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Personal Brand Growth

Rodgers Townsend's 6th Annual Fall Forum is quickly approaching. For anyone not familiar with the event, the agency invites students and recent graduates to tour the agency, listen to a few presentations from agency executives, receive resume and portfolio feedback and get an inside view of what it is like to work in the agency environment.

During previous events, I've been a part of the resume review team and every year a question always arises in one form or another:  How do I get from here to there? That question always propels my mind through the typical personal inventory of various roles and the skills acquired in each role, but what I find most interesting is how that question is an integral part of our agency's daily routine, especially within the analytics' and insight group.

Personal brands can follow the same process we utilize on a daily basis:

First, note all of the hurdles between you and your objective and the realities of clearing those hurdles. If possible, utilize outside resources and contacts for feedback. This will help you plan your path and forecast your benchmarks. In our work, we utilize research and data analysis to determine the best positioning for a brand based on market research and the feedback of current and prospective customers. In the absence of formal data, today's social environment provides a strong alternative for a personal brand.

Second, list your strategies and tactics for clearing those hurdles. The traditional path is usually crowded, expected and less than memorable. Create a list of various alternative paths and then rank your ideas for implementation. Score each idea via how it enhances or detracts from your ideal brand image.

Third, per another post on this blog, stop talking and do something. Begin testing the strategies and tactics. Request and note response and feedback and adjust your strategies and tactics accordingly. Any feedback can be utilized to strengthen your campaign. And then, as a colleague likes to say, "Rinse and repeat."

Brands are brands, whether personal or professional. And the strategies and tactics that create the world's best brands can be applied to yours.


Feltroning Facebook

The concept of personal branding came to me when I first discovered the Feltron Report. I remember hearing buzz about it in 2006. Designer Nicholas Felton made an annual report for himself. And every year since he has come out with a new report that is chock full of sweet infographic candy that I just want to keep unwrapping.

FeltronReportPage

His reports, and later his site Daytum, speak to the evolution of personal branding.  Looking back at photos, we've all always had a personal brand - a favorite color to wear, a series of hobbies, and an arsenal of stories. But now our entire lives are online. In a lot of ways we're creating personal brands without even realizing it. And I'm not sure about you, but the Facebook me is way cooler than actual me. Especially thanks to apps like Instagram, and before that Hipstamatic.

One thing that has always been missing from Facebook is allowing users to make more of a visual statement. MySpace was on to something - you could change your entire background. It led to some legibility issues, but it gave the users a chance to create a look and feel that touched their entire page. And, more recently, Pinterest is so visual it makes the user never want to leave the page.

Enter Facebook Timeline. Be still my little designery beating heart. Overall, the layout is much more visual. You can also establish a sense of visual hierarchy by highlighting some posts over others. And my favorite new addition: The Cover Photo.

Bottom line - with Timeline there's more to look at, a better sense of evolution, and more design control. So it should come as no surprise that the designer behind it is Nicholas Felton. He's been organizing personal information beautifully for years. Brilliant move Facebook. I can't wait to see what's next.

If you'd like to learn more about Felton and Facebook check out this article at Fast Co. Design.