The Business Growth Blog by Rob Cuesta

Personal style statements and your personal brand

Technorati can throw up all sorts of wonderful stuff, and this is one of them. Imagine having your entire personal style summed up in two descriptive words that guide every decision you have to make. That's what Carrie & Danielle are apparently proposing, and with 600 clients to their name someone must think they're onto a good thing.

My online personal branding bookstore

I was doing my regular 'self-google' the other day, and just for laughs I decided to carry on past the first 3 pages. I was delighted to discover that people have been tagging my online bookstore at Amazon on Del.icio.us and other social bookmarking sites, and sharing it with their friends as a site worth visiting. Thanks for the support folks :) it encourages me to keep reading and keep bringing you my the picks of current personal branding-related books.

How useful is an online forum in building a personal brand?

An interesting question came up the other day on a forum I belong to, which was "how useful are forums in building your personal brand?" This was very timely as I've recently been taking quite an interest in how professionals can build a brand based on information and information products.

Forums can be especially useful if you are working in a knowledge-related field and selling products or workshops. Set up a forum for each product or workshop where users/ participants can discuss what they have learnt and ask questions. You then have four decisions to make.

Can I use Facebook in building a personal brand?

As readers of my blog know, I'm a big fan of networking sites like LinkedIn and Ecademy. However, with the growing buzz about Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites, and their increasing take-up by 30-something professionals, I also get asked whether these sites should be part of your personal brand efforts.

Personally, I’m not sure how useful a site like Facebook is for brand  building. On the face of it, it seems a good idea: constant contact, regular updates from your colleagues and clients, an easy mechanism for getting news to people, etc. In practice things aren’t quite so clear cut, and I’m yet to be convinced. However, if you do want to use it for professional networking here are six tips for keeping a ‘clean’ profile:

Putting the "personal" in your personal brand

Over at Fast Company, Wendy Marx has posted a great article that reminded me of two key things in Personal Branding.

3 Secret Steps to Creating the Professional Career You Deserve

My new special report finally here...

What does your office artwork say about your personal brand?

Artfinder Lydia Bates has just posted a funny, but insightful, commentary on office artwork here. Your office environment is an intrinsic part of the Expression of your brand (one of the five pillars of a POWER Brand). Although Lydia's post talks about corporate workplaces, I've seen many managers and entrepreneurs who committed similar sins in choosing what to put on the walls of their personal office.

My POWER Brand Assessment

Something odd is going on...

Personal Branding Magazine

I was a little quiet a couple of weeks ago on the blogging front. The fact is I was working on an article for the new Personal Branding Magazine published by Dan Schawbel.

If you’re reading this, the chances are you’re a bit of a maverick...

... and if you’re not, you should be!

mav·er·ick (măv'ər-ĭk, măv'rĭk)

n.

1. An unbranded range animal, especially a calf that has become separated from its mother, traditionally considered the property of the first person who brands it.
   
2. One that refuses to abide by the dictates of or resists adherence to a group; a dissenter.

adj.

Being independent in thought and action or exhibiting such independence: maverick politicians; a maverick decision.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. More from Dictionary