Personal Branding: An Essential Choice?

Abstract

Many marketers within the business community have long considered branding to be a method that can effectively reduce or eliminate competition for a product and can draw in customers in a similar fashion to the way a magnet attracts metal. Brand identity is all about influencing the public's thoughts and feelings toward an intended perception (Rampersad, 2008). Branding applied originally to products but now has evolved to include branding of services, and largely through the advent of the Internet, has transformed to include the branding of the personal services individuals can provide to employers through self-packaging and promotional techniques that can allow individuals to shape the public's digital perception of them. This article explores what personal branding is, the importance of personal branding, the issues one should be mindful of when promoting a digital personal brand, and how one goes about personal branding.

Headnote

Abstract

Many marketers within the business community have long considered branding to be a method that can effectively reduce or eliminate competition for a product and can draw in customers in a similar fashion to the way a magnet attracts metal. Brand identity is all about influencing the public's thoughts and feelings toward an intended perception (Rampersad, 2008). Branding applied originally to products but now has evolved to include branding of services, and largely through the advent of the Internet, has transformed to include the branding of the personal services individuals can provide to employers through self-packaging and promotional techniques that can allow individuals to shape the public's digital perception of them. This article explores what personal branding is, the importance of personal branding, the issues one should be mindful of when promoting a digital personal brand, and how one goes about personal branding.

Keywords: personal branding, branding, digital branding, self-marketing

What is Personal Branding?

Rampersad (2008) stated,

Successful personal branding entails managing perceptions effectively, and controlling and influencing how others perceive you and think of you. Having a strong personal brand is an important asset in today's online, virtual, and individual age. It is becoming increasingly essential and is the key to personal success.... Your personal brand is the synthesis of all the expectations, images, and perceptions it creates in the minds of others when they see or hear your name. (p. 1).

Tom Peters, a highly respected management expert, coined the phrase "personal branding" in a 1997 article in the magazine Fast Company. In their article "Marketing and the Recasting of the Professional Self," authors Lair, Sullivan, and Cheney (2005) explained that personal branding is the modern evolution and further development of what appeared previously in popular self-improvement books. Rather than an approach oriented around self-improvement, Lair, Sullivan, and Cheney (2005) suggested personal branding is more related to "selfpackaging" and the ability to positively affect public opinion of one's digital brand.

Being popular amongst one's peers is a human trait that has changed as technology has changed. Today, we see articles in which peers bully young children for failing to brand themselves successfully online in school as a very desirable child, or a very popular child, or both. It is no surprise that a human's desire to be successful at branding his or her social popularity would include the successful branding of career popularity amongst an older age group of those leaving school and entering the work environment.

The Importance of Personal Branding

Personal branding is often a rhetorical way in which one attempts to control the way the public perceives you. Personal branding, therefore, can lend itself to instilling images of creativity, philanthropy, warmth, women's empowerment, specific talents, gentleness, caring, and a passion of interest in specific areas in other's minds (Hood, Robles, & Hopkins, 2015). In the article "Personal Branding and Social Media for Students in Today's Competitive Job Market," the authors stated:

The most important product a student will market is himself or herself (Stanton &. Stanton, 2013); in fact, personal branding is the key to personal success (Rampersad, 2008). Personal branding is a form of marketing communication that was pioneered by Tom Peters (1997), who stressed that individuals are marketers of their own brand and CEOs of their own company. Personal branding is a strategic marketing concept of creating a positive profile as a job candidate, specifically communicating expectations, goals and values (Ollington et al., 2013).... A major concern is if students do not manage their own personal brand, then someone else will manage it for them (Kaputa, 2003). (p. 2)

There is no doubt that a large percentage of businesses use social media for online recruiting and to make decisions on the ultimate hiring of those candidates. Businesses like Linkedln built themselves based upon these facts. Recruiters use Linkedln heavily to find prospective candidates who appear to have the qualifications and skill sets they are looking for, whereas individuals tend to use Facebook less by seeking to enhance their business image to prospective employers and colleagues and more for portraying one's social activities. Prospective employers often consult Facebook before they make a finalized job offer in order to eliminate those candidates whose social profiles display conduct, photos, character, and behavior that does not look desirable or does not ultimately match what the employer is seeking (Hood, Robles, &. Hopkins, 2015).

