Brand-Yourself.com Blog by Trace Cohen

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How do you feel about Personal Branding?

I stumbled upon a debate about personal branding started by Geoff Livingston of The Buzz Bin a few days ago with his blog post: I Don’t Care About Your Personal Brand. While I disagree with the overall message, he does bring up some interesting points.

(Mitch Joel at Twist Image responded with a post: Why You Need To Care More About Your Personal Brand. I encourage you to read both posts, the comments, and come to your own conclusion).

To touch upon a few of the key points:

“Personal branding is NOT for everyone.” Personal branding is for everyone who wants to live a happier and more successful life - if you have the drive to follow through with it. Half-assing it won’t achieve much, and might actually water down your brand if you aren’t consistent. A commitment to personal branding is required if you want to see results. Thus, personal branding is not for you if you’re unwilling to commit to it.

“Don’t use personal branding as a means of ’self promotion.’” Don’t waste your personal brand on a fake image just to try and get your few moments of fame. This will only hurt you in the long run. Authenticity is the name of the game. As we said in a previous post: “Your personal brand emerges from your search for your identity. It powerfully and clearly states what you want based on your values, vision and strengths. It promotes yourself based on who you are, what you stand for, what makes you unique, what your purpose is, and what value you offer to your specific audience. It is a path to self-awareness, joy and self-esteem. It is NOT creating and marketing a made up image - that’s the exact opposite of personal branding. Personal branding is 100% authentically YOU.” So don’t spend time on personal branding until your efforts stem from your genuine source of career energy.

“Ask yourself: does your personal brand offer any VALUE?” You can join every social network and have as many friends as you want, but if you don’t add any value, you’re wasting your time. Make legitimate connections with everyone you meet, not just “Thanks for accepting my friend request.” Engage people in thoughtful discussion. Your personal brand defines why you’re the best solution to a certain audience’s problems, so what value to you provide them?  In short, don’t try to strengthen your personal brand without constantly creating content and value.

Consider these three points (the commitment required, the need to align your brand with your authentic self, and the value you provide) before starting your personal branding efforts.

Please feel free to leave comments here on how you feel about personal branding. For a breakdown of what personal branding is, see our post: Everything You Need to Start Building Your Personal Brand Right Now.

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Why You Need a Portfolio in Your Career Toolbox

Even if you don’t have enough material to create a portfolio, the time to start building yours is now.

Portfolios are for the driven, the go-getters, the people (in any industry) proactively carving their own path to success. They are for the personal branders. They aren’t just for artists anymore. They are for YOU.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, your portfolio is 1,000 times more effective than your resume at getting you hired. Period. If you approach employers with a portfolio in hand, you will always have a leg up on the candidates who only have a resume, no matter what industry you’re in.

Potential employers want to see one thing above all else: proof of your skills. A resume is not proof of your skills. Applicants lie on their resumes so often that employers naturally don’t fully trust resumes. So how do you build their trust? By showing them real examples of work you’ve done. Remember: any project worth doing (in school, in work or in life) will leave you with deliverables. Deliverables of a good project become braggables. Your portfolio is a thoughtful, put-together showcase of your braggables.

You need a portfolio because potential employers only know you based on your projects.

To an employer, you ARE the projects you’ve done.

A portfolio will help you win career opportunities, because it:
· Provides accountability (proof) of your work
· Guides others’ attention to your specific strengths
· Quickly identifies your transferable skills
· Elevates you above your competitors who only have resumes

Remember: potential employers are going to Google you as a pre-screen, even before they call you in for an interview. If you don’t pass their web search pre-screen, you will miss opportunities that could lead to a fulfilling, rewarding career. Just think of your potential employers’ faces when they expect to find dirt on you, and end up at your professional web portfolio. That’s why personal branding online is so powerful - it builds visibility and credibility on the web, winning you opportunities that will positively impact you for the rest of your life.

To start building your own web portfolio today, sign up for a free Brand-Yourself account. Along with your own web space, you’ll get the tools and resources you need to create a compelling online representation of yourself and your skills, including easy file uploads so you can showcase your work. Just head over to our sign-up page now to get started building your online portfolio.

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10 Tips to Get Your Resume Read

You spend hours perfecting your resume, but how can you ensure that all that work culminates in your potential employer thoroughly reading it? Here is a good starting list of ten tips to get your resume read and not casually thrown in the garbage.

1. Make it believable.

If someone is reading your resume and they see something that seems to be out of place, they are going to think you are not credible. If for some reason you went from working tables at the local diner to managing a team of 100 at a major corporation you are going to need to explain that. It would be best to put this in your cover letter. The last thing you want is someone to question you, because you will not get a call back or the job. Why would an employer call back a question mark when they have other solid applicants? Be one of the latter.

