My Best Advice About Personal Branding

August 12, 2008 · Comments

Prisoner In some ways, personal branding is noise. It’s talking about one’s self instead of talking about something that’s useful to others. But another way you might look at it is that personal branding is leverage: once you know me, you start to build a relationship with me. Once we have a relationship, I can share even more with you. The more we share, the more likely we’ll have other common interests down the road. It’s definitely part of the whole social media story, the rise of “me,” and personal branding. Here are 10 posts about personal branding from this site:


My Best Advice About Personal Branding

  1. 100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media
  2. The Real Power of Personal Branding
  3. Develop a Strong Personal Brand Online (part 1)
  4. Develop a Strong Personal Brand Online (part 2)
  5. Strip Malls for Personal Brands
  6. Passion Drives Personal Brand
  7. Elements of a Personal Brand
  8. Personal Branding and Social Media
  9. Quick Branding Tips for Individuals
  10. 10 Ways to Make Your Next Conference Better


Here are some folks I think do personal branding very well:

Is that everyone? Hardly. But those came right to mind. Hopefully, my advice will help you think about your own personal brand. What do you think?


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  • keep posting some really good posts....
  • carolyntaylor
    Hey Chris. I was reading the page on your site called Best Advice about personal branding and a ad sponsored by Google came up for L&H Branding Irons which were...you guessed it ways to cause pain to animals in order to own them. The juxtaposition of images was pretty hard to handle. Maybe you could give this feedback to Google. btw love your articles on personal branding.
  • Rownaldo
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  • I think you hit the nail on the head with "personal branding is about a relationship." It's about a relationship between YOU and someone else. When personal Branding is confused with image management it does appear to be little more than the clothes you wear and the amount of times you post your pic with a celebrity each week.
  • Thank you very much, Chris. I've been looking for a resource like this to grow my own brand, and I've found much of the material out there pretty useless. Great work.
  • Thom, Tracey & Miss Cynthi
    Shouldn't the duct tape be on your hands to keep you quiet??? (picture puzzled head scratching emotionicon here)
  • Chris, I think it might be important to differentiate online personal branding versus offline. Think about what we all do offline in regards to maintaining an offline brand persona. One's offline image may be no less important than the online. And ironically, some of the critical components to developing a quality personal brand online are just as important offline as well, namely to be genuine, to be real, and hopefully observe some decorum of civility and decency. The parallels are there, it's just some choose to talk the talk. I think if we all had to choose one brand to maintain. It would be the offline brand. At the end of the day, it's the face to face transactions with loved ones, close friends and our partners that matter most. It's what they think of us that matters to us.

    Marc
  • Ari, what if you mess up branding your own name? oops! Hah.

    Chris, thanks for putting this in one place. You just earned another subscriber :)
  • Ari Herzog
    Rahaf, you claim you "need a brand that...will last."

    What better brand than your name? Nobody can take that from you.
  • Chris, you are the best model I know when it comes to online personal branding.

    Favorite advice (from post #3 above): "First off, remember that branding isn’t playing a role. Be yourself. It will become apparent rather quickly if you’re being someone that you’re not."

    It seems this advice is increasingly applicable to a corporate brand as well, isn't it?
  • I don't like the noise metaphor because it implies that any noise you generate is beneficial. Unfortunately when you generate a lot of noise you're likely to create a white noise effect that cancels itself out.
    A personal brand like Chris's has specific attributes that one wants to control and define- your song (to beat a metaphor!) rather than your racket...
    We remember compelling songs but tune out noise.
  • You said personal branding is talking about one’s self instead of talking about something that’s useful to others. In the discovery and maintenance of your own personal brand do you not believe that the whole objective is to be perceived as "useful to others"? Maybe I misinterpret "uselful". I think of a "personal brand" as one that will inspire or motivate, influence or represent expertise in specific areas; shares abilities,reputation and credibility. "You",(your personal brand), are "useful" to me because you share your experise and great deal of information that I am interested in.
    Thanks for sharing!
  • I love these kinds of posts Chris. My only comment is that I don't think great personal branding is about "noise" or about "talking about one's self." Great personal brands are built by people (like you) who contribute and add value to a community. In doing so, the general public has an emotional attachment and it resonates - it creates this personal brand (a connection and cumulative feeling that people have about you and how you connect).

    I think people who make noise and talk about themselves think they are developing their personal brands when, in reality, all they're probably doing is turning people off of their brand.
  • amurphy13
    Personal branding is something that not enough people are thinking about, so thank you for your post.

    It makes me think of a debate I had with several members of my team not too long ago when we decided to get our company on Twitter. Is it best to combine the personal brand and the professional brand, i.e. @companyx written by Jane Doe? Or better to keep the two separate, i.e. @companyx is just that, Company X. And Jane Doe has her own personal Twitter account?

    Personally, I think people want to talk to other people. So while brands may peruse web destinations like the Twitterverse, I much prefer to talk to Frank @comcastcares rather than some nameless, faceless customer service rep @comcastcares. What do you think?
  • Thanks Chris,
    I like #2 The Real Power of Personal Branding best.
  • @Rahaf - someone's actually doing that for me now, it appears. I'll let you know. : )
  • That's a great list.

    I think Gary Vaynerchuk is an expert at personal branding and marketing. The guy's a genius.
  • Chris,
    When are you going to offer all of your blog posts in one easy to refer text book?!

    Come on, I'll set it up via LuLu for you myself!

    I would love to have a hard copy to refer to, lol.

    The interesting thing I'm finding about personal branding is the evolution of your brand as you change and grow. I've been trying to foster my personal brand around personality characteristics (transparency, community, etc) rather then a social media expertise. Who knows what i'll be doing in two years or even five years!
    I need a brand that I know will last.

    Rahaf
  • I'm going through a personal brand process now and I constantly think about how best to position myself in the space (as well as keep my nose clean online). This info is incredibly valuable (and timely) for me. Thanks, Chris!
  • My personal branding was something I gave no thought to whatsoever. In a very short period, however, it's become obviously important. Other than the interest in the comment section, it's been my site's biggest surprise.
  • Glad you think I'm doing it well.

    I'm not one to pimp, but I had to in this instance.

    Gary V, Mitch Joel, Saul Colt and myself are hoping to do a presentation at SXSW on this very topic. If people find it interesting we could use a vote for this panel at http://tinyurl.com/sxsw-brandingpanel

    Keep up the great work Chris.
  • I guess you've answered the question I asked via Facebook. :-)
  • >In a way, haven’t we made little branding strip malls?
    >Little outlet stores for the product known as “me?”
    >
    >What’s your take?

    Chris,

    I like the analogy of "strip malls" -- the big difference is that in a physical strip mall the shop must pay rent every month or they disappear from the mall.

    On virtual "strip malls" the rent seems to be participation but lack of participation doesn't get the person evicted -- it just leaves leaves a half-empty, dust collecting presence in the mall.

    My caution is that people need to consider if they can pay the rent - i.e. keep updated inventory in any virtual malls that they are considering.

    Cheers,

    J:L
  • Just great, Chris.

    I've been meaning to noodle around on your blog to get a rounder picture of your take on personal branding.

    Thanks for putting it conveniently together and saving me a lot of search time.

    Meg
  • Hi Chris,

    Thank you for putting all of this together in one place. Very useful, thought out and actionable.

    Kudos to you... Your branding tactics are a case study for others to follow.

    - Charles
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