Fundamental No-No’s of Personal Branding

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What’s in a name? It seems this question will continue to be debated as the era of ‘personal branding’ only just begins. Global self help guru’s may spout ‘brand YOU’ nonsense verbatim, a more ego centric culture than we need, with a sense of entitlement we are not , well, entitled to quite frankly.
In essence ‘personal branding’ is an important topic. There are so many more outlets for us to communicate, and all very much in public. Speaking and acting behinf closed doors is one thing, spouting off in public (or more likely, online) isn’t quite as easily retracted.
The key to preserving ‘Brand You’ is achingly simple. Despite aforementioned self help speak, or business management ‘ese’ or even those nauseating ‘social media experts’ who think they invented communication, nothing has changed from the days of snail mail and landlines. Only now, the problem lies within our new found ‘celebrity status’ as bloggers, citizen journalists, twitterers or shamefaced facebook exhibitionists and camera addicts.
Don’t do anything online (or off) that would offend your boss, your mum, your priest or compromise your job, your company or your family. It can be tempting, because there are so many opportunities. It’s really easy to ‘make a name’ for yourself these days – but you need to make sure it’s for the right resaons.
It’s important to enhance your personal brand value, not wreck it.
Here’s what NOT to do:
Lets pretend… (More …)
For any professional out there who knows their way around the cyber ether, it seems the world has gone social media crazy. You probably spend much of your working week catching your employees on Facebook and Twittering away, if you haven’t had the sense to put a corporate ban on the ultimate timewasters.
The clichéd phrase ‘It’s not what you know, it’s WHO you know’ is as old and overused as the day is long. But it’s clichéd for a reason. No man is an island, to coin another oft used maxim, and whatever our experience or skill set, we need others to help us along the way.
It’s all about the money…