2. Add a way for someone to find more information about you.

This is where Brand-Yourself.com comes into play. You want a way for employers, once they are interested in you, to be able to find out more about you. A website is a great tool for that. Video resumes were never a good fit for this market because they require unusual equipment and they take a lot of time. A website will take an employer two minutes to find and browse through. Besides, 80% of employers are already searching for you on Google before the interview.

3. Stay within the norm.

You will see people out there that are pushing different types of resumes and ways to really jazz up the traditional format. This can be a great thing, but only to an extent. The truth of the matter is that when a resume comes across an employer’s desk, they want to be able to scan through it and not have to spend an extensive amount of time to get the jist of it. Hopefully the main points that they see in their quick scan will land you a more in-depth scan later on, but if they cannot get the information they are looking for immediately, they are not going to call you in to find it. Add a little flare here and there, but be aware that a resume for an accounting position and one for a graphic design artist should look different. One is not better or worse, but they definitely need to fit the market they are applying for.

4. Make it interesting.

If you let out a yawn or two as you describe your last job, so will the potential employer. You want to put information on your resume that reflects your work ethic, performance and ability to complete jobs assigned to you.

5. Use proper grammar and spelling.

There is no excuse for a spelling mistake on your resume. Multiple people should have read it and proofread it before it gets to your potential employer’s hands. This goes along with the make-it-believable rule above. If an employer can easily see a spelling mistake they are not going to think that you are going to represent their company well. There is nothing worse than an important document going out with spelling mistakes - don’t do it.

6. Put the most important information at the top of the page.

Your reader is going to start at the top of the page and work down. You want them to hit your biggest accomplishments first. Remember, first impressions mean a lot and the sooner you get them to thinking your are a good candidate, the better, because it is much easier to maintain that mentality than to try to establish it in a non believer.

7. Customize it.

The same resume is not going to work with all companies. Successful job seekers have a couple of resumes available and ready to go should any opportunity arise. Each one should highlight different types of work, skills, and experiences that they have amassed in the past.

8. Be remarkable.

Just cruising through the day and not applying yourself is not going to help you when you are applying for your dream job. You need to be active in the community, and you need to be doing notable things at your work place. This increases the chances that you will be hired quickly and be viewed as a valuable addition to the company. No matter what the market is, there are ways to stand out and do outstanding work.

9. Keep it to one page.

A large number of people feel the urge to push their resume to two or more pages. If you are amazing, then let your accomplishments speak for themselves. There are certain industries, such as academia, where it is more acceptable to have longer resumes, and you will know if you are in one of these. But for the majority of career fields, one page is the only way to go. Don’t make the font so small they can’t read it either - that won’t help your cause.

10. Make it personal.

They don’t want to read about an android, they want to read about a human. If you have other activities that round you out as a person, then include them. They can work in your favor and be conversation starters during the interview and, if the person reading the resume can connect with you over one of these topics, you are much more likely to get hired.

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Present Your Knowledge

A presentation is a great way for you to show off what you know and build credibility for your personal brand.

While presenting sounds like a good idea, many people don’t know where to start. But it is actually easier than you think to start giving brand-building presentations and getting your name out there.

First off you need to know what you are talking about. Approaching someone saying that you would like to give a presentation is not going to go anywhere unless you have a topic in mind, this all comes back to your niche. Let’s say that your niche is marketing. You have been doing marketing for a couple years now and you have learned a lot about your field. You are most likely familiar with something much more specific like “b2b marketing for collaboration software” but you realize that a lot of the stuff that you have learned and discovered can be applied to many other fields.

So where do you start? There are a lot of marketing and marketer groups around the country; you should start by getting involved with them. After you have attended a few events then you can make the decision as to approach the head person with your proposal.

When you make the decision to give a presentation you need to be prepared. Don’t walk up fumbling over your words; you want to have a game plan. This all relates back to being well organized. This method can be applied to any specific area you might be involved in. If you are at a college or university, it gets even easier, there are usually hundreds of clubs and organizations that are looking for presenters and material. These are a great place to start.
How should you structure your presentation, you ask? To start off, make sure you are talking about a subject that you are comfortable with. If you get a question from the audience you should be able to field it. That does not mean you will know everything but it does mean that you know more than average.

You will need to practice. If you find yourself falling asleep as you give the presentation, please spare your audience. Make your material alive and vibrant. You will also need a backup plan like note cards in case your presentation decides to bite the dust the day before you get there. If you know your material well, this will not be a problem.

Your presentation from a slide perspective needs to be short. We have all sat through presentations that never see to get to the point through the hundreds of slides. If you don’t spend time trimming down your slide material, you will be another one of those. Keep your slides simple, and the text minimal. People would rather look at a picture that describes what you are talking about rather than the slide having the word for word text of your speech. Even if you are not the next best graphic design artist your slides should look like you have put time into them. Know your audience and know what is acceptable in your field, yes there is etiquette when it comes to slide presentation.

