Personal Branding_ A Blueprint for Professional Success Reading

● References

Chapter 9: Ethics and Professionalism

Learning Objectives

● Recognize the importance of ethical practices in personal branding
● Articulate the ethical consequences and challenges involving personal
branding
● Explain the components of a code of ethics
● Identify best practices for professionalism and personal branding

SECTION 1

Introduction

You need to be aware of the ethical implications that help guide your personal
brand off and online. It is easy to focus on just the positive outcomes or the
“fairytale” view of a personal brand, and while great things can be won and
accomplished with a personal brand, there are tough choices that have to be
made.

There are many situations that could tempt you to pursue personal gain and fame
and fortune. But at what cost? Is building a fake brand with fake followers to
create the illusion of influence worth the consequences of brands and community
members finding out?

It just takes one incident to change your personal brand’s future forever. Just one.

Ethics and professionalism have been at the forefront of marketing, public
relations, and social and digital marketing professions. There are professional

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organizations with strong ethical codes of conduct, yet, we are still seeing not just
ethical violations across the board with brands and companies, but with individual
professionals as well.

Ethics are guidelines of behavior based on values and principles that influence
actions and help in the determination of what is right or wrong.

There are certain behaviors that are clearly defined as right or wrong. For
example, no one should steal or claim other people’s work. No one should mislead
or provide misinformation to audience or community members. No one should be
dishonest or unfair to those who they represent or work for.

Ethics matter not only when people are watching you, but especially when they
are not.

Dawne Ware discusses the importance of having strong ethics in relation to a
personal brand in her Ted Talk, “Ethics: Yes, Even When Nobody Is Watching.”

This chapter will discuss from an ethical perspective some of the issues facing
professionals, as well as potential scenarios that could make you face ethical
challenges head on. Understanding how you would react and respond is important.
It’s not a question of whether or not you will face ethical challenges. The question
is when you will.

SECTION 2

Ethics in Personal Branding

As you build your personal brand, you set forth certain values, behaviors, and
attributes that align with who you are and how you want to present yourself
across channels. Your ethical and moral behaviors should reflect the best of who

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you are — and model for others what you expect from clients and business
partners.

Essentially, ethics related to personal branding focus on:

● Moral behaviors and principles that can be identified as being good or bad
● The evaluation of actions and activities that may do harm to your personal
brand and ethical code
● The identification of partners and organization that align with your moral
principles and code of ethics

Figure 9.2.1

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Individuals, brands, and other organizations want to do business and connect
with ethical people, and it is important to make sure to embrace this
consistently and authentically.

Having strong personal ethics in a business setting:

● Allows an individual to be trusted as a thought leader and visionary. If
people know you are ethical and have strong moral values, you will be viewed
as more trustworthy and reliable in the industry compared to someone that is
not following through on their ethical principles.
● Sets a standard for behavior. A personal brand is built over time, and if you
are practicing ethical behavior consistently, you are setting a standard for that
will continue to help the positive feelings and perceptions people have of you
and your personal brand.
● Gives an individual the ability to know how to respond in a situation based
on the values and principles they have established. As will be discussed later in
this chapter, your code of ethics can outline what values you hold dear and that
are part of your personal brand.

QUESTIONS TO ASK

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you start thinking about the ethical
implications that could emerge within a personal brand setting.

● Am I being true to who I am and how I present myself?
● Are my actions speaking louder than my words?
● What are the ethical challenges and risks I may personally face in
partnering with certain brands?
● Do I have any risks in misleading my audiences to think of me in a different
light that is not true to who I am?

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● Am I being transparent to who I “really” am? Meaning, is my brand
consistent across all channels, audiences, and situations?
● Am I prepared for the consequences of my words and actions not aligning
with my personal brand?
It is important to start thinking about these questions on a regular basis. Being
able to evaluate the answers to these questions will help you determine how
you will behave in an ethical dilemma.

SECTION 3

Possible Ethical Scenarios in Personal Branding

The question is not if you are going to face an ethical challenge in your career
or with your personal brand, but when it will happen. Each person will have the
experience of facing a situation where they have to evaluate how they are going
to respond, what actions they are going to take, and what they need to do to be
consistent and aligned with their morals and code of ethics.

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Figure 9.3.1

A code of ethics provides audiences (or, in this case, an individual for a personal
brand) a set of guidelines for values, principles, and standards that individuals
aspire to. The responsibility for ethical behavior is in the individual’s hands — it
is up to them to follow through on these standards and make sure they are
practicing what they are preaching.

