The Personal Branding handbook contains tips and mythbusters from the talk given by Akanksha Goel at AdWomen ME TrendTalks hosted by the Shelter on the 24th of February 2010. She covered how to leverage online platforms and tools to monitor your brand equity and build thought capital. She also introduced how executives can help humanize the corporate brand and successfully pitch to bloggers and community influencers, using a successful personal brand.

1. YOU2.0: Leveraging Social
Media for Personal Branding
By Akanksha Goel, Socialize
In association with AdWomen Middle East

2. Personal Branding is the process by which we market ourselves to others. While many may advocate
envisioning yourself as a corporate brand, one cannot take the exact approach; after all we need to include
the human element. You wouldn‟t really attach a cheesy tagline to your name, now would you?
We‟ve included a few tips below to get you started on Personal Branding. We hope you get a better idea as
you work through them.
Tips for Personal Branding -- By Bhavishya Kanjhan
1. Be consistent with your personal brand. Your name is most likely to be your unique proposition. If
you‟ve decided to have a variant of it, stick with it everywhere.
2. Listen and monitor what is being said around your Personal Brand.
a. Do regular Google and Twitter search around your name.
b. Setup Google alerts to be notified of any mentions of your personal brand on the web.
3. Build a “home-base” – your blog / website. If you don‟t have the resources to build a full-fledged
website, get a Tumblr / Posterous / Wordpress account and use that as your home base. Also try
creating a Google Profile Page, it‟s easy to setup and lets you link to your other online profiles.
4. Create content around your area of expertise. If you don‟t have time to create content regularly,
share interesting and relevant content on your home base.
5. Get a domain name around your personal brand. It doesn‟t have to be a .com – the domain can be
directed to your home base. For .ae accounts, consider Instra.
6. Build a detailed “About” page on your home base, with a detailed bio about you and your business.
7. Comment frequently on blogs (both local and international) in the industry of your expertise. The
more you participate in conversations, the more credibility you build around yourself. Moreover
blogs/websites let you include a link with your comments, these then link back to your home-base
8. Sign up for and maintain a LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn pages are highly ranked on Google and the
platform is a useful tool for developing and maintaining your professional network.
9. Get onto Twitter:
a. Follow and connect with local and international tweeps.
b. Tweet - regularly and consistently – a healthy mix of professional and personal content. The
professional is to build credibility and the personal is to build relationships.
10. Similarly setup an account on local social and professional networks too to increase your online
presence – inTheLoop.me is an example of a local professional network.
11. Add your professional qualifications and current employment information to Facebook and link it
to your professional profile.
12. Fill out your complete profile on all the platforms mentioned above. The more information you
fill in, the more likely you are to be found.
13. Keep it consistent –
a. Have a similar but not same bio across all platforms. Variants become necessary to adapt it
to the style and setting of the platform in question.
b. Use the same profile picture across different networks to be easily identified.
14. Tie everything together. Make sure every portal links to the rest of the portals. For example your
home base links to your LinkedIn profile, Twitter account, Facebook profile etc.
15. Do not engage in spam/push behaviour – Exercise caution when making connections and don‟t
push your business services and products too hard.
16. Instead focus on building real relationships with people across networks.
17. Keep everything you do clean, appropriate and professional. A good rule of thumb is to not say
or do anything you wouldn‟t want your mother to see.
Looking for examples? Or a way to get started ? Look up: Akanksha Goel / Alexander
McNabb
See what comes up, and use that as a starting point to start building your personal brand
online.
MythBusters! Our take on 5 Personal Branding Myths -- By Muhammed Ali Jamadar
Personal Branding has grown a stereotype that it can only be used by people who are already successful,
well established or have something to sell.Fortunately for the rest of the world, that is not the case. The 5
myths of Personal Branding shall now be scrutinized and proven wrong.

3. I Don’t Have a Personal Brand – False!
Donald Trump‟s personal brand of, „Trump,‟ formulates a powerful idea in a consumer‟s mind. Why?
Donald Trump has been able to transcend his persona into his personal brand, making it every bit as
menacing as himself. The idea that Donald Trump is a hard businessman now flows through his brand,
„Trump‟. Personal experiences and your mental translation of these experiences into personality are all
building blocks of your personal brand. Everyone has a personal brand, but not everyone tries to monitor
and influence it.
Personal Branding is All About You – False!
Similar to corporate branding, a personal brand is built based on the positioning in everyone else‟s mind.
It‟s not true that if you wish to create a Personal Brand you have to focus only on yourself and your
achievements. Your personal brand is manifested through others‟ opinions, so that should be your focus.
Serve others. Everyone you interact with becomes a stakeholder in your personal brand. The ability to
promote yourself through others will grow as your sphere of influence, visibility and success stories grows.
Control over your reputation is shared – do not lose sight of that.
Personal Branding is Image Management – False!
Image Management is the process of maintaining a shiny exterior, by making aesthetic changes like wearing
better suits, donning shinier shoes or clipping on the right cuffs. It is changing your image to better shape
perceptions. While this is not a bad thing, if this cannot be backed up by a similar personality and approach
to responsibility, it turns moot. Personal branding is self-marketing through your inner capabilities and
character. Image management becomes pointless if you do it only to deceive people into believing you‟re
capable of something you‟re not. Personal branding is the back office to Image management.
Personal Branding is All About Getting a Job – False!
If you‟re creating a personal brand targeted at getting you hired, then you‟re going about personal branding
in the wrong manner. While targeting employment is not a bad thing, it reduces your cycle to a very short
period. The average person does anywhere from 10-15 jobs in his or her lifetime. Employment should be
part of the personal branding methodology but not the ultimate goal.
Example: Jeremiah Owyang is a celebrated example in the realm of personal branding. As a Sr.
Researcher for Forrester Research: Social Computing he consistently built his own personal brand by
offering his research papers to anyone through his blog, Web Strategy, free of cost. This helped build his
reputation and strengthen his personal brand, which
happened while he already had a job. By extensively
building his personal brand during this time, when
If you can, be first. If you can't be first,
he started his own project, Altimeter, he was able to
create a new category in which you can be
carry forward his brand reputation, which translates
first."
into clients, to this project.
Al Ries & Jack Trout, The 22 Immutable Laws of
While using personal branding for employment is
Marketing
not a bad idea, using that as a focus of your efforts is.
Not Everyone Can Be Successful – False!
Success should not be limited to how much money you make. If that was the criteria, Forbes & Fortune 500
would limit themselves to the quintessential millionaires. So, how does one define sustainable success? The
best way to go about it is to leave the definition of success open ended. That way it becomes relative and
let‟s a lot more people be successful.
Success could be broadly described as being able to monetize your passion. Through personal branding you
can help create an atmosphere around you where you do what you enjoy. What you do then becomes a.
„paid hobby,‟ like being a professional sports player or the sort. You end up loving your job, doing it more
efficiently, and creating a better personal brand for yourself.