The final task in any presentation is to add value. People will be listening to you because they’ve chosen to sit through your presentation. You wouldn’t want your time to be wasted, so make sure you leave the crowd with something that they can take home with them and actually apply to their lives. Presentations are a great way to build a name for yourself. You start to get a brand for what you have said and it is not long before people are contacting you for speaking opportunities.

For more Actionable tips to strengthen your personal brand on the web please visit the Brand-Yourself Blog!

11:28 am | 1 recommendation | Be the first to comment

6 Rules to Making it in the Real World After Graduation

Graduating from college can be a huge culture shock. You are transitioning to a whole new way of life, which can be extremely overwhelming. Going from high school to college was one thing, but now you’re heading out into the real world to fend for yourself. Remember how scared you were to be a freshman, on the lowest rung of the social ladder? Think of being a college grad as entering the freshman year of life. Without the confines of school to guide you, you’ll probably feel a little lost. But keeping a few things in mind can help you make the transition smoothly and shine in your new role in the world. Just remember to be…
Professional

Gone are the days of skipping those big lectures, and hitting the snooze button through your 8 am psych class. Also in the past is arranging your schedule to have no classes on Fridays, as is enjoying all those 3-day weekends and long vacations during the year. Having a job means being there on time and working through long hours - if you are late even a few times, you are branding yourself as unreliable and setting yourself up to be fired. It is definitely a challenge for some students to adjust from a laid back college schedule to a more demanding work schedule, but it is an essential part of transitioning to the real world.

The actual work you do must also demonstrate professionalism. There are no more extension-giving professors to bail you out; you have to turn out satisfactory work and make deadlines.
Behaving professionally is also a requirement. This means interacting with others in an adult manner, keeping your temper in check, dressing professionally, and treating others with respect.
Learn from your mistakes, learn from your superiors, and your employers and co-workers will begin to view you as reliable and professional - exactly what you want.

Adaptive
Being open and flexible - in several areas - is absolutely key to succeeding after college.
For starters, don’t have tunnel vision: don’t hold too tightly to a preconceived plan or one single career path too soon. Take the new things you learn at your job to adapt to new opportunities. Studies have shown that the vast majority of today’s workers switch jobs multiple times and even make drastic career changes. Be open to this and don’t limit yourself. Being ready for whatever your professional life throws at you could lead you to great success down the road, especially in this fast-changing world.

It is also important to realize that college probably didn’t prepare you for everything you’re going to face out there. Learning as you go is part of life, so being able to adapt to new things and deviate from what you think you know are definitely conducive to success. Applying newly discovered knowledge or technology, learning a new task, learning to work with different kinds of people, balancing your personal finances, and working as a team at your job are all things you might have to adapt to down the road.

Realistic
The number of college graduates grows every year, making the competition for job positions fierce. For any given opening, there could be thousands of applications. Be realistic about your chances at getting certain positions as a recent graduate, and don’t be discouraged if it takes you awhile to work your way up to your dream job. Job hunting is difficult, so play to your strengths and don’t give up. Think of your first job as a launch pad for the rest of your career. Make the most of it and be as successful as possible in order to move on to your higher aspirations.

Balanced
Even though you balanced class, activities, and a social life in college, balancing a 40-hour work week with having a life can be just as daunting. Use effective time management to minimize your exhaustion, get everything done, and still have fun.

Practical
There is no such thing as “book smarts” anymore - school’s over. Practical knowledge and application are on the tests now, and tangible results are the grades. Be ready to put your know-how into practical use and adapt it to fit real-life situations.
Practicality also applies to the job hunt. Don’t expect to be able to rely on the fact that you graduated cum laude, or have a degree from a top-ranked school. This doesn’t make you any better than anyone else, so avoid feeling entitled to certain jobs. Focus more on how your skills, initiative, and personality make you a valuable addition to your potential employer’s company. Show them that you can make a positive contribution

Inquisitive
Perhaps the most important thing to remember is to ask questions. Any job can be a learning experience if you choose to make it one. No one is going to expect you to be an expert when you’re just starting out, so proactively seek out knowledge and skills.

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Brand-Yourself.com - Personal Professional Student Websites

Brand-Yourself.com’s mission is to provide the opportunity for students to create an online web presence that shows them in the best light possible and articulates their unique value to employers.  Brand-Yourself.com offers the ability to manage a customizable web identity that supports multimedia and maintains a high level of professionalism.  Utilizing the web editor, customers can use text, images and video to manage their online professional web identity.  The Brand Management Dashboard allows users to track their position on search engines and provides tools to improve their rank.

Brand-Yourself.com differentiates itself from other web design companies through:

1. Customization- Users have complete control over the content of their site via a “What You See Is What You Get” browser editor.

2. Multimedia- Users can upload text, images, audio video files, and embed them directly into their pages.  

3. Professionalism- Users secure their own domain name, such as JohnDoe.com, in order to be displayed in Google searches and establish credibility online.

For more actionable tips to strengthen your personal brand on the web visit our blog