Wrote this in 2009! Just discovered it so though I’ll share it with the gang!
How to build BRAND “I”?
I often receive notifications from people across the globe on my LinkedIn account mentioning they found my profile impressive or that they liked my profile and would want to connect with me or know more about me. On close analysis one realizes that most of these individuals are Indians and have been active on the networking front over the past few months or just a couple of years.
What lies in the secret to creating a brand “I” or a brand “ME” is the ability to create an impact on an individual. The needs for recognition, companionship, attraction and response have been the key reasons for individuals to be recognized or appreciated.
The agenda of creating a brand “I” comes from the fact of wanting to be appreciated, recognized and being looked up to. Think of it like this, when your boss, colleague or friend enters a room that you’re in; what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? Jackass, Idiot, Boredom, Moron, Yelling, Frustrated or Leadership, Fun, Jokes, Laughter, Jokes, Problem Solved. As an individual the particular person has created an image of you in his mind that only he can change. Similarly you too have created an image of yours in minds of others that you alone can change. You are what you want to be, I for example have decided I want to be “FUN”, hence I play the role of fun with friends, colleagues, family, etc. When I enter a room the people inside should feel here comes’ Hitesh, who spreads happiness or fun. A simple way of discovering what kind of brand you are is by putting together a few friends or colleagues in a room and playing a game called “Zapped”. Have an individual leave the room and ask the others to speak out aloud the first thought that comes to their minds about that individual when he enters the room. The response has to be spontaneous and not thought over. Repeat the exercise a few times and then step out yourself and see what the group has to say. Urge them to be honest as that will help in deciding what individual you want to be and what role you are portraying to them.
Working on branding yourself is not just by creating a role you want to be, it’s by playing it every moment, every second, every minute, every day. This is the beginning of building brand “I”. From here you need to embark on a journey of building your skills and body language. Think of individuals you look upto, could be for any reason their communication skills or presentation skills or job knowledge for that matter of fact. Break them down by evaluating what you like about them, what do others like about them, how do they do what they do? Try stepping into their shoes as practice sessions. Look at it this way, how many movies have you seen and loved the performance of actors, felt their emotions maybe even laughed or cried when they do so. What we all know is that they are acting and their emotions aren’t real, yet they have been able to create an impact on us. An impact that has come from practicing numerous times the roles they need to play. Practice who you want to be, play the role and then embark on creating a brand “I”. Are you aware that Tiger Woods practices 400 shots the morning before he is playing a tournament, with that comes perfection and the ability to become the World’s Best Golf Player.
Crating a brand “I” is difficult but becomes easier by identifying what role you want to play in this game called LIFE. Once you have decided the role chalk out the responsibilities of that role, post which start playing that role. Communication is the most critical factor of deciding of how successful you will be in the game called life and be able to portray the role of you have decided to play.
Creating a brand “I” Online
Way back in the 19th century wherein Online Social Networking was nonexistent and the likes of Orkut, Facebook or LinkedIN were names one hadn’t heard of, networking was easy. The agenda was to communicate and talk to people at various networking forums or to communicate over the phone. Offline forums and meetings were the key to being recognized. This however posed a drawback as an individual who wasn’t confident of his skills to communicate normally slipped into his foxhole. How rapidly this is changing amazes and individual. Memberships on sites such as Orkut, Facebook & Twitter grew by almost 21% to 22,259,000 which is interestingly 75% of the total Internet users in India in early 2009.
We are moving towards being a world of cyborgs’/netizens. How does one embark on a journey of creating a brand “I” is by first identifying their likes and dislikes and understanding how much time can you commit in a day to online networking. Let’s take for example as an individual if you’re constantly on the move twitter is for you, if you’re a professional networker looking to build contacts in your sector, LinkedIn is your answer. A professional from a Tier 2 City or under 5 years of experience then Orkut is the answer for everyone else there’s Facebook. Start by registering & creating a profile of you. They key here is to ensure information isn’t left incomplete, the more qualifications or work experiences you add the more people you stand to connect with. Ask yourself are you prepared to be reached out to, if yes then sharing your contact details makes sense, else leave them empty. Always add a photo and ensure you enter your interests or preferences. Once done creating your profile try searching for likeminded individuals, ex-colleagues, old friends and add them into your network. It is important when you are reaching out to individuals that you mention your reason for connect and why should they connect. There are individuals who don’t like connecting with people they don’t know. With this you have created an online presence. Simple test is to google your name and see where you feature in the results, ideally you should be the first result, though in certain cases where you have a name that is common you should be in the top 3. If you aren’t in the top 3 or the first we move ahead with ways of getting there. A simple solution is to take a look at who is first or among the top three results in the search. Figure out what they’re doing online that you aren’t doing, do they have a blog, are they posting online or are they spending more time online? What of those are you not doing?
It’s important to update your profile/blog regularly else, “Out of Sight” is “Out of Mind”. When on professional networking sites try not to post information that you have half knowledge about. It’s important to post or respond to queries/questions, etc. about the industry you know, however in case do not respond to areas you are unaware of.
Get people to respond to you by using positive ended questions, like If “I was able to add value to your network, would you like connecting with me?” or “I believe knowledge shared is knowledge doubled, would you like to share learning?”. Very important to creating brand “I” is to urge people to recommend you for a task well done. Most online sites have a feature called Testimonials, wherein colleagues, friends, ex-colleagues, subordinates, reporting leads can recommend your work and you as a person. This goes a long way.
Spend more time online, the instance that someone responds to your Tweet or Facebook or Orkut status and you’re hooked. Organizations today too are investing time and money to build strategies to target individuals who blog or spend time online. Amazon recently ran an online hiring campaign on “Second Life”.
Interestingly these organizations also turn to the internet to know more about potential employees. Run a search on a shortlisted candidate and you can find their profile on various networking sites, their blogs or comments on blogs. This tells a hiring manger about their individualistic traits and skills whether hard or soft.
Creating a brand “I” online has it perks and drawbacks. The perks being finding a new job, a new companion, learning, knowledge, friends, etc and the drawbacks being your life just isn’t personal anymore, finding a stalker, etc. are quite common.
