Branding YOU

How a New Perspective on the Traditional Job Search is Changing the Game

Gone are the days of the good ole’ fashion standard resume. Now it is on us to develop ourselves as the “IT” Brand everyone should be interested in. To some this Branding YOU concept can seem difficult, however unavoidable in today’s market. Like we needed our job search to get any more complicated. Like a wise person once told me ” you need to line up your challenges and knock em’ down one at a time”. Now with that positive encouragement, lets try a new approach.

If you were Kim Kardashian or Jennifer Lopez, you would think of yourself as a brand. I mean, why else was Kim so concerned about changing her last name to Humphries before their nuptials in August. Brand consistency is imperative for its survival. Every action you take would be to support that brand. So this would be a no brainer, right?

Now, the more professional approach to the Branding YOU perspective. The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a “Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. So in laymen terms…that means that you would conduct yourself in a consistent manner that people will recognize as your style. 

Okay so we might just be catching on to this concept. However the job market seems to have already caught on.  

With the invention of social networking, thanks to Facebook, technology has are bases covered. LinkedIn has become the standard for all industry professionals. It is not just a virtual resume that should be tucked away for a rainy day. Instead it acts as a resume, cover letter, references document, database of your contacts throughout your life and a place where you can learn, share and interact in a professional manner.

Other websites have been developed to help simplify the branding process

• Naymz.com is a personal brand management and networking community.
  • Companies, recruiters, colleagues, and clients are all using search engines and social networks to discover information about you. Being visible and maintaining a strong, authentic personal brand on the Web has never been more important.
  • Naymz harnesses the power of social networking, online marketing, and public relations to help you establish your reputation, stand out from your peers, and reach your professional aspirations.
  • As a member of the Naymz community, here are some of the many tools and services available to you:
    • Online Personal Branding
    • Exchange and share ideas, questions, opportunities and statuses
    • Connection Builder
    • RepScore Ecosystem; Invite your clients, colleagues, and friends to vouch for your honesty, integrity, and credibility through anonymous assessments. 
    • Content Aggregation; Link your blog to your Naymz account and syndicate your expertise to the Naymz community. You can also collect links to all of your online personas in one easy-to-find place. It’s like the table-of-contents to your online identity.
    • Reputation Monitor; Keep an eye on what is being said about you online across various sources such as blogs, news sites, social networks, and other online content with our real-time monitoring tool.
    • Job Board
    • People Finder; Search more then 1 million professionals across 100’s of countries.  Also, if you’re a recruiter you can do quick searches for prospective hires for free!
    • Profile Analytics & Alerts; Naymz guarantees that once you setup your profile, it will be found by recruiters, potential clients, colleagues, and friends.
    • Activity Feeds
    • Custom Profile Themes

• Brand-Yourself.com is the easiest way to improve your entire online reputation from one place. 
  • Easily create positive content you want associated with your name: your personal BrandYourself website, LinkedIn profile, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Optimize that content to show up high in Google, promote it across social media, and track your stats as your reputation grows.
    • Social networks like LinkedIn are just one positive Google result for your name. Many people join these networks, but have no idea how to optimize so they show up high in google, or use them to actually connect with new people. With BrandYourself you plug your LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other profiles into BrandYourself to make sure all of them are being used effectively, showing up high in Google, and kept active. Our stats show you how you’re growing your reputation across Google and social media.
    • You should use BrandYourself if your reputation has any bearing on their livelihood. Your reputation now extends online: over 80 million names are Googled every day, and 75% of HR departments are required to research candidates online. Our users tend to be job applicants, corporate managers, professional service providers, entrepreneurs, small business owners, artists and politicians. We also have a growing number of second career people: people in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s who are starting a new career, project or business for the first time.