3 ½ Personal Branding Mistakes to Avoid

Creating a professional brand is not only for the rich and famous.  High level executives recognize the value in promoting a personal brand for career growth. Establishing a personal brand is an effective way to market yourself so that others come to know you as a valuable and trusted resource. It does require some effort though and should be done in a thoughtful way.

When I work with clients to establish their personal brands, there are some key things I evaluate. If you launch a branding campaign without giving it the care and feeding it deserves, you will likely experience some issues that will present some problems for you. 

Here are a few tips to help you avoid the pitfalls of a poorly implemented professional brand strategy:

1. Plan Your Brand – It is important to know what your message is and in what direction you want your career to go. If you simply put your name out there to gain recognition without developing a clear picture of your brand image, your branding campaign will not be focused – therefore making it largely ineffective.

I often provide a DISC assessment to my personal branding clients. Many executives find it extremely helpful because it allows them to gain clarity around the specific brand attributes they want to promote. Just because you are good at something doesn’t mean it is what you love to do. Take a hard look at your personal drivers to help create the most appropriate path for your brand strategy.

2. Update Your Information – Your résumé, cover letter, professional biography, LinkedIn Profile, Twitter account, and other social media branding efforts, should be aligned. You should not have different images on different sites with different profiles and different brand messages. In other words, everything should be consistent.   

Your value proposition, marketing attributes, descriptors, and drivers should be conveyed in a uniform fashion so that anyone looking at your information will receive a clear and consistent brand message. 

3. Eliminate Negative Branding – Take a look at what Google reveals about you.  Is your Facebook page less than flattering? Are there old posts from you online that are embarrassing in any way? Do all you can to get anything that could potential hurt your personal brand off the web.

Once you have taken the time to define your brand, and update your documents and web presence, you need to spend time promoting yourself.  Create a game plan to blog, tweet, participate in LinkedIn discussions, network locally, and get the word out about what makes your personal brand unique. It is one thing to develop the brand and quite another to spend the necessary time to promote it.