What is it that all successful companies have mastered — and what job seekers looking to advance in their careers need to master?  It is called a BRAND!

Brands are irresistible to us consumers.  We spend twice as much to buy Nike sportswear, than the Target specials, in spite of rationally understanding that the product is produced in exactly the same factory in China.  In fact the Nike’s brand has been so effective – that they have successfully forged such a strong identity, that in spite of a scandal a couple of years ago of using child labour in China, there has been little or no backlash from consumers.

Likewise, I find myself quite happy to purchase expensive coffee or latte at Starbucks.  Starbucks is also superb at branding, from the logo of a sea goddess, the décor, through to the number of available choices of coffee, milk and syrup, which makes ordering a coffee a statement of personal identity.

And if you don’t think you succumb to branding, because you don’t believe in mass consumerism, or you are rebel at heart, than what about the superb branding of green products, such as the Body Shop, or the rebellious, more for your buck brand of Virgin.

The reason why branding is so successful is that branding resonates with us as individuals and is very powerful at making the right connection.  Branding is best defined as a promise…a promise of the value of the product and that it is better or different than all the competing products.

So why not use your own PERSONAL BRANDING in your career marketing portfolio, in order to communicate your unique value proposition and distinguish yourself from hundreds of other job seekers. By using branding, you can build a name for yourself, and develop a powerful profile, which describes the value you bring to the employer.

So just how to you promote your personal brand in the job market? 

Here are my top tips for establishing a brand, so you ensure that you distinguish yourself and position yourself as better than anyone else.

Track your experience and accomplishments

Building your unique brand begins with tracking your past accomplishments and gaining strategically important new experiences.  Your achievements and accomplishments are the foundation of your career brand.

If you don’t have the relevant experience or achievements in the area you want to be in, then seek out new challenges and gain this experience.  You might consider freelancing, or consulting, or use volunteering to gain experience.

Complete Education & Training

Get the right qualifications, which can greatly enhance your career brand.  For example, you might consider obtaining an MBA if you want to enhance your value proposition and brand as a leader.  Find out exactly what you need to enhance your brand, from internal workplace training, to external courses and get started.

Promote your Brand

Branding provides your resume and other career marketing documents with a focus that positions you as the ideal candidate for the specific type of opportunity that interests you. An unfocused resume is boring and ineffective. An unfocused resume wastes your readers’ time and it will land in the bin, or circular file. A branded resume is, by definition, focused, and addresses not only your unique value proposition, – but it does so in a way that addresses the concerns of your target audience.

In order to provide a focussed document, you MUST provide a cohesive brand image, across your career marketing documents.  After reviewing literally thousands of applications, the most common mistake people make is to be too many things to too many people, namely developing a generic resume, or worse still developing generic selection criteria.

If your resume, selection criteria and cover letters are a hodge-podge of documents written over a number of years and added onto when ever the need arises, then it is time to completely revamp your documents, so that they provide a ‘personal brand’.

In developing a personal brand:

• First impressions do count – so enhance readability, with a document that is visually appealing by being consistent with design treatments, breaking up lengthy paragraphs, balancing the resume top-to-bottom and left-to-right, using one and no more than two fonts, and add sufficient wide space
• Filter out material that does not enhance your brand message.  For example, if you want to brand yourself as an executive, don’t put in your older work history that reflects your time as a junior consultant.
• Incorporate a brand statement by developing a profile or summary section of your resume in a way that ensures that you stand out and get attention.  For example, develop a headline statement, followed by a short paragraph that promotes your value proposition.
• Accentuate your personal strengths within a cover letter.  Personal branding requires you to be really courageous, so pinpoint your personal strengths and highlight these.  For example:  ‘Acknowledged for capacity to resolve complex problems due to tenacity and understanding of human nature’.

Become an Expert

Nothing builds credibility in a career brand more than establishing yourself as an expert in your field.  Start by writing articles that showcase your knowledge — and then get them published, in particular online.

Seek out conferences and meetings where you can give speeches and presentations.

Play up awards and other recognition that can help label you an expert.

Get quoted by offering your thoughts, ideas, and opinions to journalists and reporters.

By building a brand as an expert, you will become the hunted, rather than having to hunt for that next opportunity.

You will also be able to take advantage of the latest trend, in which employers ‘Google’ the names of prospective job seekers – typing each name into one or more internet search engines and basing initial candidate screening decisions partly on the number and quality of hits for each job seeker.  By becoming an expert and publishing online, you will be able to establish a strong brand identity online.

Build Relationships

There is nothing in marketing and branding more powerful than a promotion tool called word-of-mouth, which can be defined as what people say about you. So build your career brand, by building a network of contacts, your friends, colleagues, customers, clients, and former bosses.

And remember keeping your network strong involves nothing more than relationship building; by keeping in contact and making sure they know about your recent successes.

Final Word

Personal branding is becoming increasingly important with the advent of the ‘online world’ An effective personal brand can distinguish you as a job seekers and make you irresistible to employers.  It will also be fascinating to see how establishing a strong personal brand online will influence recruiting practices in the future.  I’ll keep you posted on that issue!

The world of work is changing rapidly during the past decade due to increased globalisation, the proliferation of online social media and technological advances.

‘Change is the law of life.  And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future’. John F. Kennedy, 35^th President of the United States

Combine these changes (the online revolution) with the fact that competition for senior jobs can be INTENSE  – it becomes increasingly important to understand that shaping your career is something that is an ongoing activity, not about updating a resume when a new job arise.

One of the key elements in shaping your career is shaping your online profile.  The best time to work on an online profile is when you are fruitfully employed, (not when you are looking for new opportunities).

Having an online profile matters. Why?

• Increasingly employers and recruiters are head hunting online.
• The majority of employers and recruiters Google you during the job selection process.
• Colleagues, clients and business partners use the web as the first place to go for information about you.
• Without an online presence you are effectively a ‘nobody’ (In the US many employers won’t hire people, who don’t have some sort of online presence. While this trend is not so prevalent in Australia, it is increasingly heading this way).
• You can use your online presence such as LinkedIn and website as a place you can refer people, if undertaking a direct job search.

‘Your visibility (among your target audience) is critical to successful career management. Your Google results powerfully influence those seeking to make decisions about you’.   – Career Distinction:

Now that I have hopefully convinced you that an online profile matters, your next step is to determine how visible you are when someone searches for your name.  Tools to do this:

Google.com – simply go to Google.com, Yahoo.com, or Bing.com and type or name in quotes, such as “John Smith”.

You can also use the following tools to see the breadth and scope of your current online identity:

HowSociable – www.howsociable.com

Addictomatic – addictomatic.com

Once you submit your name for search, it will compile results on the page from sources such as Twitter, Blog Search, Digg, Google Blog Search, FriendFeed, WordPress, Truveo, Flickr, Blinx, Wikio, Yahoo, Tweetmeme, Google Images, Bebo, YouTube, Facebook, and more.

If you currently have a non-existent or poor online presence, your objective over the course of the next few weeks and months is to establish one.  It is also important to Google yourself on a regular basis – and the more senior you are, the more important this process becomes.

Ways to establish your online identity include LinkedIn, blogging, online web portfolio, Twitter and online article writing.

I would not recommend that you dedicate every single spare hour of your time developing an online profile, but if you are serious about your career or a professional or executive, an online profile increasingly matters, so if you don’t have one, time to establish one.