Are You Who You Think You Are?

In the last post I spoke about the importance of personal branding and the sociological considerations when attempting to communicate your key personal brand attributes. Once you've become active and have begun to establish yourself, how do you know that what you've been communicating is actually what people have been absorbing?

This is a fundamental question to ask when evaluating brand communications although many of us do not take the time to understand these measures and to identify where the gaps lie. I found a simple tool that helps you describe your personal brand. It's called 360 Reach and can be a pretty powerful tool if used properly.

It asks a few short questions including one that asks you to select 10 brand attributes (from an extensive list) that best describe you. The results provide a little twist that help you to immediately identify some of your own perceptual gaps with the option to send the same questionnaire to your clients and/or colleagues to better understand how your personal brand is perceived through their eyes.

The questionnaire is free with a premium pay option to send the test to others. It's a quick, cheap and effective way to identify some areas for improvement towards strengthening your brand.

Taking it Personal

The concept of personal branding has been around for quite some time now. It has traditionally been an exercise that has generally involved an extended amount of time to evolve.

Not that now is that much different. Although the communication channel and the numerous mediums in which one can deliver their own personal brand message has changed dramatically. With new social media properties "popping up" every day, new opportunities are presenting themselves at a rapid pace.

The challenge is how to digest all that is available and how to filter through the clutter in an attempt to speak to an audience that may be relevant to your needs. I found the eBook called "The Essential Guide to Social Media" by Brian Solis to be rather informative as he spoke about the connection between the Social Sciences and how they relate to Social Media.

A key takeaway from the book is that in order to be successful in the Web 2.0 world it's important to understand the difference between listening and research. To listen means to understand and to submerse yourself into the culture. When researching, us as marketers can have a tendency to push marketing messages onto people believing that it's what they want to hear and as a result they will buy our products or services. The latter is less time consuming although the former could be more rewarding in the long run.

By noting the difference it becomes easier to create a social map. Brian Solis in the mentioned book above does a great job of this as well. By visually mapping out the social landscape, it becomes easier to understand where you should be focusing your efforts and how you could potentially overlap in some areas to reinforce your messaging.