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 Feature
Building and communicating a distinctive brand around your interests, talents and experience takes time, but it’s the key to differentiating yourself in the professional marketplace.
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By Peter Longini
Christine Crandell, who is currently EVP of Global Marketing, Business Development and Alliances as well as Chief Marketing Officer at data center technology provider Egenera, in California, has major responsibility for managing her company’s brand. But her personal career path has been built around managing her own brand of professionalism. And, according to Crandell, it is a job that other professionals today need to assume more responsibility for in their working lives as well.
“It used to be that people thought that once they had a job, they were okay; that their skills and reputation and the way they appeared externally were really their employers’ responsibility,” she said. Indeed, through most of the ‘90s, many employers spent time and money on management development programs and other tools for employees to grow in their jobs.
But that’s not the way it works anymore, she points out. “The mental shift that needs to happen is that it’s you as an individual who really has that responsibility,” she said. “Your brand is your business and you either can build it and capitalize on it, or do nothing and take whatever life doles out. So there is an element of control that every individual has. It’s a mental orientation that people need to assume right from the start.”
Fortunately, Crandell points out, there are some powerful, free Web-based networking and knowledge sharing tools available which can help people convey their brand to potential employers, clients, and associates. But before you can effectively project a personal brand, you need to come to terms with who you really are.
“A person’s reputation is like the brand of a company – it doesn’t happen overnight,” she said. “For the individual, that brand needs to be deeply rooted in their personality. It has to be authentic. In my case it’s rooted in my expertise, which I share freely. People know that when I come to the table, I know what I’m talking about. They know that when I commit to do something, it gets done and it’s always an A+ job. These are foundational corners of my brand.
“Another foundation of my brand is that people know I help other people. Whether it’s making sure there are always intern positions available, or coaching college kids, or helping somebody who’s trying to figure out their career, people know that I help out as much as I can,” she said. “So people need to think about what is it they want the foundation of their own brand to be. ”
But there are some quick and easy places to begin. One of Crandell’s favorite is LinkedIn, the professional networking website that claims to include more than 30 million professionals representing 150 industries from all around the world [see sidebar].
Another is blogging – not necessarily running your own blog, which can be very time-consuming – but frequently posting thoughtful comments on other people’s blogs. “Look at blogs in your area of domain expertise and post comments. Make them meaningful, make them insightful, make them value-added,” she advises. “Good blogs are interconnected to each other. Over time, that helps you become known to other people. You’re out there in the community sharing your knowledge. Share the knowledge, share the expertise, share the opinion. But post consistently. Set aside a Saturday or a couple hours during the week. And I’m not talking about posting entire pages, I’m talking about two paragraphs – max.”
Then there’s volunteer work with local nonprofit organizations that are related to your industry or areas of expertise. Volunteer to take on some sort of a leadership role, and you will become exposed to people in companies you want to know or may ultimately want to work with. “I do a lot of work with nonprofits, partly because it’s a magnet for like-minded individuals who want to make a difference,” she said. “You’d be surprised; you’ll find yourself on a committee with a CEO who, in normal situations, you’d never have access to.”
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About the Author
Peter Longini is the Managing Editor
for Inside Product Strategy™.
He can be reached at:
editor@productstrategynetwork.com
Subscribe to Inside Product Strategy ™
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Thinking Strategically About LinkedIn
Christine Crandell is a power user of LinkedIn and recommends it enthusiastically to others. Here are some of her key suggestions for using the service effectively:
Go online to LinkedIn and build out your profile. Submit a photo. Provide a job description for all your current and past positions.
Secure recommendations from others. Go to your previous bosses, colleagues, customers, and ask them to post a recommendation. The protocol is that you reciprocate with a recommendation. A good start is to submit an unsolicited recommendation for a former boss that you really enjoyed working for.
Look at your profile from the standpoint of the person you want to have view it. Lots of recruiters view these profiles. In fact, LinkedIn is considered by many HR departments to be the best place to find passive candidates.
Build out the number of people in your network. And try to include only those business related people that are going to be valuable to your career or life interests. Limit your network to the 300-500 person range, otherwise it appears to be indiscriminate.
Think about how to upscale the people in your network so they are either your peers or a level above you.
Stay in touch with your network members either through LinkedIn or outside it; you can export LinkedIn into an Excel spreadsheet and use it to keep track of who you have been in contact with and when.
If someone who is not strategic to your career asks to network with you, have them link to you in FaceBook. Keep a modest FaceBook profile, but be cautious about how much of your personal life you put out on the net. Because as recruiters start their due diligence, they will research you, and if they find your drunken New Year’s Eve party pictures posted there, it could knock you out of consideration.
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