Defining Your Personal Brand

Everyone is talking about social media and social networking as marketing tools these days.  Reaching consumers in the online world is affecting every marketing decision made by CEOs and CMOs today, imposing drastic effects on our business.

We are the experts on digital marketing for our clients – recommending new ways, through social media and networking, to connect their brands to their consumers.  In order to do this, we must have employees in place who are familiar with the digital world.  Employees who not only know the digital lingo, but can efficiently work their way through the maze that is the online world.  An up and coming, savvy advertising/marketing professional should be able to speak the social media language and navigate the digital seas.  And, for folks who have been in the business for a while, you should be quickly getting yourself up to speed, or Generation Y will quickly pass you by.

But playing in this online world means you are exposing yourself, both personally and professionally. You are displaying your personal brand. Are you a member of Facebook?  MySpace?  Are you reading and commenting on blogs?  Are you writing blogs?  If the answer is “yes” to any of those, then your online life gets tricky.   If the human resources director at your place of business Googles your name, what will come up?  How does the information about you available on the World Wide Web affect your personal brand?

To provide smart decision-makers for our clients, we in the advertising and marketing business have to encourage our employees, both current and future, to engage social media. Not doing so would be like hiring an art director with no portfolio. So go for it.  Start navigating through the digital world.  If you’re not out there right now, get out there.  If you’re already out there, great!

But be careful!  We want our employees to be the experts on all aspects of digital marketing for our clients and their brands.  But we also want employees who are professional and responsible with their own information.

So, what does your personal brand say about you?

Related Posts You’ll Enjoy:

1. Personal Branding and Social Media by Chris Brogan.
2. Ignore the Social Media Scoreboard by Ben Yoskovitz
3. Are Blogs the New Thought Leadership by Valeria Maltoni
4. Having Your Accounts Hacked is a Hard Way to Learn About Protecting Your Online Identity, from Dan Schawbel on CommonSense PR
5. Wait Till the MySpace Generation Hits The Workforce by Jeremiah Owyang

[tags]personal brand, personal branding, social networking, privacy, professional, etiquette[/tags]