Controlling Your Personal Brand - Managing Your Online Reputation

Personal Brand Management
by
Kendell Lang, New Media Consultant

I am going to outline the facets of your “personal brand” and that often overlooked aspect of our relationships with others, your reputation.  Does your reputation stand to scrutiny when you’re not around. What do people say about you when you aren’t around? Or more importantly, what does your boss, current (or future) client, or other key stakeholders and partners say about you when you aren’t around? In a compensation review meeting when promotions to key positions are being discussed are you being considered?


The things that people say about you when you are not around is usually called your reputation. The way people think about you is not something you can control.  What you can control is your conduct, including the information that people can find about you and on which they will form an opinion leading to their perception of your reputation. A better way to think about reputation is that it’s your "personal brand.” Personal Brand Management is one of the biggest factors in your ultimate success on the job, with clients and around your community. Here’s the good news: for the most part, YOU completely control the information flow! Here’s the challenge – to control it appropriately, you may need some essential business coaching, to learn some essential facets of personal brand marketing, reputation management and talent management (a.k.a. “human resource management”).


Three things make up your personal brand – your experience (i.e. what you’ve done in the past), your skills (i.e. what you are capable and comfortable doing), and your attitude (i.e. how you conduct yourself, particularly under stress). These are the things that others remember and discuss when the conversation becomes about you, without you. However, having a great personal brand may not be enough by itself – like any developing brand, marketing yourself is required. Key stakeholders need to know your skills, experiences, and attitudes…so check out your reputation by starting with evaluating your online personal brand. What does a search on Google for your name yield?  Is it correct, is it what you want other people to know about you, is it formatted the way you want to be viewed?

This sort of internal “reputation management and personal brand marketing” is essential in your career, especially if you’re seeking a career change or in fact re-entering the workforce from a layoff, as a Mom returning to work, or establishing new independent career goals. If in fact your career change results, like so many of these actually do, in reliance on decision makers and stakeholders you don’t actually know (for example future clients or employers learning about you on the Internet), your personal brand and reputation management actions require a degree of Internet Information Marketing and Management skills. This is to ensure you come across the way you desire when people search for you, or your services, on the Internet, in social media channels, or through business and information directories.


If one needs to treat ones self on the web as a brand, then how do I manage my Brand, reputation, build a trusted profile, keep it alive?  You need professional assistance to do Career Management, Personal Brand Managemnt, Reputation Management. Are you prepared to manage twitter, facebook, flickr, delicious, linkedin, tweety, blog and do your job?

There is a streamlined approach to dealing with all this, so for more information regarding personal online marketing, personal brand management and reputation management, please contact Kendell Lang at 760.445.3315 or kendell.lang@gmail.com.