Does Your Personal Brand Matter?

An interesting post at The Buzz Bin touched on some issues I've been thinking about for a while. In "I Don't Care About Your Personal Brand,' Geoff Livingston outlines why he opposes the idea of developing a personal brand. His post is aimed at people working in the online space, but his points apply to anyone. You should read the whole thing, but this is the part that caught my eye:

3) While personal brands are concerned with themselves, the market is also concerned about itself.

4) The market doesn’t care about the persona, only what value the persona contributes to the larger community.

This gets to the core of why I have never jumped on the personal branding bandwagon, despite having flirted with the idea for a while. In the end, I'm much less interested in having my clients focus on their 'brand' than on the value they can add to potential employers. Value-added is simple, direct and focused on the employer. Personal branding is something broader (to be sure value-added is a part of it, but not the only part) and seems to me much more focused on the individual.

In order to pinpoint a client's value proposition - exactly how he or she will help the company succeed - I  use many of the same approaches as a personal branding consultant, but the focus is different - not the self-indulgence of me (the candidate) but the outward focus of they (the employer).

For a long time, I attributed my reluctance to jump on the personal branding train as something related to my background. As a Brit, I'm always a little uncomfortable with anything that smacks of taking oneself too seriously. But after reading Geoff's post, I see that it's not just that.

It's this:

24) A personality oriented brand does not necessarily equate to successful results.

It's the fact that results (and actions) matter. Results and actions tell me what you will do for me. Results and actions tell me whether or not you will add value to my organization. Results and actions show me who you are much more effectively than any carefully crafted public image.

I know that many of my colleagues disagree (and many of the Career Hub bloggers will definitely disagree!) but for me, a focus on results will always be more effective than a focus on brand. After all, all products and services have brands, but how many of them deliver what they promise?

My personal favorite is my bank Chase, who tell me that 'the right relationship is everything' and then constantly leave me on hold for hours while they try to figure out why my online banking has gone awry one more time, leaving me yelling "THIS ISN'T THE RIGHT RELATIONSHIP!!!" as my blood pressure soars once again.  But they do send me the occasional Starbucks gift certificate, with a very nice message about how much they value my custom, so I guess that's supposed to make it all OK ;-)

I can't help wondering how much better they would be if they stopped spending money on branding experts and fancy loyalty programs and instead invested that money in actually adding value to my life.

And in the end, that's my point. Instead of worrying about personal brands, I think people need to think about results and value-added. I expect many of my colleagues will point out that these are not mutually exclusive ideas and I agree - but that would be to miss the point. I know that in some cases, with the right candidate and the right personal branding coach, a person's 'personal brand' will be built around the results they have achieved, but I think the idea of 'personal branding' leads to the same problems with people as it does with businesses - a focus more on the message (the right relationship is everything) than on actually getting stuff done.

Let's face it, if you can show that you have delivered great results and made a big impact on prior employers, you really don't need to worry about packaging it in a pithy branding message. It will be obvious to everyone.

And if, like Chase, you haven't ... well a nice brand message might open some doors for you, but eventually people will figure out that there's nothing there.

Cross-posted at Blue Sky Resumes Blog

Comments

[Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter]

My editor tried to lead me in the direction of encouraging people to brand themselves when i was writing, "Get Yourself Hired NOW!" (www.GetYourselfHiredNOW.com). For most people, the idea of being a brand is ridiculous. Tell me what a software engineer can do to brand themselves? They can't.

Can the head of marketing for a firm do it? Rarely.

Can someone who is on the lecture circuit do it? You bet!

Now, here I am giving that advice when I branded myself as The Big Game Hunter. In my case, like your bank's, I am trying to create an impression for a large marketplace and doing it consistently every day.

For a job hunter, they drag out their brand every year or two and do nothing to nurture it between job searches so it has no value.

BTW, if you want a new bank and are in the New York-New Jersey area, try TD Bank (formerly Commerce Bank). They are sweethearts. They clear checks for next day availability, all services are free and telephone customer service is polite.

Best wishes

[Resume Service]

I came across an excellent article in BusinessWeek about personal branding. Dan Schawbel has a nice success story to tell. It's worth a look, especially for all of those naysayers out there that may think personal branding is a waste of time. It really can lead to success, even in tough economic times. Enjoy!

http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/oct2008/ca20081028_901617.htm

Resume to Referral
Resume and Career Services
http://www.resumebycprw.com

[Colin Chisek]

Well, at the risk of sounding as though yet antoher person is joining in the "anti-brand" bandwagon...
I, too, feel very uncomfortable with the branding concept. I am trying to get back in gear for a job search, trying to change careers. I purchased the book "Career Distinction" because of the positive press and reviews. Granted, I have not finished the book so far. But I already feel tired of the constant repetition of the word "brand" in that book. Not only that, but the book seems very vague and written with generalities, rather than detailing specific actions I can take to "develop my brand" so that potential employers will pay attention to me. That's probably later on in the book, but I haven't picked up the book in months because it is not very useful to me.

I know this next book is written with a company's focus in mind, but I also want to read "Branding Works Only for Cattle" (Is that the right title?). The author seems to make the point that you do-- that it is not about developing a brand, because as you are working on perfecting your brand, other competitors are actually doing things.

I suppose the personal brand movement would not have taken off, though, if some merit weren't in there (?). Does the branding movement need to be thrown in the garbage, or merely changed to be more practical?

Colin

[Colin Chisek]

I know I just posted a comment about this. However, I was working under time constraints at the time. I don't want to belabor the point, because I could actually write an essay on this-- maybe on a personal blog.

I believe the personal branding movement may justify itself by claiming that the job/promotion/raise does not always go to the most qualified and experienced candidate. It goes to the person who constantly advocates for her/himself consistently-- self-marketing. So not only do professionals have to be competent, they have to make sure they are heard by the higher-ups.

I think I might agree that branding should be incorporated as an essential component for anybody's career development. However, one should not solely rely on personal branding to advance one's career.

Colin

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