Building a Better Brand Part 1

0:01 welcome to building a better brand 0:02 personal branding why it matters 0:04 and how to make it work for you my name 0:06 is jeremiah bauman 0:08 i'm currently the associate director of 0:09 marketing communication the center for 0:11 academic innovation at the university of 0:13 michigan 0:13 and i'm also an instructor for digital 0:15 media for business at philanda 0:17 university 0:18 the idea behind the next couple segments 0:20 are to walk you through what a personal 0:22 brand is 0:23 and ultimately why it's important now it 0:26 doesn't matter where you are in your 0:27 career path if you're just graduating 0:29 from college 0:30 or if you're looking to make a change 0:32 these couple segments will help walk you 0:34 through 0:34 identifying what your personal brand is 0:36 and how to take control 0:38 over the next two segments we're going 0:40 to dive into what personal branding 0:42 is what online reputation management 0:44 consists of 0:45 and how to find out what your current 0:47 brand is 0:48 the second segment will dive into 0:50 controlling your brand steps to gain 0:52 that control 0:53 and how to improve your brand overall 0:56 now i like to start a lot of my courses 0:59 with a quote from somebody 1:01 that really kind of resonates with me 1:04 gary vee is somebody that 1:05 is a serial entrepreneur he's been a big 1:07 investor in all things social media 1:09 and just been a great speaker towards 1:12 the idea of digital branding 1:14 and digital presence through social 1:16 media 1:17 this quote here it's important to build 1:19 a personal brand because it's the only 1:21 thing you're going to have 1:23 your reputation online in a new business 1:25 world is pretty much the game 1:27 so you've got to be a good person you 1:29 can't hide anything 1:30 and more importantly you've got to be 1:32 out there at some level 1:34 now this quote really speaks to the idea 1:37 of the extension of your digital self 1:40 a lot of people for whatever reason have 1:41 always separated your digital persona 1:44 from your actual personality and who you 1:46 are as a person 1:47 now this mentality really isn't up to 1:50 date 1:51 with current thoughts about digital 1:53 media 1:54 ultimately you are exactly the same 1:56 person you should be putting out there 1:59 to let people know who you are and 2:01 really what you're all about 2:03 so what does personal branding actually 2:05 mean the ideas and feelings that people 2:08 have towards you from that experience is 2:10 how they 2:11 resonate with who you are as a person 2:14 now realize that your digital self 2:16 exists in the world in some way shape or 2:18 form unless you've done 2:20 a lot of work to stay out of being you 2:22 know searchable online 2:25 ultimately that person that people see 2:27 and interact with 2:28 is who they think you are until they've 2:31 had the chance to interact with you 2:33 directly 2:34 now most of the time when you're doing 2:35 the application process for a job 2:37 or maybe you're looking for an 2:38 internship or just expanding your 2:41 network 2:42 what people see and how you're packaged 2:44 is what they then interpret who you are 2:47 so when you really focus on this you 2:50 want to make sure that what you have out 2:51 there 2:52 accurately conveys who you are as a 2:54 person 2:56 now online reputation management is a 2:59 big old bunch of words that you've 3:00 probably heard before 3:01 maybe you haven't but really the idea 3:03 behind this 3:04 is figuring out does what is online 3:07 reflect truly who you are 3:09 and what people should expect when they 3:11 do interact with you 3:13 so i wanted to provide you with some 3:14 keys to online reputation management 3:17 from a process 3:18 standpoint what are things that really 3:20 are important 3:21 to your online reputation that you need 3:24 to consider 3:25 so the following keys are commitment 3:27 transparency timeliness and authenticity 3:30 we're going to break these down one by 3:31 one and talk a little bit about each one 3:33 so you fully understand the concept 3:35 behind online reputation 3:37 as a whole so commitment 3:40 this one seems a little weird because 3:42 ultimately you have to put 3:44 effort forward and you have to put build 3:46 a commitment 3:47 to keep that up to make sure that your 3:49 online reputation 3:51 matches your personality and what you 3:52 want to convey 3:54 yes you could throw a couple things you 3:56 could follow a couple steps here 3:58 and call it good but ultimately as 4:00 technology and social media especially 4:02 move extremely fast it does take a 4:05 commitment 4:05 to continually have that upkeep in 4:08 making sure that it's correct 4:10 you don't want to put