Trend #5: Pictures – Personal Branding Trends for 2013

March 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
picture personal branding trends 2013

The expression “A picture is worth a thousand words,” dates back to a 1911 newspaper editor, and Wikipedia nicely describes it as “The notion that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single still image.” Graphic designers, architects and artists have always used portfolios of images to showcase their work. Now, career-minded professionals will increasingly use infographics to show the value they added to their workplace. Kinzaa is a site that allows you to build an infographic resume. Pinterest pinboards enable you to express your brand and your passions through images. Prezi lets you use pictures on an interactive whiteboard to convey your point of view and share thought-leadership with others. The traditional word-based resume or CV will be quickly replaced with pictures. In the ‘About Us’ section of visualize.me’s website they say: “We believe that the traditional text resume is boring, lengthy and long overdue for a makeover.” I agree. The movement … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal Branding Quick Tips, Personal Branding Trends, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Why we find it difficult to self-promote

July 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment
canstockphoto5346925

  Let’s admit it most of us shy away from self-promotion – and there are good reasons for this! The iconic Australian is humble and self-deprecating, not given to self-promotion, gloating or “big-noting” – self-promotion doesn’t sit well in our culture. Many people are introverted and by nature not comfortable with conversations about themselves. And others would be happy to self-promote but are not good at presenting a story about themselves that is of interest to their audience. And despite these quite legitimate reasons for not self-promoting knowing how to skilfully talk about your accomplishments is important in career management! In many cases if you can’t communicate and market yourself, you won’t be on the radar for new opportunities, projects or promotions. Being able to build relationships and keep people meaningfully informed about what you are doing can be the difference between staying put and moving forward in your career. So let me share … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Expressing Your Brand, Personal Branding for Careers, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Re-imagining Personal Brand

July 20, 2012 by 2 Comments
Re-Imagine Personal Brand

“Differentiation is a way of thinking. It’s a mindset. It’s a commitment. A commitment to engage with people–not in a manner to which they are merely unaccustomed, but in a manner that they will value, respect, and yes, perhaps even celebrate."  ~Youngme Moon   Harvard Business School professor, Youngme Moon, in her remarkable book Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd, discusses the ways in which many brands have adopted a herd mentality as they compete in the marketplace. In accounting for a “proliferation of sameness,” she says: "In category after category, companies have gotten so locked into a particular cadence of competition that they appear to have lost sight of their mandate – which is to create meaningful grooves of separation from one another. Consequently, the harder they compete, the less differentiated they become.” So, increasingly, we live in a world where we don’t see meaningful differences between offerings like cars, cereals, or … [Read more...]

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Wear Your Personal Brand Colors with Pride

July 7, 2012 by Leave a Comment
larmstrong

  Yellow. It is the color of champions; the color that 198 of the world's best cyclists race for every July in the Tour de France.  It is the color of the 'maillot jaune' - the 'yellow jersey' - the ultimate prize in professional cycling. Cyclists dream of wearing this color and dread the prospect of losing it. It symbolizes power, tenacity, honor, and pride. It unites a team, a country, and even the world. The yellow jersey is an excellent example of the psychological and emotional impact of color. Companies use color in many different ways to evoke a reaction and to solidify a brand in people's minds. Whether it is Tiffany's robin's-egg blue box, UPS' brown trucks, Coke's red cans, or the Tour de France's yellow jersey, we immediately identify with these brands by their color. What's Your Personal Brand's Color? Just as companies brand themselves with color, your personal brand needs its own color. Your brand colors become part of the visual vocabulary that makes an … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Exuding Your Brand, Personal Branding Quick Tips, Sports, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Pinterest and Your Brand Extension

May 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment
pinterest

As Pinterest continues to grow in terms of its number of users, more and more brands are taking advantage of this fact by ensuring their presence in this popular social networking site. How can a personal brand take advantage of it? I’ve read many posts about people using it to show their individual style, interest and express who they are. Those are all valid uses. The beauty of Pinterest is that it give businesses the opportunity to showcase the unique personal brands of their team members. Delivery of your corporate brand promise I have personally seen people struggle with how do they connect the people in their organization and show a personal side, that’s not too personal, and yet share their personal brand (like they do in real life) and how they uniquely deliver on the corporate brand promise. Pinterest is a perfect network to do that. While Facebook and Twitter accounts are separate and in no way can a company truly control the content on those accounts, they … [Read more...]

