous/gracious. Not salesy! Take a tip from product brands you admire. Are they always in sales-mode?

* Keep it clear and consistent. Just like product brands can’t be “all things to all people,” neither can you. What’s your one key message? Are you recognizable across media

* Keep it updated. Just as product brands evolve over time, so too do people. Yes that photo of me when I was 25 yrs old is lovely.  But if I don’t keep my photos (and other information) updated, I might shock people when they meet me on Zoom or IRL. 

(image: Unsplash @ tma, Tianyi Ma)

Communicating your Personal Brand Online – 3 Tasks: UPDATE, PARTICIPATE, MONITOR

UPDATE

1.    Websites

–       Check corporate and personal websites

–       update your bio, contact details, photo, etc.

2.    Social Media

–       At a minimum, focus on your headline (title,