How Does Your Online Brand Look?

For a detailed description on how your personal or corporate brand image looks please email info@futurinfinance.nl and we will provide an interactive PDF and calculate your score free of charge.

The way you present yourself is fundamentally important for many reasons and many groups of people. In particular, if you are trying to make some changes or improve your career:

• Recruiters and human resources professionals working in the new world.
• Entrepreneurs and small business owners who need more business.
• People who are looking for a job.
• Managers who are building teams and trying to improve and have more success.
• Anyone who is feeling the effects of the current economic crisis.
• If you want to Be Known - Be Found - Be Followed

For more information on Brand Imagery and how it effects you, talk to the experts, it will really make an impact on the degree of success you have with potential Candidates and Employers.

www.your-brand-image.com

To be successful in business today, you need to have a distinct personal brand so that you can stand out from the crowd. Personal branding involves articulating a simple, clear statement of who you are, doing it consistently, and delivering on it again and again, so that when people think of, say, business turnarounds, they think of you. Or when people think of you, they think of a leader who gets companies back on track. Your brand should represent something different, relevant and valuable.

Barack Obama used personal branding to great effect during the presidential campaign. He built his brand around the idea of change, which turned out to be a very compelling concept, and he packaged his brand idea with a strong visual identity and a phenomenal verbal identity-—an eloquent message that he delivered superbly. Obama's clear, compelling brand (not to mention his grass-roots organizing and ability to raise money) allowed him to defeat more well-known, experienced competitors.

Personal branding is just as important to business and technology professionals as it is to politicians, especially in a down economy. Whether you're a recent victim of a layoff or you're employed but worried about job loss, personal branding can make all the difference in your future job security and career success. By making yourself known for something special-—whether it be a unique skill, attitude or problem-solving approach-—you can make a stronger impression on prospective employers and/or demonstrate to your existing employer that you're indispensible.

Most of us need to devote attention to our personal brands. The following questions will help you determine what aspects of personal branding you need to focus your attention on:

* Your message: Can you explain your big idea clearly in a couple of sentences, so that people know what's different, relevant and special about you?

* Your scope: If people were to Google your name, would they discover high-quality information

about you and your accomplishments?

* Your market: Can you clearly define your key target markets and the best way to market yourself to them?

* Your appearance: Do you have a visual identity that appeals to your target markets, is consistent with your personal brand and is different from others?

* Your style: Do your personality and your leadership style engage others?

If you answered No to any of the above questions, you have work to do. Here are eight tips for creating a strong personal brand.

Stay focused. A brand maven once said to me, "There is no "and' in brand." The maven's point: The more specifically you define who you are and what you do, the better chance you'll have of selling yourself. It's counter-intuitive because so many people think that if they define themselves broadly, they'll have more options. In fact, the opposite occurs. If you come across as a Jack or Jill of All Trades, you will confuse people. People will wonder how good you are at any one thing if you say you are good at so many.

You’re doing a bang-up job at work. With your data consolidation project and new sourcing strategy, you’ve reduced operating expenses by 40 percent, and your new PMO has put smiles on the faces of all of your colleagues. It’s only a matter of time before your fabulousness becomes known and recruiters start calling with your next dream job. (If you believe that, I have a nice beachfront property in Amsterdam to sell you.)

The fact is, like most rewards, industry recognition takes some hard work. Yes, if you are the CIO of GM or Dell, recruiters know your name, and magazines, newspapers and conference organizers are beating a path to your door. But if your company is not a household name, you need to take a proactive approach to making a splash.

I spoke to four CIOs who take the concept of strategic self-publicity to heart, and together we have developed four simple steps to worldwide recognition.

1. Branding. Before you can get your name out there, you need to have a clear understanding of just what that name represents. Are you great with customers, a terrific leader, an architecture guru, a manufacturing expert? Knowing your brand will allow you to project attributes that are richer and more powerful than those associated merely with your job.

Last December, Michael Iacona decided he was ready to raise his visibility within his industry. But first the CIO of TMP Worldwide Advertising & Communications thought about what he wanted his name to connote. To focus his thinking, he went through an exercise to identify his personal brand.
Iacona sent a survey to his peers, colleagues and even people he had just met to determine the impression he makes.

A sample question: If he were a car, what kind would he be?

From the survey results, he learned which five brand attributes best describe him and used them to develop a one-page summary, a personal mission statement and a webpage to advertise it.

"This is not about creating an image of who you want to be, but identifying the unique value that you bring," says Iacona. But just like running IT, building your brand is not a onetime project. "This is not something you do once and are done," he says. "Over time, you need to continue to build and nurture your brand."

2. Networking. With your brand in hand, you can nearly see your name up in lights. Well, take a breath; it might make sense to start networking first. This lets you test out your brand, hone it while the stakes are low and meet people who can connect you to relevant editors and conference organizers. "Networking is not just hit or miss," says Sheleen Quish, former CIO of U.S. Can and current CIO-at-Large of Box9 Consulting™. "You need a great address book and a plan for growing it. I spend at least 30 minutes a day adding new contacts to my list."

3. Writing. A time-tested way of garnering attention is to write for a technology or business trade magazine. In 1992, Greg Smith, now CIO of World Wildlife Fund and author of Straight to the Top: Becoming a World-Class CIO, decided to get published. He was in corporate financial systems at Sallie Mae at the time and had completed a cutting-edge technology project. He wrote an article about it and submitted it to LAN Times. The editors teased it on their cover, which led to speaking engagements, more articles, a book and book signings.

Smith’s advice: "Take a shot, write an article and submit it to a bunch of publications. Start with a controversial idea and make sure you include practical advice. You want to give readers at least one memorable idea when they walk away."

4. Speaking. For many CIOs, few things are less appealing than appearing before an audience. But it’s one of the most effective ways to get known. "Start by tapping into MBA and executive education programs," says Mary Finlay, deputy CIO of Partners HealthCare System and a frequent speaker at industry events. "They are always looking for guest speakers. Also, if you are in organizations, like SIM, you can offer to speak at their events. But reference your membership as you reach out to other events. Conference directors often want to hear from someone who represents an organization."

Once you get the gig, customize your presentation to the audience’s expectations, test it for delivery and timing, and connect with your audience. If they like you, word will spread, and you’ll be a regular on the speaker circuit.

So, there you have it: You’re branded, networked, in print and on stage. Your worries are over, right? Not necessarily, cautions Quish: "Don’t blow your 15 minutes of fame all at one time. If you get too much exposure, you can become like stale bread."