Feb
25
The 8 Laws of Personal Branding
Posted by: ruthirma | February 25, 2011 | Leave a Comment
As Elaine was talking about branding in class yesterday, something she showed on the slide really struck me :
Brand = Trust.
That simple equation somehow attracts me.
I was immediately reminded of a women’s conference I went to just a year ago in my hometown, Jakarta. The speaker (a renowned public speaking coach and author of Talk-inc), Becky Tumewu, was talking about building your personal brand. I think the right term for it is ‘personal branding’.
This idea is relatively new to some. Usually, we associate brands to things or products, but associating people with brands? Well it’s definitely less common. However, Tumewu convinced us that having a strong positive brand image for ourselves will make our lives easier as others can attach certain ‘brands’ or characteristics to us.
According to Becky Tumewu, there are 8 simple but practical laws that we have to follow to build a strong brand image:
1. Law of Leadership – become the most knowledgeable and respected person in your field
2. Law of Specialization – select a specific skill you can excel in and be consistent
3. Law of Personality – create a respectable and credible personality
4. Law of Visibility – be active repeatedly and consistently
5. Law of Distinctiveness– express yourself in a unique way, be someone different
6. Law of Congruence –your public and private behaviour must be consistent (both must be authentic)
7. Law of Persistence – once you have built your personal brand, you must now sustain it; stick with it through thick and thin
8. Law of Goodwill – create a positive interaction with people around you
Concluding Elaine and Becky’s point, for any brand to succeed, it must be able to deliver what it promises. It takes a long time to build trust, but it only takes one incident to break it.