Branding......A Kinky Necessity

To "brand" something means to uniquely identify a product. That product could be anything from cattle to phones, and often includes a "personal brand" for people marketing their careers on their own. Personal Branding....while in some circles is a kinky fetish.....is about creating yourself and your skills as a product that employers and clients alike cannot live without.

Regardless of industry, branding has become a necessity. Gone are the days when you got a job right out of school, and earned the engraved gold watch upon retiring from the same job 50 years later. Today, we enter into a field as an intern, shuffle jobs with the economy and the market, go back to school to learn something new, and even take leaps out on our own with or without an employer. Careers are something to own and take control of, and may be self-employed, full or part time, and mixed up with contracting. Branding is the act of making your career and your knowledge your own and not the property of your latest employer.

How does one go about creating a brand? Excellent question! Let's look at product brands and see what that entails. Name a popular brand.......Nike? Good choice. How do you identify Nike as a brand?

1. Defined Product. Nike is known for athletic shoes. Sure....they have shirts and hats and so on, but their bailiwick is shoes. What is your product? Are you a Powershell master? Do you have wicked teaching skills? Are you a crafter? Everyone has something that they bring to the proverbial table. This is the first step....and the key needed for everything else to fall into place. And this may change over time. Perhaps you start out as a technical writer....but over time you move out of that field and want to focus on digital photography. Your product does not need to be a THING in the traditional sense. As you grab the reigns of your career and your future, your product can be a thing, a service, a skill....but most importantly your product is YOU.

2. Memorable Logo. They have a tangible product which has a logo and a name slathered all over it. With a little creativity, or a few bucks to hire some creativity, anyone can have a personal logo. Something simple, easily identified, and that conveys the concepts that you want people to associate with you. There are many sources of free use images; just research proper use for printing and reproduction. I had a logo created for me via an artist on Etsy. I told her the idea was to incorporate what I work with (yarn and crochet hook), nerdy glasses for my handle, and a peacock feather (since Peacock is my last name). Voila! A logo I have full rights to and can use in any manner I choose....because it is mine. It sits on my blog, my business cards, my shop pages, and so on. Think about what you want people to associate with you, and talk it over with an artist. It doesn't need to be complicated or expensive. But be sure that you obtain the rights to the logo so that the use is up to your discretion, or fully understand the proper boundaries of use for your picture. This is the modern version of a branding iron.

3. Wicked Advertising. This may be the trickiest part to figure out for your personal brand. But once you start with a few steps.....you learn from everyone around you and it becomes easier. Advertising today, particularly for individuals, is easier than ever before; it just takes a willingness to get out into your marketplace. Venues such as Twitter have made personal advertising so accessible.....you can't get away from it! Advertising is about tooting the horn....YOUR HORN! Start with tweets about projects you are working on or have completed, let the world know when you have done something great, and remind folks OFTEN! Record goals and accomplishments on a LinkedIn account. Get people to give a testimonial on LinkedIn. Put together a Blog about your product and what your product does, and let people know it is out there. All of this is Advertising. With so many means of communication and personal advertising, employers are more frequently looking at LinkedIn and Blog spaces for information about you and what you can do for them. These updates will provide an employer or client with more knowledge and insight than they can get off a resume or a 30 minute interview. And it's ok to get a little shameless with your advertising......create a coffee mug or a tote bag with your amazing logo, get business cards that are magnets and leave them with everyone, you can even get magnetic signs to put on the door of your car. Let the world know you are out there!

4. Product Placement. Nike has their shoes on every basketball player on the planet. You could watch nearly any TV show and see someone with a cap that has the Nike swooshy-logo. You, as your product, need proper placement too. This goes hand in hand with blogs and other advertising. Work with other people in your industry to put links to your information on their sites - and reciprocate that type of assistance. Get yourself involved in public events that are part of your industry: SQL Saturday, teaching conferences, or the Sock Summit. Go to the conferences and classes, and throw around the awesome cards you have made. Being invisible is the kiss of death. Luckily......it is easy to be seen and heard if you just have a willingness.

If you think of yourself as a product....and one that is better than the competitors......branding becomes clear and easier as time goes on. You and your skills are marketable and needed. What you have is unique and worth being proud of.....make it yours and make it valuable.

For further branding edumacation.....check out the SQL Awesomesauce for UN-SQL Friday! And tell Jen I sent ya!