Personal Branding and Social Media - Literature review Example

?Literature Review The meaning of personal branding William Arruda, personal branding pioneer, defined personal branding as ‘permission to be yourself – your best self. It’s knowing what’s authentic to you, differentiating from your peers, and relevant and compelling to your target audience, and using that to reach your goals and add value to your employer’ (Martin, 2009, p. 417). This definition appears to cover every aspect of personal branding, from the person owning the brand, to his/her competitors, the target audience, and the future employer, in the context of the individual’s personal goals. While other people think of personal branding as an option or even a novelty (Bence, 2008a & 2008b), Arruda sees it as a critical survival skill due to the fast-changing economy and shifting workplace environments (Martin, 2009). ‘A personal brand is a perception in the minds of others’ which the brand owner creates and controls, and sends the message that nobody else exists in the marketplace who is quite like you (Vitberg, 2009, p. 10). While the brand is a perception, however, this does not mean that the perception is a contrived or false one (Banet-Weiser, 2012). Every person has his or her good and bad qualities; like any brand for a good or service, the personal brand highlights the best attributes of a person (Reddick, 2012a & 2012b) which must be grounded in truth (Canada, 2012; Madden & Smith, 2010; Millman, 2010). Necessity of personal branding Like Arruda, Rampersad (2008) does not see personal branding as an alternative, but as a vital asset in today’s ‘online, virtual and individual age’ (p. 34). He observed that the common misconception is that popular and successful people like Tiger Woods and Oprah Winfrey are those who can lay claim to having a personal brand. In truth, everyone has a personal brand, but because they are not aware of it, they are unable to use their personal brands strategically (Shepherd, 2005). Rampersad proposes the personal branding model which is shown below: Authentic personal branding model (Rampersad, 2008, p. 35) Rampersad’s model, though it may appear complicated, is built on what he describes as a four-step evolutionary and organic process: (1) Define and formulate your personal ambition; (2) Define and formulate your personal brand on the basis of your personal SWOT; (3) Formulate your personal balanced scorecard, which is the action plan into which your personal ambition and personal brand are translated; and (4) Implement and cultivate your personal ambition, personal brand, and personal balance scorecard (Rampersad, 2008). A personal brand is of little use, however, unless it is communicated to the target market (Martin, 2009). Jerry Wilson, senior vice-president of the Coca-Cola Company and president of the Global McDonald’s Division, concurs that personal branding is crucial, and proposes that if one finds himself stuck in a certain job or position, that he/she should try to rebrand or reinvent himself (Jacques, 2009). This does not mean that people should make themselves into somebody else (Chase, 2011), but they may change their image and how people perceive them by highlighting those qualities they possess which have not been given much attention to (Colmerauer, 2012). This may be achieved by doing a brand audit, an assessment of where one is and what one has to offer. Wilson calls these attributes ‘transferable equities’ (Jacques, 2009, p 32) that a person may put forward to redefine him/herself. Personal branding and authenticity The key to success is having ‘an organic, holistic, and authentic personal branding model’ (Rampersad, 2008, p. 35). Arruda also perceives people as having the wrong view that personal branding is made up and artificial (Martin, 2009), and stresses that it must be honest and authentic. Morton (2012) likewise emphasizes the importance of authenticity, observing that a personal brand grows over time. This is significant, because if a personal brand is not solidly rooted in authenticity, then the inauthentic brand will not have a strong foundation and will soon be found out to be misleading and even deceptive (Hyatt, 2010). An extreme example would be Bernard Madoff, the self-styled stockbroker and investment expert who turned out eventually to be a white collar criminal. He built a formidable personal brand as Chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, and as an asset manager and financier garnered the trust of the rich and famous. He later confessed that his asset management firm was nothing more than a mere Ponzi scheme and himself a fraud (Nardo, 2011). While Vitberg saw no conflict between thinking of personal branding as both perception and truth, Mobray (2008) of Deloitte and Touche makes a fine distinction between the two constructs, particularly if in building one’s personal brand, one fails to conduct a thorough self-examination. To be realistic, personal branding is somewhere between what one perceives oneself to be, and how one is perceived by others. Mobray’s view presents a more realistic description of personal branding. After all, the truths that one perceives in himself may lack the greater objectivity by which others perceive him/her to be. Disadvantages of personal branding Despite all its advantages, Arruda acknowledges that there is a downside to personal branding. Since one cannot build a strong brand and please everybody always, there will be instances when a strong personal brand will repel or offend some people although the brand owner entertains no such intention. A quick scan of popular people with strong personal brands such as Donald Trump, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Tiger Woods, would show that while these celebrities have a strong fan base, there will be people who will express dissatisfaction with either them personally, or what they stand for. However, people with strong brands generally earn the respect of most people for their accomplishments (Martin, 2009). It is a fact of life that if one seeks to stand out and be distinguished from the rest, that person will normally attract as many admirers as critics (Chritton, 2012). Personal branding and social media Vitberg (2009) observes that personal branding through social media puts a new twist to marketing and business development. The traditional model used to state: ‘It’s not what you know, but who you know,’ in so far as building a business and attracting customers or clients were concerned. Through social marketing and media, or SMM, the adage became: ‘It’s not who you know, but who knows you’ (p. 11)/ Business advertising tends to evolve at an increasing pace, particularly since SMM enables even small business and individuals to have the same reach and media power as the large businesses (PR, 2012). The following table is the contrast drawn by Vitberg between what he calls ‘analog personal branding’ (i.e., traditional personal branding) tactics, and digital personal branding tactics: Source: Vitberg, 2009, p. 11 An important aspect of personal branding through the use of social media is what Rossiter and Bellman (2012) describe as emotional branding. This is defined as ‘the consumer’s attachment of a