Personal branding is all about how you choose to present yourself to the world. In this day and age, it has become more important than ever (as we often meet people online before we actually meet them in person). This means that our first judgments/impressions will usually be based on how a person portrays himself online.
This brings me to my first thoughts on personal branding: Push a coherent story. As most people now have a life on and 0ff-line, It is crucial to maintain a coherent image across the line. Remember that personal branding is all about who you tell people you are. Therefore watch out about how you comport yourself online. If you tell everybody you meet that you are a leader in your community, that you are a serious & well organized individual that strives to achieve perfection in all that he does, but that your online image (social networks) show wild pictures of you partying, you are pushing two distinct stories. This will get people confused about who you are therefore inevitably hurting your image and diluting your brand value. Always remember that you aren’t really the one that gives your brand value; the others do (customers). Therefore if customers (people you meet) aren’t satisfied with how you do things and how you present yourself, your personal brand dosent grow.
Now you might be wondering how to maintain a coherent image across the board. Well I believe the guy’s over at Sid lee in Montreal pretty much nailed the definition in their 2008 book Conversational Capital. While their book isn’t about personal branding (it’s actually a smart read about how to create word of mouth for your brand, i.e getting your brand to be talked about), they include a section about continuity with concepts that can totally be applied to personal branding. Their idea goes like this: “Your reputation (in this case brand value) is a result of the relative proximity of three factors to one another, as follows: Who you are, who you say you are, who people say you are.” In other words, if you are able to keep these three factors as close as possible you will be pushing a coherent story about yourself across the board. Now mind you coherence is not the only factor. Once the story is coherent, it also needs to be good. But hey, that one is up to you. I can’t decide who you are!
That being said, here is another notion related to personal branding: present yourself well & maintain a proper image. If you want that story to keep its coherence you need to consistently present yourself well in real life. This means maintaining an attitude and appearance that is inline with who you say you are (and who people are now saying you are). If you don’t do this, your brand will quickly loose its value. Its all about remain true to you values & ideals! If you say that you are smart, organized, devoted and business oriented don’t come to a meeting 30 minutes late wearing sweat pants! I’ve always thought of dressing as being your interface to the world. Its the first thing people see and therefore the first thing they will judge you on. Therefore just make sure that it is clean and tidy (whether you agree with this or not, it’s in your best interest).
Although these ideas are currently applied to personal life, they can also apply to the corporate world (Yes! companies should have been taking notes to!).
If you have anything to add or disagree with some of these ideas, I’d ove to here about it in the comments and remain open to all opinions & suggestions!