Personal branding is an approach to making yourself more marketable in your career by applying branding techniques to yourself. It makes you stand out from the crowd and be instantly memorable and marketable for the jobs you want to have. Bud Bilanich, branding expert and author of Straight Talk for Success and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success, writes in a column for Fast Company that you need to do three things for positive personal impact. "First, develop and nurture your unique personal brand," he writes. "Second, be impeccable in your presentation of self - in person and on line. Third, know and follow the basic rules of etiquette." His two pieces of advice to create that brand are to figure out the three or four words you want people to associate with you and then to act in a manner that constantly and consistently reinforces that association. Some other tips to branding from Staci Wood, Assistant Producer for the Small Business Trends Radio Show, include always being true to your core values. The consistency will reinforce your brand. Finding a positive attribute that makes you stand out from the crowd is good, even if it is a little quirky or different.  |