something out 4:11 there let it sit now you've already 4:13 changed careers or you've gone a 4:15 different direction 4:16 and then people find that and associate 4:18 with whatever maybe you wrote about 4:20 five years ago so make sure you have 4:22 that commitment moving forward 4:25 transparency is also key in a world 4:28 where we've seen 4:28 a lot of different repercussions for 4:31 what people post online 4:32 this is one of the things i cannot 4:34 stress enough ultimately 4:36 what you put out there in the online 4:39 digital world 4:40 always will exist you've seen a lot of 4:42 people go out post something immediately 4:44 delete it because they regret it maybe 4:47 you know they posted something under 4:48 unfavorable conditions for themselves 4:50 but ultimately they try and hide it this 4:53 never works 4:54 the concept of screen shotting archiving 4:57 there's way too many ways that people 4:58 will capture that 5:00 so you want to be transparent some of us 5:02 have done things in our past that we 5:04 you know aren't really proud of but 5:06 instead of trying to hide those 5:07 you should own those and make sure that 5:09 you're you get in front of them 5:11 any pr specialist will tell you this is 5:13 the approach you need to take 5:14 that ownership and being transparent 5:16 that you understand 5:17 and why you understand maybe this isn't 5:20 something favorable that you do anymore 5:22 so be transparent don't try and hide 5:24 things because no matter what 5:26 people will find it timeliness is 5:29 another thing that 5:30 really can kind of have a positive and a 5:32 negative look at it 5:34 you really need to be aware of what 5:35 you're putting out into the world and 5:37 what the general consensus of society is 5:39 at the time 5:40 what's going on in the world think about 5:43 current affairs 5:44 think about things that are going on pop 5:46 culture references 5:47 you want to do something that really 5:49 resonates with people 5:51 and doesn't stand out as negative so 5:53 what that means is kind of twofold 5:55 take advantage of different things going 5:57 on make sure your content aligns with 5:59 different things that are going on maybe 6:00 world events 6:01 some sort of conference some new 6:03 innovation you want to have those 6:04 conversations revolve you know 6:06 around with what you're putting out 6:08 there the other side of it is making 6:10 sure you understand the negative things 6:11 that are going on 6:12 and that you don't accidentally post 6:14 something that can be 6:16 misunderstood with what your purpose is 6:19 so being timely on both the positive 6:21 side to connect and have those 6:22 conversations 6:23 and then also to avoid any sort of 6:26 misunderstood information you're putting 6:28 out there 6:30 authenticity is one of the biggest keys 6:32 as well 6:33 be who you are and keep it real be 6:36 true to who you are and what you're 6:38 putting out there 6:39 there's a lot of people that maybe 6:41 create accounts on social media 6:43 or they're trying to act and resemble a 6:46 certain thing but ultimately that's 6:48 eventually found out when they meet you 6:50 in person 6:51 what i really think when it comes to 6:53 personal branding is you need to be your 6:55 true self 6:56 just because it's digital doesn't mean 6:58 it should be any different 7:00 nowadays our society really has merged 7:02 the two 7:03 and who you are digitally can affect who 7:05 you are personally and 7:06 you know quote unquote in the real world 7:09 so 7:09 be true to yourself that is one of the 7:11 most important things i can really 7:13 stress 7:14 because if you're not you're gonna get 7:16 caught and 7:17 that just doesn't end well for anybody 7:21 so now that we've looked at online 7:22 reputation management and kind of the 7:23 key points to it 7:25 what is your current brand now some of 7:28 you might actually 7:29 absolutely understand what your brand is 7:32 you might truly 7:33 have a purpose and if you've been 7:34 intentional with this and that's great 7:37 but also some of you probably are 7:38 wondering do i really have a personal 7:40 brand 7:41 what what is it what do i have out there 7:43 so we're going to take some steps here 7:45 to discover what that is and for those 7:48 of you that are aware of it 7:49 you can follow along and still basically 7:51 take an audit of what's out there 7:54 so how do you discover what your 7:56 reputation is 7:58 it's actually pretty easy all you have 8:00 to do is start with the easy one 8:02 google yourself and then we're going to 8:04 jump into 8:05 profile discovery a shared name and 8:08 public posting 8:10 so let's break these down one by one so 8:12 you can follow along 8:14 the first thing is begin your search on 8:16 