4. The Four Types of Twitter Profiles – By Muhammed Ali Jamadar (Mali)
1. The Purely Corporate Account
The purely corporate account posts corporate related content all the time. The account itself will be
named after the corporate brand itself and is used to provide details like company achievements,
special offers, news, customer service etc. It is seen as an extension of the firm‟s PR activities. There
is no individual whose name is connected to this account, which is seen as a corporate entity.
Example: @DuTweets: DuTweets offers latest updates, customer support and regularly
posts online coverage of local telecom provider Du.
Pros: The account is managed by a team, so you can have multiple heads working on it.
Similarly the account can stay active for longer hours, as the team works on shifts.
Cons:The account can be viewed as just an extension of a PR campaign held by the
corporate, which could result in any updates being drowned out in Corporate White Noise.
2. The Corporate Account with a Persona
Similar to the first, this kind of account also provides details like company achievements, special
offers, news, customer service etc., and is also named after the brand itself. However the key
difference lies in the fact that there is a clear indicator as to who is the person behind the account.
This then translates to about 80% of corporate content with 20% personal content.
Example: @WildPeeta: The Twitter account of the popular fusion shawarma store is
handled by the proprietor, Mohammed Parham, who also uses it as his personal account. He
tweets mostly Wildpeeta related issues, but occasionally comments on how his kickboxing
classes were.
Pros: This kind of account humanizes the corporate entity on the internet, which allows for
easier trust building and confidence gathering.
Cons: Because it‟s only managed by one person, you limit yourself to human elements like
time and capabilities. Also, it raises the question of what happens if the person behind the
account leaves the firm
3. Employee With Corporate Association
Moving towards the other end of the spectrum of twitter accounts, this kind of account is a personal
account where 80% of content is personal and the remaining 20% of the content is corporate
related. This is the most common sort of account found on twitter. It represents both the person‟s
individualism and also his corporate identity.
Example: @mnystedt. Managing Editor of Dubai-based Shufflegazine – an Apple Lifestyle
Magazine – and Administrator of EmiratesMac.com, Magnus tweets regularly and frequently
about technology news and new gadgets. However he does have a lot of content on his work
as editor of Shufflegazine and share links from the website. Seen as an authority on
everything Apple in Dubai, Magnus has built a solid personal brand around himself which is
strongly connected to Shufflegazine.
Pros: A very organic approach to twitter, this is a great way to build a network based
community that share personal and professional interests
Cons:While a person may claim that, “my views are my own and do not represent my firm,”
observers will still translate content into a view held by the firm.
4. Pure Personal Account
This account type hosts purely personal content and almost no content related to corporate or
corporate brands. While the person may post something about, „work,‟ no specific details are given
out, rendering the brand unknown.
Example: @NaseemFaqihi. While she is highly opinionated on food, clothes and politics, no
one knows where Naseem works. Why? She never says. (We know: She holds a managerial
role in an international bank)
Pros: No tie to brand, rendering all previous cons moot.
Cons:Because you have no branding, you risk reducing the evangelistic opportunities for
your own personal brand.

5. Looking to know more? Here are some resources :
The Key to your Personal Brand, By Mitch Joel
http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/the-key-to-your-personal-brand/
The Brand Called You, By Tom Peters (Fast Company)
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/10/brandyou.html
6 Personal Branding Mistakes That Can Threaten Your Job Search
http://www.cio.com/article/515613/6_Personal_Branding_Mistakes_That_Can_Threaten_Your_
Job_Search
5 LinkedIn tips on effective personal branding
http://blog.linkedin.com/2009/04/07/5-linkedin-tips-on-effective-personal-branding/
Personal Branding Is Important, Like It or Not
http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/07/13/personal-branding-is-important-like-it-or-not/
Authentic Personal Branding
http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/sep2009/ca20090929_228578.htm
The Personal Branding Blog by Dan Schawbel: http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/

6. Socialize
Socialize is a social media training and consulting house that teaches and helps businesses attract and
engage customers using online platforms and tools.
A passionate team of marketing thought leaders and social media insiders, we help companies not only
understand what Social Media marketing is, but actually evolve the way they communicate with consumers.
We create media-savvy marketing strategies based on superior industry knowledge, a real understanding of
the issues that affect both our clients and their customers, and a genuine enthusiasm for what we do.
Find us at:
One Lake Plaza, 15-01
Jumeirah Lake Towers
Dubai 124628
Tel: +971 4 4308575
Fax: +971 4 4308574
Twitter: @SocializeUAE
Facebook: facebook.com/SocializeUAE
Blog: blog.socialize.ae