Building your
Personal Brand
Hacking your
Personal Brand
out of the
social media jungle
BY CASEY MILLER
Presented at 2014 Young Professionals Summit 10.2014
Building your
Personal Brand
Who the heck am I anyway,
and why should you care?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ruggedly handsome Casey Miller
25 years in branding and advertising
Past 15 years exclusively digital
Leadership Dallas Class of 2013
Neiman Marcus, Southwest Airlines, Diet Coke
Agency side and corporate marketing side
Rockfish Interactive
Building your
Personal Brand
What’s in it for you
•
•
•
•
Get an accurate snapshot of your Personal Brand
online
Begin organizing and prioritizing your Personal
Brand online
Use the worksheet to build your Personal Brand
Pillars, Personal Brand Statement and Personal
Elevator Pitch
Create an informal publishing plan for when, where,
and what you post to build your Personal Brand
Building your
Personal Brand
A few ground rules
•
•
•
•
•
•
No cell phones
No tablets
No kidding
Ask questions
Use your safe word
Relax! There will be handouts
Building your
Personal Brand
Exactly what IS a
Personal Brand, anyway?
DIEING IS EASY
LIVING IS
HARD
Building your
Personal Brand
It’s one big, weird mix
•
•
•
•
•
•
Personal AND professional
Perceived AND factual
Online AND in person
Past AND present
At its best: Accurate expression of personal and
professional values, strengths, experience and goals
Travels with you
Building your
Personal Brand
Pops didn’t need any fancy-pants
“Personal Brand.” Why do I?
•
•
•
•
•
Passive assumption vs. active management
Valuable toolkit
Experience
Reputation
Growth
Building your
Personal Brand
Like it or not, yours is already out there
Building your
Personal Brand
Like it or not, yours is already out there
Building your
Personal Brand
Social media: The ultimate frenemy
•
•
•
•
No separation of personal and professional online
Posting removes privacy and ownership
Expect it to live online: FOREVER
Good news: Clean up and management tips, later
Building your
Personal Brand
Pop quiz!
QUICK:
Who is your ultimate dream boss?
Why do you want to work for him or her?
Building your
Personal Brand
Let’s build you a
kick-ass Personal Brand
LEDGENDS
LIVE ON
Building your
Personal Brand
A great foundation in 1-2-3
•
•
•
•
•
Three valuable tools from the world of brand
advertising
Brand Pillars
Brand Statement
Elevator Pitch
No worries: Handy worksheet for you
Building your
Personal Brand
A great
foundation
in 1-2-3
Building your
Personal Brand
STEP 1: Define your Brand Pillars
•
•
•
•
•
•
No more than 6 guiding values/principles/ideas
Goal: Capture what guides your integrity and fuels
your passion
Big picture and long term: Travels with you
Reality checker
Touchstone for big decisions
Put some thought into it
Building your
Personal Brand
STEP 1 example: My Brand Pillars
•
•
•
•
•
•
Creativity
Innovation
Equality
Transparency
Collaboration
Humor
Building your
Personal Brand
Pop quiz!
QUICK:
What’s your favorite brand?
Describe it in 3 words
Building your
Personal Brand
STEP 2:
Write your Personal Brand Statement
•
•
•
•
•
•
Think big!
Goal: Define your hopes and goals for professional
and personal growth
Mid range: Framework for 5 to 10 years
Based on your Pillars
Aspirational and forward focused
ONE paragraph only
Building your
Personal Brand
STEP 2 example:
Personal Brand Statement
•
“I want to use my entrepreneurial stamina and
focused fashion experience to drive bottom line
growth, inspire my employees to achieve more, and
cultivate mutually profitable business relationships. I
want to generate shared success built on respect,
loyalty and collaboration. I want to lead at a
company that invests in me by stimulating my
creative thinking.”
Building your
Personal Brand
Pop quiz!
SHOW OF HANDS:
Who has stalked a date or business
acquaintance online before meeting?
Be honest!
Building your
Personal Brand
Now, for your
Personal Elevator Pitch
BELIEVE THE
IMPOSSBILE
Building your
Personal Brand
STEP 3: Write a
Personal Elevator Pitch
•
•
•
•
•
•
You have 30 seconds to convince [Dream Boss] to
hire you
Goal: Capture qualities, experience, skills and goals
Short term: Your next career step
Framed by Pillars and Brand Statement
Evolves as your career does; update frequently
30-45 seconds MAXIMUM
Building your
Personal Brand
STEP 3 example:
Personal Elevator Pitch
•
“I’m Frank Jones and my passion is helping talented
people find the right job, sooner, through
personalized executive search. For nine years, I’ve
managed my own firm and prepared thousands of
executives for smarter job searches with coaching
programs, recruiting events and online advice. For
the past three years I’ve created, tested and
implemented customized search plans based on
learning styles, goals and personality traits.”
Building your
Personal Brand
Pop quiz!
QUICK:
You just got laid off! What’s your Plan B?
Building your
Personal Brand
Let’s talk online
damage control
NEVER IS AM
AWEFULLY LONG
TIME
Building your
Personal Brand
Google yourself … vigorously
•
•
•
•
•
Main search engines: Google, Yahoo, Bing
Review your most-used social channels
What’s the collateral damage?
Copy URLs; punch list of immediate fixes
If it’s truly horrible, delete the account(s)
Building your
Personal Brand
LinkedIn: Is yours dead or alive?
•
•
•
•
Outdated and incomplete profiles: worse than
useless
Not the place to fudge facts
Tons of networking resources: businesses, industry
groups, leaders
Excellent FREE job hunting
Building your
Personal Brand
Lucky y’all:
Another handy
handout
Building your
Personal Brand
Doing your homework
•
•
•
•
•
Online damage control
Fixing your Facebook
Bringing your LinkedIn back to life
Tips for privacy and security settings
Then, the fun stuff
Building your
Personal Brand
Growing your
Personal Brand online
I WOULD
RATHER
DIE STANDING
THEN LIVE
ON MY KNEES
Building your
Personal Brand
Network and brand yourself online
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
After damage control and maintenance
COMMIT to 1-2 online channels
PUBLISH twice a week; tips in handout
CLOSE old or incomplete channels
MAINTAIN an updated digital resume
UPDATE your resume/experience once a quarter
REVISIT your brand 1-2-3 once a year
Building your
Personal Brand
Use your brand superpowers for good
•
•
•
•
•
DON’T waste time or energy networking with jerks
ENDORSE frugally and wisely
FIND groups where you can learn and grow
FIND a cause and get involved, now
PICK the brains of wise colleagues
Building your
Personal Brand
Your ultimate goals
•
•
•
A lively, engaging Personal Brand that supports your
career goals
An evolving, growing network you can contribute to
and learn from
Rewarding contributions to the greater good
Building your
Personal Brand
Let’s talk Q&A (pending time!)
BEATIFUL DISASTER
Building your
Personal Brand
Download those handouts, y’all
•
•
•
PDFs on the YP website
Worksheet: Building yourself a kick-ass Personal
Brand
Tip sheet: Social media damage control, care and
maintenance
Building your
Personal Brand
Call me, y’all
•
•
•
•
•
•
Happy to meet individually or with groups
Branding for start-ups and businesses
I like breakfast and lunch; I LOVE happy hour
casey.caseymiller@gmail.com
LinkedIn.com/in/caseymillergenius
My business cards are awesome!
Building your
Personal Brand
You’ve been
a great audience!
Well, most of you anyway.
THIS TO
SHALL
PASS