Personal Branding Is NOT Image Management

[Joywtome231]

Having a certain “look” can be a part of your personal brand (e.g., Taylor Swift’s red lips, Richard Branson’s aversion to neck ties), however it is the icing on the cake - not the focus. It’s definitely not the starting point.

Personal branding, done properly, defines who you are and what you stand for as a professional. To achieve that, it must begin at the deepest level, by putting under the microscope your:

motivations
values, and
beliefs
If your personal branding expert doesn't start there, move on.



2. Personal Branding Is NOT Online Reputation Management.

When people search for you online, do you like what they see?

If you don’t (e.g., you or your company have had some negative press, you have a portugal phone number resource name-sake who is a criminal), there are companies which can help you manage your online appearance.

Since removing something from Google’s index is nearly impossible, they achieve this by creating a number of Web 2.0 entities (social media accounts, blogs, etc)on your behalf, thus pushing existing “bad” results past the first page (where less than 5% of people ever look).

This process is also often claimed to be personal branding and - as in the point above - it doesn’t go deeply enough. Your personal brand, if it is to add a tangible amount of value to your life and to the lives of people your work touches, must have its origins firmly in your inner world, not the digital one.