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As I wrote a couple of days ago here, I had the opportunity to see Markus Strobel (P&G Prestige Products VP) speak on the topic of performance and what it takes to make it in a huge company like P&G.  Markus is a great example of a guy with a distinctive internal P&G personal brand…he was kind (and open) enough to step forward and provide a few ”golden nuggets” of advice on personal branding.   Important Note:  The tips below assume that we already have the basics of our job down and we are performing at a high level (e.g. over-delivering vs. expectations)…obviously, our personal branding efforts will not be as successful if we are not “delivering the goods” day in and day out.    

1.  You ARE a Brand!  The first step in building Brand YOU is to fully realize that YES, people are brands…Madonna is a brand, that guy on YouTube who does all those crazy dances is a brand, etc.  Personal branding is not a new idea, but far too many people still don’t take it seriously enough.  

2.  Define Your Equity  Every brand has a brand equity that needs to be defined and managed.  Do you want to appeal to the broad masses or do you want to be more polarizing and distinctive?  What is it that you want to stand for in the hearts & minds of those you come into contact with daily? 

3.  Put passion at the core of your brand: If you want to build an enduring personal brand, you need to get that “passion-meter” up to a high level.  Ryan’s Notes:  check out this article called Passion Is Rocket Fuel for Your Personal Brand for a few more insights on the topic.  Here is another article from Chris Brogan on Passion. 

4.  Your Concept? Your Big Idea?  So, once you have defined yourself, you need to figure out your personal brand concept…what exactly is your big idea? Knowing yourself is key to helping you define your personal Big Idea.

5.  Experiment While you Still Can!  Once you have formed a picture of how you want others to see you…take some risks.  Go ahead and push the envelope while you still can.  Once you hid mid-career it starts to get harder to reverse course.  

6.  Drive awareness (mostly WOM).  Advertise if Needed:  People will (and do) talk about you.  It is human nature.  You should be worried if they don’t talk about you.  Seriously, you need to think about what you stand for (your values, your personal appearance, etc.) and drive that message home across everything you do.  Ryan’s notes:  This online world is changing this area dramatically.  Web 2.0 allows Personal brands to flourish globally (almost instantly).  Indeed, in our day and age, branding yourself globally is quick and easy. There are really no barriers to entry here.  Young people today who sign up for social networks discover this very quickly…BUT, we all need to be aware of the image we portray on-line, particularly since Google’s memory of our on-line actions can reside in databases for a long time (and that is scary)!  As young people start social networking at a very early age, they need to be aware that their thoughts and actions online are being captured by Google’s “all seeing eye”.  Moving forward, it will definitely be crucial that we manage our online presence within facebook, LinkedIn, myspace, Twitter, blogs or websites, or whatever comes next.   

Here is a related article Facebook is the Hub for Your Personal Brand