Personal Branding – How are you perceived?
A couple weeks ago, we explored the foundation of Personal Branding by defining who we are and our Unique Selling Proposition. But Personal Branding is not just about knowing oneself.
My manager at Boiron USA once told me: “always remember that there are 4 layers to any communication:
- What your intend to say
- What you actually say
- What the person hears
- What the person understand”
Today, I would like to explore the second half of that equation by answering the question: how are you perceived?
Again using the good old basic principles of marketing, let’s look at 3 main target markets in our Social Media interactions.
1. Personal Relationships
What do your friends say about you? Think about it as your qualitative research portion. One on one interviews are the best. Select a few friends from different areas of your life and different backgrounds. Pick people whose judgment you trust and that have your best interest in mind. Ask them to be honest and don’t be offended if their response is not what you were expecting.
2. Professional Relations
What do your colleagues and customers say about you? Ask them for recommendations for your LinkedIn profile and see what the trend is: do they oblige gladly or they drag their feet? What adjectives come up the most? Check the comments on Yelp and Foursquare, they will probably be the most candids. Again, don’t take anything personally, try to address the negative and store the positive for your Personal Brand building.
3. Online Reputation
What do the search results on Google say about you? If you don’t have an Google Alert on your name, brand name, company name set up yet, go ahead and do so. This is the best (and cheapest) way to monitor what the perception is out there. It will provide you content for your Social Media efforts and it will allow you to manage potential crisis on a timely manner.
With that second step completed, time will come to define your goals and that will be the subject of an upcoming post. Stay tuned!
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