Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

this website offers many tips on content creation for personal branding -

https://www.personalbrandingblog.com/

good luck

Probably not the best strategy. Better if you can research the company you'd really like to work for and create a page that is specific to them, so they know you've taken the time and made the extra effort to learn what they need and explain why you're the right candidate for THEM.

Otherwise it just looks like you're begging for work (or for an internship).

The best way to "promote" yourself is to demonstrate the thoroughness you apply to your tasks ... and the focused approach you take to achieving your objectives.

Dear baker-i,

If you're going to build a site, build it using Wordpress
and do NOT use Flash.

Search engines do not like Flash.

Website viewers do not like Flash.

All your use of Flash will do is show how clever you are.

Clever, although sometimes impressive, does not last and it seldom sells over the long haul.

Rather than showing off how well you can use the software, spend time showing people how you can help their business grow.

Your links and signature alone will NOT position you as
any kind of authority (or, for that matter, as any kind of commodity), only your content and the way your unique view of the world helps people will do that.

The only thing "promotion" will do is reveal your name, telephone number, address, and website name. Those things in and of themselves will not get you noticed.

The reason most marketing does not work is because
the people putting it together believe that all they have
to do is promote their goods, services, or products and
that people will beat a path to their door.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

The sooner the people running marketing colleges and teaching marketing courses get their heads out of their asses and stop peddling the notion of "promotion as cure all", the sooner young, up-and-coming marketers will win their spurs and the sooner businesses will benefit from higher sales and increased streams of revenue.

Promotion alone is not enough.

In order to stand out you must condition people's thinking and you must position yourself as the go-to person—as the buy or gal that gets shit done.

You asked about telling people who you are, what your aims in the industry are, and so on and if all the usual boilerplate (professional achievements, qualifications and contact form) will be enough as a branding exercise to get you interviews.

No. It won't. Here's why.

1. No one owes you a job. I know you didn't imply this but merely by having a website and having your name out there, little of this will get you found and land you an interview.

2. If what you've written about branding is what you've been taught thus far, you've been misinformed and, if you continue to think that that's what branding is all about, you are in trouble.

3. Messages that give name, rank, and serial number are not branding messages. They are a lame-assed cop out. If you look and sound like every other marketing graduate it;s highly likely you will wind up answering the same question many marketing graduates will find themselves being asked three to six months from now and the answer to that question is "Yes, that does come with fries."

4. Messages that change people's lives are branding messages. So, how will you change someone's business?

5. If you want to brand yourself, prove to potential employers what you've done for other people and how you can do the same for that SPECIFIC employer.

6. When it comes to finding a job, one size does NOT fit all and the sooner you get that into your head the better.

7. Buy, read, re-read, and take notes on the top five or top ten books on marketing on Amazon.com right now and within 30 days you'll have absorbed more than the average MBA student takes in in two years.

Many years ago I heard the following story: a young copywriter walks into the office of a creative director of one of the top ad shops: the kid's looking for a job.

The young writer has an appointment and the interview's legit. But the CD's there with his feet up on the desk, arms outstretched, paging through a newspaper.

The only thing the kid can see of the CD is his hands and the expensive soles of his Church's shoes.

The kid clears his throat.

The CD doesn't budge—doesn't acknowledge the kid at all.

Then the CD barks: "Get my attention. If you can't get my attention in ten seconds, get out and don't come back!"

The kid thinks "Oh crap! Oh crap!" and sees his future in the world of advertising going down the pan right before his eyes.

Then, the Ad Gods smile on him.

Quick as a flash, he whips out his cigarette lighter
and ... in a stroke of genius, he sets fire the to the creative director's newspaper.

He got the job.

So, you, now, must figure out how you will set someone's newspaper on fire (so the speak).

Do this and do it well and you'll never be out of work.

Screw it up and come June and July, you'll probably be answering that question about fries that 80 percent of the other marketing grads will be fielding.

Choose wisely.

And good luck to you.

Gary Bloomer
The Direct Response Marketing Guy™
Princeton, NJ, USA