Personal branding has grown in importance with the growth of the web. Social media allows you to show the world your 
skills, your personality – but with this power brings risk. I came across Dan Schawbel a few years ago and interviewed him on The Engaging Brand podcast.
He is a leading personal branding expert for Gen-Y and author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, April 09), as well as the publisher of both the award winning Personal Branding Blog and Personal Branding Magazine.
I asked Dan to share with us his thoughts on personal branding and networking.
How is a personal brand different now with Web 2.0?
Personal brands are much more visible then they ever were. Right now, any kid of brand can participate in web 2.0. I can have a Facebook page, just like Britney Spears, the iPhone and McDonalds. Although, personal branding was mentioned in 1997, social media has forced people to think twice about how they present themselves online. We’ve always had personal brands because we always have to sell ourselves and our abilities and we’re always getting judged based on first impressions. If I’ve never been to McDonalds before (highly unlikely someone hasn’t been to one) and I notice it’s really dirty, that impression would make me not want to go there anymore for fast food. Your personal brand or reputation, can make you or break you. Web 2.0 has given us tools to allow us to build our own platforms for free, at the cost of our time. We can choose from thousands of social networks to join and we can start putting out content on a blog. In this way, we can become known for our expertise and develop a following that can help support our careers.
How has personal branding affected your career?
Personal branding created my career and is my future. Everything I’ve done in the past few years centers around the idea of personal branding and how we can use social media tools to build our own brands. I’ve been interviewed by over 200 media outlets because I know how to position myself relative to my expertise and create a constant content flow to secure my appearance at the top of search engines for my name and for “personal branding.” I’ve also noticed that by building a powerful brand, more people will want to speak with you, respond to your emails and you’ll receive opportunities without going after them. I invested a lot of time and energy upfront (I still do) and my strategy has changed. I’ve used more pull marketing than push marketing lately and it’s still paying off. Personal branding has changed my life and I’m the result of my own book.
Which 3 tools have been the most important for you?
My blog is the most important to me because I’ve had it for over two years and it’s helped position me as the leading expert in my field, ranking #1 in google for personal branding and it’s won countless awards, such as the #1 job blog by
Careerbuilder.com. It also helps me promote my existence on social networks, my book “Me 2.0,” Personal Branding Magazine, the Personal Brand Awards, and a lot more. The second most important tool is
Twitter, where I promote everyone else’s work, some tips and then point people to my blog (headquarters). The third most important tool to me is
Facebook because I have my legitimate friends on Facebook and they support me and keep updated with everything I’m doing on there.
What piece of advice would you give people who want to build a personal brand online?
I would recommend that you don’t rush into brand building without first discovering your brand. You really need to invest time into finding out what you want to do, what you want to be known for and what you’re expertise and strengths are. Filling out your profiles and using the tools isn’t that challenging. It’s how you’re going to use them and what your branding strategy is that takes the most amount of time. I don’t recommend branding yourself as an internet marketer or personal finance expert. We have enough of those in this world. Instead, find a niche that you can own and pump out content about that area as much as you can.
