Do You Have The Confidence To Drive Your Personal Brand?

Last week our country experienced some of the most  tumultuous financial and  economic events in recent history.  The economic challenges we face will no doubt continue to have debilitating effects on unemployment levels, consumer confidence, spending and ultimately career choices and opportunities. Moreover, 2008 is host to one of the most historic and pivotal elections we seen in decades. The remaining months of this year will be both challenging and  fascinating, to say the least.  This week, I offer you a challenge: Irrespective of the challenges we face relative to the job market, will you have the confidence to utilize your personal brand to create and drive your own career opportunities? 

You must be confident that the value you deliver is completely evidenced. You must be confident that you are the best candidate for the job, not  just because you say so, but because you are an expert in your field,  have a solid command of competitive intelligence and can leverage both into viable business or corporate solutions.  You must be confident that  when you click on the "apply now" button that the sum  of your value is concisely packaged and delivered by way of your resume or professional  profile to ensure that you will be called for an interview.  You must be confident that in the interview you clearly articulate your value and competitive skill, experience, accomplishments and value. You must be confident that if offered the position that you will continue to deliver on your claim of expert status and promise of enviable value. Ultimately,  you must be confident that in a down economy with a shrinking pool of job opportunities and record numbers of job seekers as competitors, that you  are absolutely projecting your best professional personal brand.

The job of your personal brand strategist is to assist you in developing, executing and communicating an authentic and consistent brand image representative of what you stand for, the associated value you deliver,  positioning your competitive advantage and infusing you with the confidence that you need to both attain and sustain the opportunities that you desire. Confidence is what you will need to weather the coming months. Confidence in your solid brand will insulate you from stagnating, from floundering, from diminishing  focus and  from loosing out to the competition. Whether you are searching for a new opportunity, repurposing or reinventing your career, confidence in your ability to utilize your personal brand to take control of and drive your own career opportunities will sustain you and feed your desire to win and achieve irrespective of the economy. Are you confident in the marketability of your personal brand? Boost your personal brand confidence level by contacting TLT Consulting Services, which specializes in personal branding and career reinvention strategies. 

Until next week......

Is An Internet Strategy A Component of Your Personal Brand Marketing Mix?

In my last blog, I discussed the need for and power of a personal brand in a down economy. In discussing this same issue with a few of my marketing and talent management colleagues, we began an exchange about the importance of self-promotion and career marketing in a Web 2.o world. As you know, the rules of the game, as it relates to job search, changed in the 1990's. The game changed from the manual process of newspaper search, send and fax, to internet job boards and candidate data mining by companies large and small. The transition was challenging for many active and passive job seekers that developed a singular strategy of simply bouncing between a few job boards, endlessly pointing and clicking in hopes of landing a call for an interview. Unfortunately, almost 90% of clicks on "apply now" go unanswered. Couple this ineffective strategy with soaring unemployment rates and fierce levels of competition and a perfect storm is created for a frustrating and uneventful job search. 

In today's market, job seekers that continue to employ a singular search strategy will be left behind and overlooked by tech savvy recruiters and human resource professionals in a burgeoning Web 2.0 world. So just how does a candidate circumvent the pitfalls of singular online job search and effectively market and promote a personal brand for competitive advantage? The answer is to develop a personal brand marketing mix that incorporates an internet strategy that utilizes  Web 2.0 technologies.

Web 2.0 technology, simply put, refers to the interactive capabilities available on the internet. Examples can be found in social networking, blogger and affinity or community building environments. Recruiters, talent management and human resource professionals are now utilizing blogs, community and social networking sites, podcasts, YouTube and the likes of meetup.com  to search out qualified candidates and  industry experts.  Effectively incorporating an internet strategy into your personal brand marketing mix requires more than simply listing your name on an affinity or social networking site.  Marketing your personal brand on the internet requires a strategy that consistently delivers messaging that positions you as an expert and touts your personal brand across multiple platforms.  It also requires a solid dose of practicality, as uploading and listing marginal or less than desirable content can catastrophically  damage your personal brand and jeopardize future job opportunities. So are you ready to develop your internet personal brand  marketing strategy? Are you ready to demonstrate your competitive advantage by utilizing web technology to promote your expert personal brand? TLT Consulting  Services specializes in personal branding and can help you develop your personal brand marketing internet strategy. Stay in the game and let TLT Consulting Services show you the  power of your personal brand!

Until next week...