Why Looking After Your Personal Brand in the Social Era Still Matters

I can’t remember when was the last time that I updated my Curriculum Vitae. Actually, that’s not accurate. Of course, I do. It was around beginning of 2009 and it surely sounds like ages ago! Either way, I can’t help going through a giggle or two every time folks ask me why don’t I update my resume more often, at least, for the sake of keeping it up to date. I keep responding back that I actually do update it on a regular basis. It’s just that for me the concept of CV has got a completely different meaning than to them. I mean, to them, it’s all about having an A4 page, stored somewhere in a static location, perhaps your own computing device, telling everyone how wonderful and skilful you are for whatever the job you may be applying to. To me, my CV though is nowadays pretty much my own online presence out there on the Social Web, where you constantly need to prove your skills, talent and expertise, so that eventually people can find you and corroborate whether you are fake or not, and whether your merit and online reputation clearly represent not only who you are, but also what you do: essentially, your own digital footprint, or, … personal brand.

That is one of the many reasons why I have truly enjoyed the Forbes article Dorie Clark put together, just recently, under the rather suggestive heading of “Reputation 3.0: The Internet Is Your Resume“, where she gets to explain how more and more recruiters and employers are starting to flock to the Social Web in order to find new talent and if that expertise cannot be found there, it seems you no longer exist, quoting Debra Feldman with the following paragraph: 

“If the search inquiry doesn’t find you, there’s a void like you don’t exist. Your credibility suffers. You’ll never know that you were eliminated [from consideration for a position], or what chances you’ve missed…Anonymity and mistaken identity are the biggest threats to your reputation“

Very powerful words, indeed. In fact, perhaps a bit too scary that your career, from here onwards, may well depend on the fact of not only whether you have a digital footprint out there on the Internet, but also whether you may have left a mark, a legacy, on that very same Social Web. 

I guess that’s one of the reasons why all along, and over the course of the years, every now and then I keep googling my own name, which I am sure you would know by now how much of a popular name that is, at least, in the hispanic world, in order to figure out what people are talking about around my online presence, my skills, my experience and expertise and essentially my digital footprint. Yes, I know most of you folks out there would be associating that activity towards doing some social ego searches just to see what people are talking about you, but the thing is that it’s one of those rather refreshing and mind-blowing activities I keep telling people to actually do in order to find out how others perceive you out there on the Social Web. You never know what you are going to learn about yourself from how others perceive you online…

So while you “consider your Internet search results “a perpetual resume – a dynamic record of achievements, affiliations and ideas””, I am sure you may be thinking about how can you keep feeding the beast, that is, the Internet itself, in order to make it easier for you to be found out there. After all, that’s all part of looking after your brand and while I have seen plenty of people thinking about using social networking tools to help amplify that digital footprint, I keep saying the most elaborate, powerful and relevant tool to help you manage that online reputation is probably your own blog.

In the past I have mentioned how Google Search is probably your best friend out there, too, how it’s your new business card and pretty much one of the best options out there to help you understand your visibility in the context of how people find you, which social networking tools you hang out at, what blogging platform do you use, etc. with the ultimate premise, perhaps, of providing the most powerful business reason to invest in the Social Web today, as a knowledge worker: 

““No longer can you plan on internal promotions for career progress. You must manage your own path and that’s best done through connections. Virtual ties can be as influential as in person relationships […]“

Indeed, in today’s more complex, disruptive and uncertain business environment than ever, it’s something you cannot afford not having anymore. You can’t even ignore it. People would keep talking about you, your product, or your brand, anyway, for a good while, resulting in that urgency of having to come up with an strategy that would work for you to help you ramp up efforts and get things going. And that you is no longer the corporate brand. That you is just the individual you, craving for that attention and exclusivity when in reality social networks work in much different ways, because, after all,  “It’s better to have a strong network before you need their help“. 

And that’s the main reason why I keep telling folks how if they would still need to come up with a business reason as to why they would need to justify their Social / Open Business involvement and participation, let it be just this simple one: looking after your digital brand (One of my favourite online resources on the topic, by the way, put together by the one and only, Chris Brogan). Not necessarily because you may not need it now, but more specifically for when you really need it. Networks need to get ready. They need to know who you are, what you do and what you are good at, so that when you may need that help, they can highlight that sweet spot they can help out with and engage right away. 

On that Forbes article, Dorie takes the liberty of sharing across some of Debra Feldman’s tips on how to build a strong social presence, so that your own online CV looks healthier, stronger and more relevant than ever. So I thought I would also take the same liberty and quote those helpful tips as well, not only for folks out there to savour, digest and start thinking about them, but also for myself as I continue to work on that digital footprint, because, you know, it’s never good enough, right? Thus here they are: 

• “Positioning: differentiate yourself from the competition
• Distinguish yourself as a trustworthy expert within a niche market(s)
• Identify the target markets or employers you’d like to focus on
• Describe the unique contribution you can make in each target area
• Prepare and publish examples demonstrating your expertise across all media channels
• Direct your social and in-person networking towards attracting decision makers
• Evaluate your current online persona and compare it to how you’d ideally like to be perceived
• Establish social networking accounts, create profiles, and start participating
• Prioritize your social networking activities to generate the best ROI for your career goals
• Set up mechanisms to regularly monitor your reputation and address any negative or incorrect information”

The key message though when thinking about your online digital footprint and reputation, remember, your new CV, is not to think of personal branding as an external self-promotion campaign, but as an overall leadership trait. It’s not just that. It’s a whole lot more as well we need to start realising about, just as much. It’s essentially around that ability to recognise, and fully embrace, the fact that personal branding also happens on the inside, I mean, within the firewall, in each and every organisation, that’s where it all starts, because, after all, it does bring you one key aspect that we surely need more and more in today’s tougher than ever corporate environment: job satisfaction.

And that’s essentially why your personal brand matters, whether internally or externally, because whether you like it or not, if there isn’t job satisfaction coming along with what you do, there isn’t probably anything left out there. Yes, I know, there is always the money, but is it the only motivator that keeps you going in today’s Social / Open Business world? 

Probably not. Perhaps, what you may just need is some Arbejdsglæde…