I was asked the other day for some advice by someone looking to move away from a corporate marketing gig to a digital agency, and it got me thinking about the importance of building a personal brand. There is something to be said for having the ability to get your friends, colleagues and complete strangers excited about the topics that you are interested in – whatever they might be.
I head up the marketing and advertising department at my agency, Carousel30 (in addition to heading the creative team) and I see the importance of this for several reasons:
If you are, like my initial example, looking for a job somewhere, I will tell you that my agency DOES look at the social media presences of our job applicants to see if they practice what they preach. Having a good, engaged following, even if your primary topic of interest has nothing to do with social media, technology or design says something about your ability to create and sustain conversations.
But, even if you are not looking for a new job, any good employer will appreciate the initiative it takes to build a personal brand. I would recommend that if you’re working at an advertising agency, it might be better to focus some of your conversations more towards industry topics than more personal interests, but as you probably already know, doing a little of each helps humanize your brand. But being known as an expert in your field or a niche within it in the twittersphere can give a huge boost to your organization and make you look like a champ to your employer.
Finally, if nothing else, your personal profiles can be a sandbox to try new things out with little risk. If you make a Twitter faux pas on your personal account it probably won’t land you in as much hot water as if you did the same for your Fortune 100 client at your day job. (Disclaimer: A Twitter faux pas has nothing to do with what a certain congressperson decided to do with their Twitter account. That is outside the realm of ‘a violation of etiquette.’ )
So get going on your own brand – there really is no downside to it.
Posted on June 11, 2011
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