Please note: On a somewhat infrequent basis, Quintessential Careers asks noted
career experts five questions related to their expertise and publishes the interview
in the current issue of QuintZine,
our biweekly newsletter. Here is one such interview.
Kirsten Dixson is a career management consultant who is an authority
on building credible online identities for career success.
Q:
What relationship do you see between networking and branding?
A:
Networking is a powerful component of the branding process because
when your network is clear about your unique promise of value, they
extend your brand for you. When you are known for something and
remain visible to your target audience, you will be top of mind when
opportunities arise. Once you develop a strong brand and a strong
network, you can spend less time directly promoting yourself -- an
activity with which many are uncomfortable.
The No. 1 driver of personal branding is the necessity to be in
control of our own careers. Since no one is going to manage our
career for us, and the only constant is change, we have to know where
we are headed and create our own road map for success (however, we
personally define that). To thrive in this new environment, you must
identify your personal assets and clearly communicate your unique
promise of value to those who need to know about you. Your
credibility and visibility will drive demand for your services. You
must use who you are to affect how you earn. That's where
Career Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand comes in.
Q:
You contend that "personal branding is not a fad." Can you elaborate?
A:
In 1997, Tom Peters wrote his now iconic article
The Brand Called
You in Fast Company. Now 10 years later, the personal branding movement is
firmly established as a revolutionary and evolutionary strategy for
career management and professional and personal success.
Whether you are a professional in an organization, an entrepreneur
leading your own business or an individual in career transition,
personal branding has become synonymous with how we build our
personal reputation and differentiate ourselves from our competitors.
In addition, HR managers and executives alike are challenged with the
need to attract and retain great people in the well-publicized war
for talent. Enabling people to develop and nurture their personal
brand supports talent management strategies and ability to deliver
business strategies.
To mark the 10th anniversary of personal branding, we recently held
The Brand You World Global Telesummit, a free 12-hour virtual
conference featuring the world's leading authorities on personal
branding. A
podcast of the live event is available.
Q:
What are some emerging elements of one's online identity? What are
the hottest social networking sites?
A:
Anything that is published about you online or that you write on a
Web page that is not password-protected is a part of your public
online identity. Often people will research you online before they
meet you in person, so they will be making decisions about you based
on how you show up in Google and other search engines. You can use
this free tool to assess
your current online ID.
It is easy to use social networking or online profile services to
create or enhance your online identity. I recommend creating public
profiles using LinkedIn.com and
Ziggs.com. These sites are more business-oriented and have
some neat features like endorsements (LinkedIn)
and the ability to create a mini-portfolio (Ziggs).
Some of the hottest social networking sites like
MySpace and
Facebook aren't
necessarily ideal for managing your professional online identity.
When you use these tools, go beyond the default settings to control
who sees your content, keep it professional, and be sure to connect
only with people you really know and trust since their content can
show up on your page.
You can learn more about building your brand in bits and bytes by
downloading our free
ChangeThis Manifesto.
I think a blog is the ideal tool for expressing your personal
brand online for the following reasons:
Blogs are the most economical way for you to create and maintain
an attractive, controlled Web presence without being a programmer.
You can use well-designed templates from typepad.com or wordpress.org
or, even better, have a designer create a custom look that
communicates aspects of your personal brand visually.
Blogs are search-engine friendly and will often come up high in
a search for your name (especially if you use your own name as your
domain name).
Since you are authoring your blog, it gives people a picture of
your authentic self.
Since you will be writing about and connecting to others and
people can comment on what you write, a blog helps you build your
community.
A blog can (and should) be a well-organized resource for your
niche. Think about your differentiated point of view and what you can
offer your target audience.
You can include career-portfolio content that goes beyond your
resume and provides tangible evidence of your performance in the form
of links, audio, video and downloadable PDFs.
Using a blog the right way demonstrates that you are savvy and
forward thinking.
A blog doesn't replace a resume, although you can include your
downloadable resume on your blog or link to your
LinkedIn profile
that should mirror your resume.
The Reach Branding Club (RBC) was
developed in response to many requests for a flexible, affordable
program with everything needed to build a strong personal brand. We
combine on-demand webinars with weekly self-directed activities,
networking opportunities, and teleseminars so you can build your
personal brand, stand out from your peers and reach your career
goals. At RBC, you build your brand at your pace. Our members,
located across the globe, are highly successful individuals who are
motivated to expand their success.
Whether you are an entrepreneur, job seeker or a professional working
inside an organization, you'll gain access to the leading personal
branding methodology -- proven with thousands of executives and
entrepreneurs -- that will help you define and achieve your goals,
take control of your success, increase your compensation and enjoy
your work.
Kirsten Dixson is a career management consultant who is an authority
on building credible online identities for career success. She's the
coauthor of Career
Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand (Wiley), the founder of
Brandego, and a partner in
Reach, the global leader in personal branding.
Kirsten delivers keynote speeches and serves as a media resource on
career technology topics. She's been quoted in the New York
Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe,
Newsday and Advertising Age.
Kirsten Dixson is a career management consultant who is an authority
on building credible online identities for career success. She's the
coauthor of 