Hood, Robles, and Hopkins (2015) reviewed the most widely available statistics of social media use for recruiting and ultimate decision making on candidates. They stated the following:

In 2014, a Career Builder survey found that 43% of companies used social media to view applicant information (CareerBuilder.com 2014). Twenty-four percent (24%) of companies used social media to help confirm hiring decisions; 34% stated that information found on social media led to rejection of hires (Roberts, 2009). In 2011, over 90% of recruiters had visited candidates' profiles on a social media website during the screening process (Swallow, 2011).... Waldman (2011) found that 80% of employers used Linkedln, and 50% used Facebook for recruitment and hiring purposes, (p. 3)

Hood, Robles, and Hopkins (2015) then conducted a study to understand better the experiences of human resource professionals. The study had 298 potential individuals, obtaining 170 useable responses. In this study, 60% of participants were male and 66% held managerial positions, with all stating they were very engaged in recruitment for their companies, amongst other criteria. The results indicated that managers used Linkedln to search for candidates and that they used Facebook more for exclusion decisions.

Personal branding is even more critical for those who wish to portray and promote themselves as effective and employable workers during the volatile economy we are experiencing in which employers are outsourcing jobs overseas and the U.S. middle class consequently is shrinking. One must attempt to stand out from the crowd and be an indispensable asset to an employer. Today, one does not have job security as employees have had in the past. Today, one must bring value to the company or to the company's customers to such a degree that the company continues to feel it receives a positive return on its employment expense. These factors fuel an intense competition for the most desirable jobs and this has led to an exponential growth in the use of personal branding by individual workers. It is thus even more necessary that one implement personal branding to sell one's personal brand to an employer looking to maximize his or her value from the leverage of human capital (Lair, Sullivan, & Cheney, 2005).

The U.S. economy has become more efficient than ever. A very efficient market typically means there is so much competition driving consumer prices down that companies must apply increasingly ingenious use of technology if they wish to increase profit margins. Technology has improved business success substantially and to such a degree that it has replaced many jobs. For example, in any decent size city, a human being spent countless days checking all the electric meters, one at a time. Now, the majority of electric meters themselves are able to report information directly to the company through wireless technology. The U.S. is the world's role model for entrepreneurial ingenuity. Ingenuity and intellectual capital have helped companies like Google and Apple find huge profits in unknown areas of the market with less competition. Employers are looking for this ingenuity.

Expatriates can incorporate positive aspects of their current host country's identity while maintaining their own identity as they work to learn local customs, local mannerisms, and local formalities to make themselves uniquely attractive to the new country in which they live. Often, expatriates also can personally brand themselves to other expatriates better than can locals (Park-Tonks, 2013).

Successful personal branding fulfills modern employers' demand and provides individuals with a clear path to career success in a volatile economy (Lair, Sullivan, & Cheney, 2005).

Issues One Should Be Mindful of when Promoting a Digital Personal Brand

Hood, Robles, and Hopkins (2015) discussed the most important aspects one should convey through digital personal branding and mentioned that anything that detracts from one's desired personal brand can easily cause harm to the ultimate goal.

Of those participants who indicated using Linkedln, profiles, professional photos, keywords, and specific skills or desired positions were noted as the most important features of the profile. Incomplete profiles, lack of focused search terms, and less professional photos were the features that most detracted or were most likely to exclude a candidate from a job search. Of those participants using Facebook, profiles, photos with alcoholic drinks and other behaviors that could be construed as irresponsible, and political or personal opinion posts were mentioned as detractions from the image of a candidate and reasons for not being pursued as a candidate, (p. 4)

How One Goes about Personal Branding

It is clear that personal branding should not only promote one's education, skills, interests and abilities but also promote one's character, work ethic, and professional image. All public photos and posts should complement one's personal brand. Unfortunately, one cannot truly separate one's public social profile from one's public work profile, and it would be improper to assume they are distinct and separate. Rather, one's social profile and social interests reflect directly upon the type of worker an employer is considering hiring. Photos of one dressed professionally will complement a positive professional image far greater than photos in casual wear or photos depicting events that have no correlation to a professional image.

Choosing to refrain from creating an online social media profile is not the answer. Employers may think an individual has something to hide or lacks the skills to communicate effectively in this digital world. Successful personal branding influences the perception that the individual has the skills to communicate effectively in the digital world.