google 8:17 type in your name and see what comes up 8:20 if you've done any work you've done any 8:21 public posting maybe you're on some 8:23 websites 8:24 especially if you're already into your 8:25 career this is a great way to just kind 8:27 of assess 8:28 what's already there and see what's 8:31 going to come up 8:32 because more than likely if you're 8:34 looking for a job or an internship 8:36 people are going to google your name 8:38 based off of your resume 8:40 what you submit and they're gonna look 8:41 to see what comes up 8:44 social and public accounts is another 8:46 thing you want to take into 8:47 consideration 8:49 there's so many things that are fast 8:50 moving in this world especially when it 8:52 comes to digital and social media that 8:54 you want to make sure you understand 8:55 what's out there 8:57 dig into accounts that maybe you created 8:59 that you don't use anymore 9:00 look at different public facing accounts 9:03 where are all these touch points that 9:04 people can see 9:05 and you want to really assess what's out 9:07 there and what they say 9:09 for the longest time i had a myspace 9:10 account that just sat there 9:12 and it wasn't until i really got into my 9:14 career hunt that i realized i need to 9:16 one try and remember the password to log 9:18 in and shut that account down it's not 9:20 that i didn't want anybody to see 9:22 it but my middle school and high school 9:24 self really didn't need to be conveyed 9:26 when people are looking you know into my 9:28 career maybe for 9:29 a job an internship or some sort of 9:31 opportunity 9:32 realize that these things all out there 9:34 are public and 9:36 they are findable in one way or another 9:38 so 9:39 take kind of an assessment of what those 9:40 are and then decide if you just need to 9:42 update profiles if you need to update a 9:44 photo 9:45 um but really take ownership and and 9:47 decide what you want to do with those 9:51 the next thing to be kind of considered 9:53 is a shared name 9:54 now this can get a little bit goofy but 9:57 ultimately in the world there's probably 9:59 somebody else that shares your name 10:01 i know i have a jeremiah bauman that 10:03 works in government 10:04 which means they have an email address 10:06 and a website that's dot gov 10:09 when it comes to google's algorithm i 10:10 will never top that 10:12 i will never be able to overcome a dot 10:15 gov because 10:16 google gives a priority so it's good to 10:18 be aware of what's out there 10:20 there's also another jeremiah bauman 10:22 that ended up 10:23 doing some some crazy surfing out on 10:25 lake superior 10:26 in the winter and i started getting 10:28 press calls about it 10:30 it wasn't me it was somebody who has my 10:32 same first and last name 10:33 a hundred miles away from where i 10:35 currently was 10:36 it's good to be aware of what's out 10:38 there because if something happens 10:40 either in positive or negative they 10:43 might assume you know 10:44 media people followers whatever might 10:46 assume it's you 10:47 and you want to be just aware that that 10:49 could happen and just keep your eye on 10:51 what that could mean for your own 10:53 reputation 10:56 public posts and comments this is 10:57 another one that a lot of people unless 10:59 you've 11:00 kind of really paid attention to social 11:01 media in the past uh whatever you put 11:03 out on a public page 11:05 so say you've written a review say 11:07 you've put something out there 11:08 on a facebook page that's all public 11:11 which means anybody can find those 11:13 comments blog 11:14 comments a big one for people is news 11:16 article comments 11:18 i'm sure you've all looked at those and 11:20 that's always pretty interesting journey 11:21 to read through 11:23 but realize that those can come up and 11:25 be associated to your name 11:27 so what have you put out there in the 11:28 public what have you seen out there 11:30 is really gonna you know make a big 11:32 difference to what people think about 11:34 you 11:35 so make sure that whatever you are 11:37 posting 11:38 you are okay with anybody being able to 11:40 find and respond to 11:42 and if there's things out there that you 11:43 really aren't comfortable with 11:45 you probably should go and find a way to 11:47 delete those or have those removed 11:50 so to wrap up this this segment we 11:52 covered what is personal branding 11:54 online reputation management and the 11:56 importance of commitment 11:57 transparency timeliness and authenticity 12:00 how to discover what your current brand 12:02 is 12:02 and discovering what that reputation is 12:05 hopefully this gives you a good 12:06 introduction 12:07 as we move on to the next segment about 12:09 taking control of your brand