Personal Branding was a term coined by Tom Peters back in 1997 and is quite simply defined as how we market ourselves. A leading Personal Branding expert (Dan Schawbel) posed a question on LinkedIn “Can you sum up your brand in 1-3 words?” I certainly understand the importance of the ability to express your personal brand in a clear and concise manner – after all we live in a world of Twitter and Text. But I think 1-3 words wouldn’t do me or most of us any real justice. I decided to write a poem to define my brand and you can read it below. I know this was cheating but it did get me noticed 🙂
Paul Mullan (by Paul Mullan)
Challenge from Dan to communicate my brand in three
A simple task posing great difficulty for me
I don’t think three words can truly tell who we are
As my brand is complex like Pandora in the movie AvatarI am passionate and energetic but my words could be lies
When you meet me these qualities will be hard to disguise
I am funny, I laugh and I love what I do
I’m about helping people be happy in work tooI am creative, risk taking, full of ideas on a plate
To help increase visibility and opportunity generate
I encourage, I guide and help overcome fears
To help you take action to land dream careersMy personality is part of what makes my brand unique
But it’s matched by knowledge which is both wide and deep
Dan’s not happy coz I overshot the word runway by miles
So my brand in three words “Generating Career Smiles”
For those of you who hadn’t realised the world of jobs and careers are changing at a rapid rate. Reid Hoffman stated “One of my theses is that every individual is now a small business; how you manage your own personal career is the exact way you manage a small business.” This means developing and communicating your personal brand has been elevated to must do status. A key part of developing your brand is identifying it in the first place. Defining your brand provides the foundations for success which are supported by effective planning and communication to the market. I will discuss “personal marketing planning”, “marketing strategies” and “communicating your brand” in more detail in later posts.
I leave you with the important question – Can you define your personal brand?