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Tenacious Personal Branding

May 15, 2012 by 4 Comments
TenaciousD

  Is it Only Passion that Drives Your Personal Brand? I have always considered passion to be the main driver for my work and my mission to pioneer a personal branding culture shift in Japan. We always hear it is our passion that enables us to ride the roller coaster called "entrepreneurship." But is it only passion that pushes us forward, or is there something else at play? We can be passionate, but also casually sit back and hope things will change. Our passion might get us out of bed in the morning, but is it what keeps us going throughout the day? So I decided to look around for some insight on what it is that keeps us going and all signs seem to point to one word: Tenacity!  Without tenacity all the passion, intelligence, motivation, and desire to kick serious butt will just be lip service.  Here is what others have said about tenacity. 1. Leonard Brody - "Pure unadulterated tenacity" This clip by Leonard Brody at World Entrepreneurship Day sums it up is … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Exuding Your Brand, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs, Strong Personal Brands, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Automate the Process, Not the Relationship

May 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment
hootsuite

Since social media has become one of the best ways to connect and build a relationship with your audience, brands and businesses are utilizing as many platforms as possible in order to reach their clients and customers. As a personal brand, it’s important that you manage all your social media accounts well, to ensure that you continue to engage with your audience as well as monitor what people are saying about you and how they’re reacting to your updates and posts. This is where social media dashboards such as HootSuite come in handy. With HootSuite, you can easily manage multiple social media accounts, schedule posts and tweets, track mentions of your brand, as well as analyze reports on your social media campaigns, to see if your current strategy is effective or not. What makes HootSuite stand out is that it’s incredibly user-friendly. The interface is intuitive and easy to use, and the basic plan that already offers some nifty features is free. You can access … [Read more...]

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Expat & International Careers: Environment Choices Have a Big Impact on Your Performance and Personal Brand – Part I

March 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment

"Environment is stronger than will power." ~ Buckminster Fuller I cannot overemphasize the importance of this statement when it comes to maximizing the power of your personal brand and making environment choices that naturally set you up for success.   Strengths are a key driver to your performance & personal brand Strengths-driven roles allow high performers to perform at their best effortlessly rather than spending more time and energy in those roles focused on skills they've mastered to do their job well. For this reason, not allowing your true strengths drive your role choices can negatively impact your performance and enjoyment at work, as well as your ability to deliver on your unique promise of value or personal brand.   Your blockers can neutralize your ability to leverage your strengths and perform at your best  But many people can also inhibit their ability to perform at their best and deliver on their brand promise by not being aware … [Read more...]

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The Real Truth about Bouncing Back from ‘Reply All’

March 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment
email

The technology of today has made it a lot easier for people to communicate with each other. In the past, people sent letters through what is now called “snail mail,” and expected them to arrive in a couple of days or even weeks. Nowadays, most people prefer communicating by email – it’s quick, it’s easy, and you even get confirmation that it’s been sent (unlike snail mail, where you worry about your letter getting lost, stolen, etc). Communicating by email is incredibly convenient for people. With just one click, your message can arrive to its destination, and you can even have a copy in your sent folder for reference. Need a document signed? You can simply scan it and send the document through email. And best of all is the fact that email is free, and you can do it right in the comfort of your home. Due to the ease and convenience of email, however, issues have cropped up in people’s usage of it. Spam emails, for example, are very rampant – there are times when a … [Read more...]

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#1 Placement Specialist, Tony Beshara, Explains Modern World of Resumes

November 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Tony Beshara

If you are reading this post as a recent college graduate, you are likely job-hunting armed with your finely tuned resume. Tragically, if you are reading this post as a middle-aged professional in America you are likely job-hunting armed with your outdated resume (or at least know someone who is). These are troubling times where job security seems to be a fantasy. For my recent college graduates, landing your first job in this environment may be the toughest task you ever attempt. It is far more difficult to land a job when you’ve never had one than it is when you have had a job. The good news – you are armed with the most updated job searching techniques and knowledge. For my middle-aged, seasoned professionals, being forced back out into the job hunt is demoralizing and terrifying. You likely have a family to support, a mortgage to pay, and kids gearing up for college. The good news – you are experienced. The question is: How can both of these competing classes land … [Read more...]

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