Branding

Branding. That has been the buzz word of the week. What is a brand? How do you create a brand? Most importantly, how do you brand yourself? When faced with the question on “what is a brand” I quickly defined a brand as a personality. To me, branding is making a product into a personality… when I think of Geico insurance, I think fun, easy and simple. Are those traits that a human would want to have? I doubt it. But I for a product, they are a perfect personality! That is exactly what Geico wants me to think of when I think about their insurance.

So, now I have to apply this same thought process to myself. How do I brand myself into a professional personality, in a way that is available to the world? Well… since it is my goal after getting my MBA at Simon to get a job in Internet Marketing and a major sector of Internet Marketing is Social Media… well that is exactly how I am going to brand myself and show it off!

First off, what is my brand? That is something that is still evolving. My brand at Ernst & Young was a young professional with strong client relationship management, leadership and project management. I was the one who would “get things done.” Are these traits still important… of course! However, now I need to transfer my Ernst & Young brand into something that would be attractive and beneficial within the Marketing industry.

While I am working on how to brand myself into a Marketing Professional and I have taken a head start on projecting it to the world. There are so many tools available to do this… and being the internet marketing expert in training… I am going to market myself on the internet first! If I can do this for myself then I can do it for any company and any product. First off, Linkedin…. What an amazing invention! Of course, Linkedin wasn’t just invented yesterday, in fact I have had a profile since my undergrad days at RIT. However, I had never seen the importance of it other than pressing “accept” whenever one of my friends or professional contacts tried to “connect” with me. Why did I need it? I had a job and had a ton of contacts in person, I didn’t need to have them on a virtual network. Wow was I wrong! Linkedin is an amazing invention that until about a week ago I didn’t know the value of. This social media network allows everyone to actually see the power of the people that they know and the people that their friends know. My old contacts from J&J may have moved on, maybe even to a Marketing Firm doing the exact same career that I am aspiring to. Or even better, a Simon alumn following the career path that I plan on following. These people are amazing contacts, who are at my finger tips. In the past week I have spent more time on Linkedin, updating my profile, joining groups and contacting old (and new) contacts than I have probably spent on the site in the last 5 years! While doing this, I am branding myself. My profile reads exactly as I want it to – current MBA student looking to get into Internet Marketing with great education and work experience to make her a great resource to any company. Perfect! Now my 123 contacts know exactly what I want them to – my brand.

Stay tuned for more social media outlets that I am utilizing to brand myself online……