Building Your Personal Brand

1. Building Your Personal Brand Keri Gasiorowski, MHR, CMS “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” —Warren Buffet

2. Introduction • Who am I? • Keri Gasiorowski, MHR, CMS • Regional HR Director for Meritage Homes • Athena PowerLink Consultant • SHRM Speaker

3. Agenda • What is a personal brand? • Social Media Platforms for building your brand • Social Media Brand Building Do’s & Dont’s

4. Why have a personal brand?

5. What is a Personal Brand? • A personal brand is the total experience of someone having a relationship with who you are and what you represent as an individual. • Your "brand" is a shortcut or expectation about what you represent. • A personal brand represents the value you consistently deliver to those you serve. It is your trademark, an asset that you must manage with the intention of helping others benefit from having a relationship with you. • Your brand should be leveraged as a platform to sell your talent and skills. A personal brand should highlight your values and your reputation.

6. Building a personal brand means… • Differentiating your talents, skills, and experience from others. • Articulating an authentic, unique value proposition. • Enhancing your reputation, trustworthiness, and credibility. • Gaining visibility within your spheres of influence.

7. Social Media Sites for Personal Branding • LinkedIn • Facebook • Twitter • Pinterest • Google+ • Instagram • 4-Square

8. Social Media Use for Companies • Current studies show that social media use for professionals is at an all-time high with 92 percent of companies using social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

9. More About The Big 3 • LinkedIn is an interconnected network of experienced professionals from around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries. You can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals that you need to work with to accomplish your goals," states the company's website. There are over 65 million professionals on LinkedIn. • Facebook is the largest of the social networking sites with over 400 million users. Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study, and live around them. It is intended to connect friends, family, and business associates. The model has expanded to include connections to organizations, businesses, and interests -- not just individual people. • Twitter is a microblogging social networking service. Messages, better known as tweets, are no more than 140 characters. According to their website, "Twitter is a simple tool that helps connect businesses more meaningfully with the right audience at the right time”.

10. 10 Rules for Promoting Your Brand 1. Be true to yourself. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not. 2. Be honest and respectful to others. Be respectful, but assertive. 3. Remember that personal branding isn’t about how you see yourself; it’s about how others see you. 4. Never stop learning. Think of learning as a daily dose of vitamins to strengthen your personal brand. 5. Never stop giving. Dedicate your effort, focus, and time on enriching others through your skills and experience. 6. Build a community of trust agents. 7. Have a community of people you trust who aren’t necessarily likeminded, but who have a common goal for the greater good. Be of value to all involved parties. 8. Be transparent. For trust to grow, secrets have to die. People want to deal with others who are real, who make mistakes, and openly take criticism. 9. Become a great storyteller. There are a lot of brands out there to choose from, so find a way to connect with others by finding ways to relate to them. 10. Do not bug, beg, or buy attention; earn it. Building a personal brand requires patience and dedication. Don’t cut corners to build your foundation.

11. Building your Brand on LinkedIn

12. Ask yourself: • What brand promises are you expected to deliver to your employer? • What brand promises do you need to develop to take ownership of your career? “Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business, we happen to be in, all of, us need to understand the, importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me, Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called you.” — Tom Peters in Fast Company, 1997

13. Think about your… • Personal Attributes: Strengths, gifts, traits, skills • Brand Promise: Trust, reputation, credibility, quality, value, intangibles • Brand Relevance: Experience, pertinent, in touch

14. Activity – 6 Steps To Brand Awareness 1. Think about and write down your top 6 professional attributes. 2.Write a statement that summarizes your brand attributes. I am a skilled planner who inspires trust and confidence by being a calm, detailed communicator and a good mentor to my employees. 3. State how your personal communication pattern contributes to your personal brand. Because I am analytical, I have excellent organizational skills and attention to detail. 4. State other key talents, skills, or abilities that set you apart from others. I speak Spanish, am an expert with MS Project, and I’ve traveled to other countries and participated in several large global planning projects. 5. State two or three brand promises that differentiate you from others. I have a reputation for meeting deadlines. I also bring a fun factor to project teams. 6. State personal aspirations that will contribute to your personal brand and what skills are needed to achieve those aspirations. I want to be become responsible for company-wide supply chain planning. To do this I will need to develop my relationships with suppliers and will need to learn to use our production planning and scheduling software.

15. Enhancing Your Brand on LinkedIn • Create your profile • Make a brand plan • Like other’s posts & share often • Ask for referrals • Explore 2nd & 3rd degree connections • Track your success

16. Do: Have A Strategy • Create a plan / strategy / campaign / guidelines tied to goals • Post topics, subjects and images – determine posting ‘voice’ • Have a cadence calendar • Connect with marketing or communications department • Diversify/rotate • Measure & adjust

17. Do: Care For Your Brand • Consider using privacy settings to control information posted on your own social sites (i.e. Facebook personal page) • Stay on the positive personality side of posting • Be personable & intentional • Turn off viewing (who has viewed my profile?) and blasts (who can see my updates?) • Respond to all correspondence timely • Rotate your posting topics • Post with equal parts creativity, culture, and information

18. Do: Pay Attention To Company Best Practices • Consider not providing recommendations or references on existing or former employees on external sites related to work done at your company if in lower levels • While an employee may be exceptional, including a reference on a social media site that cannot be deleted might make performance management difficult down the road • Consider screening or friending “friends” that are also colleagues on social media sites • Keep your password and account information private

19. Don’t • Give up on your plan and goals • #Overuse #hashtags • Send classifieds or canned “we’re hiring” updates • Post during “off” times • Accept/Invite everyone • Link accounts • Delegate Social Media tasks • Post anything controversial • Ignore or delete negative comments to your posts

20. Do: Keep your brand relevant

21. Summary… • What is a personal brand? • Social Media Platforms for building your brand • Social Media Brand Building Do’s & Dont’s …who has questions?

22. Keri Gasiorowski407-335-1785kerigasiorowski@gmail.com Thank you!