strong, specific, usage-relevant emotion – such as Bonding, Companionship, or Love – to the brand’ (p. 292). While this description is oriented more towards product (good or services) branding, a similar type of bonding or personal attachment can be developed by personal branding (Carroll, 2012). Commonalities abound among people who may not know each other personally, but who can develop a bond quickly when links are made between personal brands (Elmore, 2010). For instance, when people find out that they come from the same university or school, they discover an instant familiarity with persons, things, events, perhaps the whole culture relative to the school. Coming from the same fraternity or sorority, the same town or the same country if the two people meet abroad, will strike an instant familiarity or bond on that single aspect of one’s personal brand. The discovery of such similarities will usually happen in an interactive venue such as social media networks where people are able to exchange information about each other on a personal basis (Elsasser, 2007). This is not to say that traditional tools of personal branding are no longer relevant (Reding, 2012). Vitberg (2009) names some of them which are still in common use today because they are in a more permanent form. The most popular of these is the resume. One can already establish a personal brand in the first few lines at the top of one’s resume if an executive summary is placed there. Highlighting one’s unique qualifications through an executive summary allows a potential employee to bring to the manager’s immediate attention the relevant skills and competencies the candidate possesses which makes him/her uniquely qualified for the position (Morton, 2012). Another powerful traditional tool, and the one that is inescapable to many, is the interview. This is ‘the culmination of the branding process. It provides the opportunity for you to deliver face-to-face that which separates you from the rest’ (Morton, 2012, p.72). All the other channels, media and tools, significant as they are, would all come to nothing if one does not prepare to put forward his/her personal brand in the interview. It is during the face-to-face encounter that the authenticity of all one has written or described about him/herself shall be validated. If the personal brand were merely a lie or an exaggeration, it will certainly show in the interview, because of the incisiveness of personal observation. Preliminary bibliography Banet-Weiser, S 2012 AuthenticTM: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture. New York University Press. New York. Bence, B 2008a, 'Personal Branding', Sales & Service Excellence, 8, 8, p. 14, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Bence, B 2008b, 'Top 10 Secrets to Mastering Your Personal Brand', American Salesman, 53, 10, pp. 26-29, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Canada, N 2012, 'Personal branding - The golden ticket for grads aiming to land their first job', Canada Newswire, 5 March, Regional Business News, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Carroll, J 2012, 'Is your name within your domain?', CA Magazine, 145, 2, p. 12, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Chase, L 2011, 'The Power of Personal Branding', American Salesman, 56, 6, pp. 7-9, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Chritton, S 2012 Personal Branding for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ Colmerauer, C 2012, 'Legal Technology/Social Media Personal branding key for job seekers', Buffalo Law Journal, 20 February, Regional Business News, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Elmore, L 2010, 'Personal Branding 2.0', Women In Business, 62, 1, pp. 12-14, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Elsasser, J 2007, 'The power of personal branding', Public Relations Tactics, 14, 4, p. 3, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Hyatt, J 2010, 'Building Your Brand (and keeping your job)', Fortune, 162, 3, pp. 70-76, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Jacques, A 2009, 'Creating a Brand New You: Why Personal Branding ls So Crucial Today Learning from Icons such as Coca-Cola and McDonald's. (cover story)', Public Relations Strategist, 15, 1, pp. 32-33, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Madden, M., & Smith, A. 2010. Reputation Management and Social Media. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center. Martin, B 2009, 'An interview with William Arruda: Communicating your personal brand', Thunderbird International Business Review, 51, 5, pp. 417-419, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Milman, O 2010, 'The business of personal branding', B&T Magazine, 60, 2709, p. 10, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Mobray, K 2008, 'Personal Branding -- Perception or Reality?', New Jersey CPA, January, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Mobray, K 2009 The 10Ks of Personal Branding: Create a Better You. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse Morgan, M 2011, 'Personal Branding: Create Your Value Proposition', Strategic Finance, 93, 2, pp. 13-60, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Morton, RL 2012, 'Bringing Your Personal Brand to Life', Healthcare Executive, 27, 1, pp. 70-73, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Nardo, D 2011 Bernie Madoff. Lucent Books. PR, N 2012, 'Networking and Personal Branding Are Key to Longtime Career Success', PR Newswire US, 31 May, Regional Business News, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Rampersad, HK 2008a, 'A new blueprint for powerful and authentic personal branding', Performance Improvement, 47, 6, pp. 34-37, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Rampersad, HK 2010b, 'Beyond the Secret', Personal Excellence, 15, 11, pp. 1-2, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Reddick, E 2012, 'Is your personal brand your professional best?', Enterprise/Salt Lake City, 41, 45, p. 12, Regional Business News, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Reding, S 2012, 'Personal Branding Primer', OPEN The Mccombs School Of Business Magazine, p. 12, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Rossiter, J, & Bellman, S 2012, 'Emotional Branding Pays Off', Journal Of Advertising Research, 52, 3, pp. 291-296, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Shepherd, IH 2005, 'From Cattle and Coke to Charlie: Meeting the Challenge of Self Marketing and Personal Branding', Journal Of Marketing Management, 21, 5/6, pp. 589-606, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. 'Standing out with personal branding' 2011, CA Magazine, 144, 3, p. 10, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Vitberg, A 2010, 'Developing Your Personal Brand Equity', Journal Of Accountancy, 210, 1, pp. 42-45, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Vitberg, AK 2009, 'Analog vs. Digital Personal Branding - A New Twist on Personal Marketing Plans', CPA Practice Management Forum, 5, 11, pp. 10-19, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Wetsch, LR 2012, 'A Personal Branding Assignment Using Social Media', Journal of Advertising Education, 16, 1, pp. 30-36, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 November 2012. Read More