There is No ‘I’ in Your Personal Brand!

It seems the internet would agree with the Dalai Lama. In  a recent study done by Dan Zarella, the more someone uses words like, I, me or my the less Twitter followers they have (see below). Another study also suggested you is the most retweeted word.

Source: http://danzarrella.com/data-shows-that-self-reference-does-not-get-followers.html

To Give is to Receive

The idea a personal brand is an act of narcissism is entirely false. The idea personal branding is generational or age based is also false.

Everyone has a brand, like it or not.

And finally, the idea personal branding is simply talking about yourself a lot is completely wrong. As we saw from Dan's research, talking about yourself actually hurts your brand.

So what exactly is personal branding?

Align Who You Are with What They Need

People walk around all day thinking about their problems. Right? And in order to get your next job, you are trying to find a way to provide value by solving a target company's problems.

So, Step 1 with personal branding is knowing what you can do, what you are good at, what you like to do.

Step 2 is knowing what your target company needs, what your hiring manager cares about.

Step 3 is aligning the two previous steps.

Simple.

Tell them how you can help them. And if you are not sure, ask.

About the Author:

CAREEREALISM Expert, Joshua Waldman is the owner of Career Enlightenment where he helps motivated job seekers get better jobs faster using social media. He received his MBA from Boston University and has 5 years of corporate experience and consulting.