The buzz in the marketplace these days is all about personal branding.  No, I’m not talking about a special mark that distinguishes your black angus from that of your neighbors’ on the back 40. Rather, I’m referring to something that has become hot and trendy, like the hippest nightspot in town. 

Personal branding is about clarifying and communicating those characteristics that make you unique.  Branding can be particularly useful for job searchers in communicating your Unique Value Proposition (UVP), which allows you to make a name for yourself. Celebrities have long established their unique brands, but now the phenomenon has moved into the domain of the individual to create and generate a personal brand. This is what can provide sizzle and flash to make you a leader in your field or a specialist in your career niche.

In 1997, Tom Peters launched the concept of branding in his article “Brand Called You,” published in Fast Company magazine.  Then around 2004, online branding took off with the introduction of new social networking sites and blogging. LinkedIn and Facebook soon gained momentum and critical mass to help branding become more mainstream. And over the past couple of years, the interest in personal branding has skyrocketed. Certain universities such as UC Berkeley and Fordham in New York offer courses in personal branding as part of the curricula in their MBA programs.

I am eagerly awaiting the publication of a new book by Dan Schawbel called Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success. This book will hit booksellers’ shelves in spring 2009. Schawbel,  publisher of Personal Branding Magazine and blogger at Personal Branding Blog, has been a force behind this phenomenon. Schawbel makes the case that it can be even more critical to create a distinctive, marketable role for yourself during a recession.  This concept isn’t just for the Donald Trumps and other high-level players in the field, either; this idea can be applied to any serious jobseeker looking to enhance his/her profile. 

So, now is not the time to lay low while you hang on to a questionable job—or, if you’re on the verge of losing one.  Career success depends on timing, critical momentum, and achieving brand recognizability.  According to Schawbel, being in the game is not enough—one needs to be ahead of the game.

Here’s how this buzz-word ‘branding’ actually works. First, your brand consists of those uniquely competent skills and abilities you possess that become immediately recognizable to any organization. It is the way you can differentiate yourself from your colleagues and gain a competitive advantage. Your brand statement belongs on your résumé in your profile section. Change it slightly and it becomes your attention-grabbing statement in your 30-second pitch, known as your elevator speech.  Coupled with stories, it becomes your communiqué during interviews and networking events.

Schawbel also suggests that you can build your personal brand with a blog. He claims that it can help you land a job, and he provides a number of relevant examples. By creating a blog around your passion and subject-matter expertise, you tell the world about you and what you seek, which will help you attract opportunities relevant to your skills. What really matters is to express your core and authentic work “essence.” This requires a kind of fearless honesty, which may be difficult for some.

The following provides a short example of a personal branding statement developed for a marketing executive.  Put it on your résumé header:

Before: Marketing Professional
After: Senior Marketing Executive

Cutting-edge copy, coupled with marketing acumen to advance corporate initiatives that generate aggressive revenue growth and increased profitability. Eye-candy in print.

                        
Personal branding is not about becoming famous or targeting a specific group or audience. It is what makes you interesting, compelling, and exceptional.

So, rather than sitting at home, waiting for the phone to ring, or applying for random jobs, imagine that employers and recruiters might actually seek YOU out. This is a compelling possibility if you truly learn to identify and communicate YOUR personal brand as it relates to your career. So don’t just talk about branding: Do it! Become more than just a commodity as you launch forward on the power curve of positive momentum.

Need more information? Contact Program Manager Julie Swaner, (801) 585-5036.

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