{"id":578,"date":"2014-04-08T00:00:44","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T00:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oryxpeople.com.au\/?p=578"},"modified":"2025-03-10T03:28:06","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T03:28:06","slug":"personal-branding-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oryxpeople.com.au\/personal-branding-101\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal Branding 101"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gone are the days where \u201cbranding\u201d relates merely to marketing a product or service. In our current era of social networking and with social media tools so readily available to us, personal branding is an important concept to get right.<\/p>\n

So what is\u00a0personal branding<\/b>\u00a0all about?\u00a0It is about the impression you give of yourself and how it is people perceive you.\u00a0<\/b>In simple terms \u2013 it is how you market yourself to the world, and in this piece, I\u2019m referring to your professional world. \u00a0I\u2019d like you to give thought to how it is you represent your current employer, how you are perceived by peers within your industry and how a prospective employer (or recruiter) may view you.<\/p>\n

Over the last few years within my HR roles and now in the recruitment industry, I have come across countless instances of professional personal branding gone wrong \u2013 REALLY wrong. It never ceases to entertain me when I come across some \u201cepic fails\u201d but then I begin to wonder if these people misrepresent themselves because they just don\u2019t get it or because they just don\u2019t care. If you haven\u2019t really thought about it before, I would like to provide you with some food for thought about your very own professional personal branding. Personal branding is a powerful tool and it doesn\u2019t just apply to the Kardashians and Hiltons of this world!<\/p>\n

Where do we start?<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>Professional vs Personal branding<\/b><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s simple \u2013 don\u2019t confuse professional social media tools like LinkedIn with personal ones (Facebook and the like). Keep your professional and personal life separate. If your profile is related to your career and education, keep it purely professional. Your profile photo, your career details and your updates\/comments should attract people due to your experience, expertise (your niche) and professionalism \u2013 it should draw a viewer to want to look into your profile in more detail and then actually take the action of contacting you or maybe even referring you on. Your profile needs to confirm that you take your career seriously via your career journey and the role with your current employer. Don\u2019t underestimate the power of a good profile \u2013 it can reward you by opening doors to amazing career opportunities!<\/p>\n

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2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>Oh snap!<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u201cA picture is worth a thousand words\u201d. With one image, a viewer will formulate a perception of you and it is crucial that you send the right message. Your profile photo will play a big part in whether people want to make contact with you. If you don\u2019t take your photo seriously, don\u2019t expect anyone else to take it seriously either (I promise to go into more detail in another blog!). An inappropriate and unprofessional photo can be damaging to your credibility and unfortunately it isn\u2019t easy to undo negative perception. So, if you\u2019re posing with a bottle of tequila at a nightclub, cosying up to your Chihuahua (that\u2019s just too Paris for me) or maybe canoodling a bevy of beauties at a bucks weekend, then it may just be time to re-evaluate what message you\u2019re sending out to your professional networks. That\u2019s fine if you\u2019re a party animal, dog-lover or love the company of the opposite sex \u2013 you just need to filter it through the right channels.<\/p>\n

A good profile photo is one that will represent you as a professional, confident and approachable individual who cares about their job and their career \u2013 a person that people will want to work with!<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>What you see is what you get!<\/b><\/p>\n

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Invest time in creating a detailed and accurate quality profile just as you would with your resume. LinkedIn is your live online resume able to be viewed at any time so you need to ensure that it is reflects you in the right professional light consistently. Treat it as a live career document; one that you don\u2019t forget about.<\/p>\n

Keep the information current and relevant to your career. Be clear on the role titles, name of employers and timeframes you were with each employer. I have come across too many profiles with conflicting information which causes confusion and doubt about the credibility of the information. Make sure there are no spelling or grammatical errors. It\u2019s just not a good look for any \u201cprofessional\u201d. Take the time to view your profile from an outsider\u2019s perspective. You want to avoid the misconception that you aren\u2019t too good with attention to detail or that you don\u2019t really care about what people think of you.<\/p>\n

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First impressions matter! Your profile should be a positive reflection of you and should encourage people to view your professional details. The last thing you want is for people to stay clear of your profile and for negative feedback to spread throughout your professional network. With the rise and reliance on social media and the internet, a negative perception can damage your professional reputation and haunt you indefinitely.\u00a0 On the flip-side, you can leave a lasting positive impression of your professionalism and professional credibility forever!<\/p>\n

Keep in mind 3 things when creating or editing your LinkedIn profile:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>What will your\u00a0current employer<\/b>\u00a0think of your profile? Are you an ambassador of your employer\u2019s brand, corporate values and culture?<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i>2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>What would your\u00a0peers<\/b>\u00a0(including management and staff) say about your profile? Are you viewed as a professional that is respected, good at their job and an individual people aspire to be?<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i>3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>Will\u00a0potential employers and recruiters<\/b>\u00a0put you in the \u201cdon\u2019t go there\u201d basket or will they view you as a high calibre candidate for a potential new career opportunity?<\/i><\/p>\n

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You cannot control a viewer\u2019s bias, however, if you have fed into a negative perception by portraying yourself in a way that is counter-effective for your career, then you only have yourself to blame unfortunately.<\/p>\n

Put yourself in a viewer\u2019s shoes. Now click onto your profile. At first glance, what do you think of you? Now read through the profile and stop. Are you left impressed or depressed? It\u2019s time to make people thing O M G \u2013 for all the right reasons!<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what you do that makes you who you are and how you project that to others that makes you memorable.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

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It is a fine line to walk but keeping it professional doesn\u2019t have to mean letting go of the essence of who you are. Being professional may simply mean applying a bit of common sense and seeing the bigger picture \u2013 your career picture. What matters to your professional network first and foremost is who you are as a master of your niche (your profession). Once they understand that, they may just be open to getting to know you on a more personal level.<\/p>\n

Your professional personal brand is not about where you are now in your career \u2013 it is ultimately where you want to be!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gone are the days where \u201cbranding\u201d relates merely to marketing a product or service. In our current era of social networking and with social media tools so readily available to us, personal branding is an important concept to get right. So what is\u00a0personal branding\u00a0all about?\u00a0It is about the impression you give of yourself and how…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whats-new"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oryxpeople.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oryxpeople.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oryxpeople.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oryxpeople.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oryxpeople.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.oryxpeople.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":819,"href":"https:\/\/www.oryxpeople.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions\/819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oryxpeople.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oryxpeople.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oryxpeople.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oryxpeople.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}