Individuals should attempt to reflect clearly upon their own strengths, weaknesses, and ambitions in an authentic way to attempt to reflect the most positive attributes of their true character. It helps to have a passion for one's interests in order to portray an authentic love for one's ambitions and for one's self. If one does not have passion and does not love one's self, it becomes increasingly difficult to persuade successfully public perception in a positive manner (Rampersad, 2008).

In "A New Blueprint for Powerful and Authentic Personal Branding," Rampersad (2008) introduces "an organic, holistic, and authentic personal branding model" through the following four phases:

1. Define and formulate your personal ambition.

2. Define and formulate your personal brand.

3. Formulate your personal balanced scorecard (PBSC).

4. Implement and cultivate your personal ambition, personal brand, and personal balanced scorecard, (p. 5)

This four-step approach to personal branding begins with self-reflection to write down your personal ambition, your dreams, who you are, your values, your intellectual attributes, and what makes you unique. According to the author, these steps further include the creation of a clear and persuasive brand promise one can use as a guiding tool of all further behavior and actions toward formulating your personal brand, which centers on a single core talent one should describe in one's own personal brand story. An individual uses this story to create a positive emotional reaction by the public to one's own personal brand. Rampersad (2008) also recommended you even design a personal logo to represent your personal brand as one might do for a product. Rampersad recommended you formulate a personal balanced scorecard as an analytical method for translating your ambition and personal brand into written objectives so successful actions can then take place. Rampersad's final step is to implement and cultivate all of the three previous steps. Rampersad stated the following:

You have to articulate your personal brand with love and passion, be committed to change, and improve your perceived value in the marketplace and yourself continuously. In addition, try to build credibility and become an expert in your field.... in short, live according to your brand promise, (p. 6)

Each profession has its own features that can lead to a successful personal brand. For example, if one was a pharmacist, posting interesting and informative articles that promote pharmaceutical related health, posting articles or statements that might lend a reader to believe the individual has strong moral values, and posting articles and statements demonstrating one's growing positive connections with others in the health care profession are all examples of what would help create a successful personal brand (Kleppinger & Cain, 2015).

Another example might be that of an attorney or accountant who uses social media to educate the public on various legal or tax issues on a consistent basis. When the public sees a large number of public posts that demonstrate a professional's attention to detail on issues that are complex, the public can begin to perceive quickly that an individual is an expert in his or her field. In fact, if the personal branding is very successful, the public might even think of that person every time they think of the related subject matter.

Conclusion

Personal branding is a very important strategy for success in this digital age in order to set oneself apart from the rest by taking control over one's personal brand through a volatile economy. Personal branding's value is apparent as the NASDAQ and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) demonstrated. Each has assigned a current market capitalization valuation of $335.79 billion to Facebook, Inc. (FB) and $16.68 billion to Linkedln Corporation (LNKD) as of May 3, 2016 (Lair, Sullivan, & Cheney, 2005). Taking control of your personal brand and capitalizing on this blossoming revolution by devoting some substantial time to considering your own personal branding will provide results far better than the alternative.

Sidebar

Discussion Questions

1. Seek out in a group discussion each member's uniqueness by listing major skills that apply to him or her. Based upon these, find out what enterprise with which mission statement would be the most appropriate employer for that individual?

2. Academic notations are just one part of making a candidate attractive to an employer. Which abilities show emotional intelligence during the application process?

References

References

Canning, V. (2013). Develop your personal brand. Accountancy Ireland Quarterly, 45(5), 32-34Hood,

K. M., Robles, M., &. Hopkins, C. D. (2015). Personal branding and social media for students in today's competitive job market. The Journal of Research in Business Education Quarterly, 56(2), 33-47.

Kleppinger, C. A., & Cain, J. (2015). Personal digital branding as a professional asset in the digital age. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education Quarterly, 79(6), 1-4.

Lair, D. J., Sullivan, K., & Cheney, G. (2005). Marketization and the recasting of the professional self: The rhetoric and ethics of personal branding. Management Communication Quarterly, 18(3), 307-343.

Park-Tonks, J. (2013). Personal branding as an expatriate in Austria. Central European Business Review Quarterly, 51-53.

Peters, T. (1997, August-September). The brand called you. Fast Company, 10, 37-46.

Rampersad, H. K. (2008). A new blueprint for powerful and authentic personal branding. Performance Improvement, 47(6), 34-37.

To Cite this Article

Machaz, H.-A., &. Shokoofh, K. (2016, Summer). Personal branding: An essential choice? Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 8(2), 65-70.