Building your Personal Brand
Hacking your
Personal Brand out of the social media jungle BY CASEY MILLER Presented at 2014 Young Professionals Summit 10.2014
Building your Personal Brand
Who the heck am I anyway, and why should you care?
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Ruggedly handsome Casey Miller 25 years in branding and advertising Past 15 years exclusively digital
Leadership Dallas Class of 2013 Neiman Marcus, Southwest Airlines, Diet Coke Agency side and corporate marketing side Rockfish Interactive
Building your Personal Brand
What’s in it for you
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Get an accurate snapshot of your Personal Brand online Begin organizing and prioritizing your Personal Brand online
Use the worksheet to build your Personal Brand Pillars, Personal Brand Statement and Personal Elevator Pitch Create an informal publishing plan for when, where, and what you post to build your Personal Brand
Building your Personal Brand
A few ground rules
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No cell phones
No tablets No kidding Ask questions Use your safe word Relax! There will be handouts
Building your Personal Brand
Exactly what IS a Personal Brand, anyway? DIEING IS EASY LIVING IS HARD
Building your Personal Brand
It’s one big, weird mix
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Personal AND professional
Perceived AND factual Online AND in person Past AND present At its best: Accurate expression of personal and professional values, strengths, experience and goals
Travels with you
Building your Personal Brand
Pops didn’t need any fancy-pants “Personal Brand.” Why do I?
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Passive assumption vs. active management Valuable toolkit Experience Reputation Growth
Building your Personal Brand
Like it or not, yours is already out there
Building your Personal Brand
Like it or not, yours is already out there
Building your Personal Brand
Social media: The ultimate frenemy
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No separation of personal and professional online
Posting removes privacy and ownership Expect it to live online: FOREVER Good news: Clean up and management tips, later
Building your Personal Brand
Pop quiz! QUICK: Who is your ultimate dream boss? Why do you want to work for him or her?
Building your Personal Brand
Let’s build you a kick-ass Personal Brand LEDGENDS LIVE ON
Building your Personal Brand
A great foundation in 1-2-3
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Three valuable tools from the world of brand advertising Brand Pillars Brand Statement Elevator Pitch No worries: Handy worksheet for you
Building your Personal Brand
A great foundation in 1-2-3
Building your Personal Brand
STEP 1: Define your Brand Pillars
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No more than 6 guiding values/principles/ideas
Goal: Capture what guides your integrity and fuels your passion Big picture and long term: Travels with you Reality checker Touchstone for big decisions
Put some thought into it
Building your Personal Brand
STEP 1 example: My Brand Pillars
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Creativity
Innovation Equality Transparency Collaboration Humor
Building your Personal Brand
Pop quiz! QUICK: What’s your favorite brand? Describe it in 3 words
Building your Personal Brand
STEP 2: Write your Personal Brand Statement
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Think big! Goal: Define your hopes and goals for professional and personal growth
Mid range: Framework for 5 to 10 years Based on your Pillars
Aspirational and forward focused ONE paragraph only
Building your Personal Brand
STEP 2 example: Personal Brand Statement
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“I want to use my entrepreneurial stamina and focused fashion experience to drive bottom line growth, inspire my employees to achieve more, and cultivate mutually profitable business relationships. I want to generate shared success built on respect, loyalty and collaboration. I want to lead at a company that invests in me by stimulating my creative thinking.”
Building your Personal Brand
Pop quiz! SHOW OF HANDS: Who has stalked a date or business acquaintance online before meeting? Be honest!
Building your Personal Brand
Now, for your Personal Elevator Pitch BELIEVE THE IMPOSSBILE
Building your Personal Brand
STEP 3: Write a Personal Elevator Pitch
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You have 30 seconds to convince [Dream Boss] to hire you Goal: Capture qualities, experience, skills and goals
Short term: Your next career step Framed by Pillars and Brand Statement
Evolves as your career does; update frequently 30-45 seconds MAXIMUM
Building your Personal Brand
STEP 3 example: Personal Elevator Pitch
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“I’m Frank Jones and my passion is helping talented people find the right job, sooner, through personalized executive search. For nine years, I’ve managed my own firm and prepared thousands of executives for smarter job searches with coaching programs, recruiting events and online advice. For the past three years I’ve created, tested and implemented customized search plans based on learning styles, goals and personality traits.”
Building your Personal Brand
Pop quiz! QUICK: You just got laid off! What’s your Plan B?
Building your Personal Brand
Let’s talk online damage control NEVER IS AM AWEFULLY LONG TIME
Building your Personal Brand
Google yourself … vigorously
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Main search engines: Google, Yahoo, Bing
Review your most-used social channels What’s the collateral damage? Copy URLs; punch list of immediate fixes If it’s truly horrible, delete the account(s)
Building your Personal Brand
LinkedIn: Is yours dead or alive?
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Outdated and incomplete profiles: worse than useless Not the place to fudge facts Tons of networking resources: businesses, industry groups, leaders Excellent FREE job hunting
Building your Personal Brand
Lucky y’all: Another handy handout
Building your Personal Brand
Doing your homework
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Online damage control
Fixing your Facebook Bringing your LinkedIn back to life Tips for privacy and security settings Then, the fun stuff
Building your Personal Brand
Growing your Personal Brand online I WOULD RATHER DIE STANDING THEN LIVE ON MY KNEES
Building your Personal Brand
Network and brand yourself online
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After damage control and maintenance COMMIT to 1-2 online channels PUBLISH twice a week; tips in handout CLOSE old or incomplete channels MAINTAIN an updated digital resume UPDATE your resume/experience once a quarter REVISIT your brand 1-2-3 once a year
Building your Personal Brand
Use your brand superpowers for good
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DON’T waste time or energy networking with jerks
ENDORSE frugally and wisely FIND groups where you can learn and grow FIND a cause and get involved, now PICK the brains of wise colleagues
Building your Personal Brand
Your ultimate goals
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A lively, engaging Personal Brand that supports your career goals An evolving, growing network you can contribute to and learn from
Rewarding contributions to the greater good
Building your Personal Brand
Let’s talk Q&A (pending time!)
BEATIFUL DISASTER
Building your Personal Brand
Download those handouts, y’all
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PDFs on the YP website
Worksheet: Building yourself a kick-ass Personal Brand Tip sheet: Social media damage control, care and maintenance
Building your Personal Brand
Call me, y’all
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Happy to meet individually or with groups
Branding for start-ups and businesses I like breakfast and lunch; I LOVE happy hour
[email protected] LinkedIn.com/in/caseymillergenius My business cards are awesome!
Building your Personal Brand
You’ve been a great audience! Well, most of you anyway.
THIS TO SHALL PASS
