Personal Brand | The Personal Branding Blog

Look Up and Face Word of Mouth

April 4, 2013 by Maria Elena Duron Leave a Comment

Smartphones have become a great asset to every individual. Whether they’re building a small business or shopping on their favorite site, these devices allow people to stay connected in the most opportune ways. The smartphone relationship Unfortunately, this has resulted in a side effect that isn’t so greatly appreciated. For many, the smartphone has become the only gateway for communication. Calls? Texts? Emails? Social network updates? All these things become a priority, even when in the company of others. And the trouble here is that most users aren’t able to say “no” to interruptions like these. Rather than focusing their present audience, they indulge in a social comment or watch the latest trending video – alone and outside of the conversation. When the only conversation partner you seem to have is your phone, you quickly find that those in the world around you aren’t paying attention to you either. For those who are developing their network or contacts, … [Read more...]

Who You Like – Built by Association

March 28, 2013 by Maria Elena Duron Leave a Comment

While many brands are concerned with the number of “likes” that their own personal brand social sites gain, there is another type of “like” that is affecting you as well. Have you ever considered what topics, pages, and brands you “like” on social sites like Facebook? Those likes may be affecting your brand’s image more than you might consider. With the variety of subject material on social sites, it’s easy to get caught up liking new pages and brands without first investigating them. Even if they turn out to be un-relatable to your personal brand, we may like them at the moment, or something on them, or even simply because a friend recommended we liked them. This is one of the many reasons why it’s so important to regularly clean up your social sites. What apps are obsolete? Which pages fail to represent your brand’s values or interests effectively? Basically, your “likes” are building a profile with your social account that is ancillary to your … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Expressing Your Brand, Exuding Your Brand, Social Media Tagged With: Business, career, Networking, online identity, Personal Brand, personal branding trends, social networking

Efficient with Things, Effective with People

March 14, 2013 by Maria Elena Duron Leave a Comment

Businesses are constantly on the search for more ways to increase their efficiency. Can they network with more people in less time? Can they consolidate resources? Can they eliminate unnecessary costs, both financially and with time? Being efficient doesn’t mean that you can’t still invest in your audience. In fact, it actually offers you more time to invest with customers, clients, and advocates for your brand. Time is a resource that few can afford to waste, especially when working towards your goals. But, time isn’t always wasted. Sometimes, it just happens to be misplaced. Luckily, there are certain practices that can help you become more time-efficient. Understand your market One of the most effective ways you can save yourself an abundance of time and effort is by starting off in the right direction. Before jumping right into managing your personal brand, you need to have an understanding which direction to go in. There are certain topics one should consider … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs, Personal Branding Quick Tips Tagged With: Business, Career Management, outsourcing, Personal Brand, time management

Your Personal Brand Loses When You Box Your Connections

January 24, 2013 by Maria Elena Duron Leave a Comment

What do you think of when you think of your customers? Perhaps, you’re thinking that they rely on you to provide them with a service. You maybe are hoping that they appreciate what your brand has to offer. Now, consider those that you are a customer of – specifically your social outsourcing groups and other providers. They have something which they offer you, and you believe is valuable. Do you think of a customer as just being your customer? Or, are they much more than that? In truth, everyone you do business with and provide business for is your connection. These connections can prove valuable resources for your personal brand but are often overlooked. The main reason for this is because many check the box next to your name as either “vendor” or “client.” From then on, they put you in a category that limits the opportunity made available to you. Rather than considering the fact that a customer could provide you with a service of their own, it is far more likely … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Exuding Your Brand, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: branding, Business, maria elena duron, Networking, Personal Brand

Blogs Matter to Your Personal Brand and Word of Mouth

December 27, 2012 by Maria Elena Duron Leave a Comment

For any online marketing campaign, there are certain tools and methods which are needed to improve visibility. These tools include the simple, yet practical blog. Perhaps, it’s a compilation of a few tidbits of information combined with some personal experiences, but the effect is far from simple. It is the gateway of communication between brand and the online audience. What happens when you don’t have a blog? There are still a few brands which do not partake in this particular strategy, but the numbers are dwindling. As more brands discover its importance and realize that it does more than just share, the network of bloggers increases in number every day. What Is a Blog? This is the question that every brand must ask themselves before they put pen to paper (or rather fingers to keyboard). Blogs have numerous characteristics, some broad and others more specific to their brand. For the most part, blogs share the brand so that the audience can not only relate to it but … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Expressing Your Brand, Personal Branding Trends, Social Media Tagged With: Blogging, maria elena duron, Networking, online identity, Personal Brand, personal branding, word of mouth

Entrepreneurs and Strategic Personal Brand Plans

September 13, 2012 by Maria Elena Duron 2 Comments

Once you’ve decided and made the leap to become an entrepreneur, you need to make some changes to your lifestyle in order to succeed. Your decision cannot stem from frustration of being an employee alone or you won’t have the energy and focus that you need to succeed. To succeed and to ensure that your personal brand stays intact takes planning and strategizing. Goals and strategies Before anything, you first need to set goals specific goals. You also need to develop and maintain a strategic plan which can guide you through the steps you’ve identified as necessary to making your goals “inevitable”. As you’re crafting the plan for your business, it’s also important to craft your own personal brand strategic plan. Both of them will grow in tandem yet the end goals for each maybe different. Setting your goals, objectives, strategy and tactics are key to the success of both your business and personal brand. Often, we dive into tactics first without starting … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Expressing Your Brand, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs, Personal Branding Quick Tips Tagged With: branding, business strategy, Personal Brand, planning

Will Lance’s Personal Brand Continue to Live Strong?

August 26, 2012 by Paul Copcutt 2 Comments

Athlete......Survivor.....Philanthropist......Cheat? Sadly, unless there is a definitive answer, that final attribute will now always be associated with Lance Armstrong's personal brand. But always with a question. We all know him through those first three attributes, the question is can we ever not think of him without the last one? Both sides were always too far apart for this to be concluded with anything other than the wrong result. Witnesses and experts on both sides claiming to be right. Strong personalities involved. A lot at stake. Now the truth may never be known. Part of the confusion for many of us might be the fact that what might be a lifetime ban for some sports (e.g. cycling), can be a couple of years in athletics or results in a 50 game ban or less in baseball. Even some multiple offenders come back to play in their sport again. For the USADA this has been a 10+ year endeavour. The rumour and insinuation has hung over Armstrong really ever since his … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Sports, Strong Brands Attract and Repel, Strong Personal Brands Tagged With: Business, Lance Armstrong, Personal Brand, personal branding, reputation

Re-imagining Personal Brand

July 20, 2012 by Walter Akana 2 Comments

“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...]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Be Yourself, Breakaway Brand, Competitive Herd, Different, Idea Brands, Personal Brand, Re-imagine, Seth Godin, Substitute, The Brand Builder, We Are All Weird, Youngme Moon, Your Story

Wear Your Personal Brand Colors with Pride

July 7, 2012 by Peter Sterlacci Leave a Comment

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: Brand colors, Personal Brand, personal brand identity system, Reach Personal Branding, Tour de France Yellow

Look Up and Face Word of Mouth

Efficient with Things, Effective with People

Your Personal Brand Loses When You Box Your Connections

Entrepreneurs and Strategic Personal Brand Plans

Will Lance’s Personal Brand Continue to Live Strong?

Re-imagining Personal Brand

Wear Your Personal Brand Colors with Pride

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