Personal Branding.
Does that phrase make you cringe, or is it exciting?
There is a lot of talk and hype about personal branding. Some people treat it like it’s the missing key to professional success.
Let me share one concept that I’ve learned the hard way over the years:
If you want people to know and understand you, and talk about you to others, you need to FEED THEM with information.
As a business owner (which is very similar to being a job seeker), I can go weeks and months without anything new… and during those weeks and months no one is spreading the word about my news.
Because I didn’t have news.
But when I create news (that’s an important phrase), people talk about that news.
Recently I announced a huge change in pricing on JibberJobber, where we are moving most of the premium features to the free side. That change was communicated to my contacts. Many of them shared this news with their networks via blogs and social updates.
I created news, shared it with my contacts, and asked them to share it with theirs.
As a job seeker, how do you create news? There are lists of what companies can make press releases out of… why not come up with your own list? Joan Stewart blogs about this stuff.
You’ll have to come up with your own list, but once you do something interesting (aka, once you have created news), SHARE IT. And encourage others to talk about you.
Jason Alba blogs for Career Resumes, a full service resume and LinkedIn Profile firm. Jason is the founder and CEO of JibberJobber.com, a web tool to help you organize and manage your job search.
