Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/534897
June 29 - July 20, 2015 22 Working World l WorkingWorld.com FEATURED ARTICLE by Marsha Friedman T urn on the television, pick up a newspaper or visit the Internet and you will be inundated with messages about brand products. Tide is a brand. Pepsi is a brand. Nike is a brand. And so are you – or at least you should be. Personal branding has gotten a lot more buzz in recent times and has become an important tool for everyone who wants to improve their career or business opportunities. I'm a big believer and have been touting the need for personal branding for several years. In fact, it's the essence of my book, Celebritize Yourself. If you open a dictionary, the word "brand" is defined as a type of product manufactured by a particular company under a particular name. These days you need to be that product. When you think about it, though, personal branding is not new. It's just that more people have the means to do it today and, fortunately, the Internet has provided us with numerous ways to create and maintain a personal brand. But many entertainers and athletes thrived at it long ago. While I don't want to date myself, many of us remember the song "Happy Trails" from our childhood. Roy Rogers was the movie and TV cowboy who made this song popular and whose name and image appeared on toy holsters, lunch boxes, comic books, puzzles, coloring books and other merchandise in the 1940s and 1950s. Roy is a great example of someone who was ahead of his time with personal branding although he stumbled into it unintentionally. The story goes, he wanted a raise from his movie studio, but the boss balked. Bummed out by the response, Roy asked for what he considered a consolation prize – all rights to his name and likeness. As it turned out, that was no consolation prize. Roy soon figured out that he – not the studio – was the big winner in the negotiations. Any raise would have been paltry next to the money he raked in from Roy Rogers brand merchandise. Here's an additional lesson about personal branding that Roy Rogers provides us. When I asked my employees if they knew of him, Roy's name drew puzzled expressions from most of the younger staff. Even the best personal branding, you see, doesn't last forever. It has to be nurtured continually. (Roy, of course, nurtured his brand his entire life, and it was only the passage of time after his death that caused it to fade, so we'll give him a break.) The rest of us get no break and the message is clear: Don't rest on your laurels, or in your saddle, whichever is appropriate. So what can you do to get your personal brand launched and keep it alive? Here are a few suggestions. • Make sure your website represents you exactly the way you want to be seen. This is one of the best places to control your image. That could mean you want to be viewed as witty, intellectual or physically fit. It could mean you want the world to see you as an expert in a particular field. Maybe you want to convey an image of trust. Roy Rogers was the clean-cut hero wearing a smile and a cowboy hat. What's your image? • Maintain a strong social media presence. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media sites are invaluable tools for networking or getting your message out quickly under your personal brand. Also, make sure you have a unified message that Tide is a brand. Pepsi is a brand. Nike is a brand. And so are you – or at least you should be. Keeping Your Personal Brand Alive Is A Must For Success In Today's Marketplace How To Promote The Most Personal Product Of All