The Beginning: Discovering Your Personal Brand Kelly Fisher Senior Honors Thesis

Definition Personal branding is how we market ourselves to others. “What you bring to the table” Personal branding helps people differentiate themselves from their competitors by teaching them to identify and articulate their “unique value proposition.” A Unique Value Proposition is the attributes particular to an individual that makes them uniquely valuable to an institution or organization. Personal Branding – What the heck?!

How it is useful People don’t know what you have to offer until you tell them Each of us has a brand because we are constantly being judged based on first impressions Critical in a world filled with clutter, competition and ambiguity Use similar branding strategies that corporations use to create an experience - a friendship - with an audience People trust people, and are more inclined to purchase your product or hire you based your relationship Personal Branding – What the heck?!

Why you should create one Personal Branding is the process of discovering your key personal and professional assets in an objective process and communicating them passionately to the audience that needs what you have You will become more visibility and recognized by your peers, hiring managers and other successful business people and entrepreneurs With visibility comes speaking engagements, jobs, clients, celebrity Aside from self-promotion, you will establish a professional and social network Personal Branding – What the heck?!

Everyone has one – Who do you know?

YOUR Personal BRAND Discover In order to really understand who you are and create a career path moving forward you need to do some self-discovery YOUR STRATEGY Create Your personal branding toolkit may consist of a blog, Web site, résumé, portfolio, and a LinkedIn profile. Maintain As you grow, mature, and accelerate in your career, everything you've created has to be updated and accurately represent your current brand Communicate Start attending networking events, writing articles, and putting on your "personal PR hat," to start gaining attention

How You want to Be Viewed What are you trying to say to your audience? Other’s Perception of You How are you being viewed? Your Values, Mission, and Morals What do you believe in? Social Media Facebook MySpace Twitter Linked In Your Perception of Yourself How you view yourself Hobbies & Interests current things you like to do You Have One and You Didn’t Know It

Step 1 Step 2Step 3Step 4Step 5Step 6 Discover Create Maintain Evaluation Judging of the two best Personal Branders The FINAL Product Personal Branding Toolkit Career Assessment Brand Check Expand Your Brand Goal Check Winner! YourUnique Value Proposition Goals Exercise Best mediums to showcase your brand Networking Exercise Evaluation Survey Winner! Finished Portfolio & Resume Me 3.0 – Creating a New Me: A How-To Build a Personal Brand for College Students What we will be doing…

WINNER WINNER! Incentives: at the end, the 2 groups will judge 2 people who have developed their personal brand

Discovering Your Brand Different tools to get you started – Articles from Personal Branding Blog – getInsights Career Assessment – College Personal Branding

You will be at a disadvantage when marketing your brand to others if you don't spend time learning about yourself, your values, personal mission, and unique attributes Ask yourself, "Who am I?" and "If I could do anything, what would it be?" Discovering Your Brand – Resources to figure “you” out

Power of networking – Friends, professors, etc Friends Friends know you best and can help you find people who they might know to help you Family A lot of family members know people who are working in the field that you might be interested in Acquaintances Remember people who you meet because they too can have a connection

Creating Your Brand Using Social Media – Using social media in a positive manner to help your brand Use mediums that people can see your personal statement

Build a Personal Branding Toolkit Personal Statement - Unique Value Proposition Resume E-Portfolio Website or blog Social Media Outlets – LinkedIn – Facebook

Manage your Facebook page Create a LinkedIn account Create a blog or website Create your resume / e-portfolio The Strategy 6 Career Development / Networking 1 GOOGLE yourself

SepOctNov Part 1 of Me 3.0 The Beginning: Discovering Your Personal Brand Part 2 of Me 3.0 It Takes Time: Developing and Maintaining Your Personal Brand FINAL Personal branding tool kit (E-Portfolio for honors) Dec Part 3 of Me 3.0 Exploration & Evaluation: What Impact Have You Made? !FINAL JUDGING! Me 3.0 Creating a New Me: A How-To Build a Personal Brand for College Students Me 3.0 Timeline