Yet, it is important to note that a code of ethics cannot guarantee ethical
behavior. A code of ethics provides guidelines, but the individual who is
committed to these principles has to follow through with their actions and
behaviors in a consistent and authentic manner. Otherwise, a code of ethics will
be meaningless.

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Indeed has a great list on how to create your own code of ethics, which would
be great to have for accountability purposes to keep you on track for your own
personal branding activities.

Guidelines

Following are some guidelines to consider when creating a code of ethics:

STATEMENT OF THE ETHICAL CODE

Most codes of ethics discuss how committed the organization (or person) is to
practicing ethical behavior and outline the importance of having ethical
practices in their respective industry and role in society. This statement usually
is a paragraph long, at most. As PRSA has in their ethical code, it outlines the
expectations they have for PR professionals who want to work in the field.

CORE VALUES

Most codes of ethics list certain values an organization (or individual) feels align
with their ethical practices as a brand, organization, or person. Most core
values in a code of ethics focus on integrity, honesty, fairness, and commitment
to helping others in the network, community, and society.

RELATIONSHIP IDENTIFICATION

Are the organizations, people, and brands you are working with aligned with the
values and traits you have set forth? If so, how can you make sure to continue
the relationship? If not, what are some steps you will need to take?

It is important to look at the relationships you have since these will impact how
others perceive you. For example, if you are collaborating with a controversial
person or brand, people may assume you embrace and accept the behaviors and

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values they have rather than the ones you are embracing and promoting for
yourself.

SET OF PRINCIPLES AND VALUES

Codes of ethics do not have to be super long documents, but rather a set of four
to five principles and values you hold dear as a person for your personal brand.

Make sure your code of ethics states these values in first person. For example, if
you believe in treating everyone fairly, you may have a statement something
like this: “Be professional. I will treat everyone I engage with in the highest
respect and be fair in my correspondence and professional activities.”

Examples

Each of the following links is to the code of ethics for the listed organization:

● APA
● PRSA
● Kellogg’s
● Google

Considerations

Now, it is important to be able to apply your values and ethical practices in real
life. When push comes to shove, will you stay true to your ethical code of
conduct? Or, will it be harder than you think to stay committed to the values
you have set forth? These are important questions to consider because you may
think you will act a certain way and do the opposite. Understanding this is key,
and a recommended way to prepare is to think about the possible cases where
you may experience ethical challenges.

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Here are a few considerations you may want to explore in determining how you
would behave if you were faced with these situations:

DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PAID COLLABORATIONS

If you are an influencer or creator for a brand, you need to disclose that
association openly. A lot of influencers have gotten into trouble with the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for not disclosing who they represent and
whether or not they have been compensated for these efforts. You need to
make sure to fully represent yourself in a transparent manner.

WHAT YOU SAY CAN BE GOOGLED — AND TIED TO YOUR PERSONAL BRAND FOREVER

This is not to scare you, but rather for you to acknowledge the significance of
this point. Remember, Google (and the internet generally) does not forget. Make
sure you are very aware that what you say, share, and discuss on social media
channels is for everyone to see. This includes even direct messages since these
can be shared, distributed, and publicly discussed.

Think before you post, and recognize that it only takes one screenshot to make
everyone think differently about you. Even if you think conversations are
private, they are not. You have to really trust the other person. Would they
screenshot a conversation (or record the video from Instagram or TikTok) to be
shared elsewhere?

Sure, you can delete the post, video, or item in question — but if someone has a
screenshot, it is alive and well for everyone to discuss not just now, but forever.

SEVERING TIES WITH BRANDS

While brands have separated from professionals in light of personal crises (as
with Marilyn Manson, Joss Whedon, Ellen DeGeneres and more), can

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professionals do the same thing if they feel a brand is not practicing ethical
principles that align with their own personal brand? The answer is “yes,” and
professionals should always feel they have the chance to sever ties if they feel
the connection with a brand, client, or organization is hurting their own
reputation.

BEING YOUR BEST SPOKESPERSON, BUT IN A NARCISSISTIC WAY

As mentioned before, for a personal brand to thrive, you do have to be your
own best spokesperson. However, there is a time and place for you to speak
about your personal brand. If your feed and discussion is 100 percent about you
and always about you, that’s an issue.

SAYING SOMETHING CONTROVERSIAL FOR THE SAKE OF 15 MINS. (OR SECONDS) OF FAME

This particular sin focuses on the timing and appropriateness of jumping into a
conversation just for the sake of being controversial. There are individuals who
want to share their viewpoint on a topic that may be trending on social media
to spark outrage or even notoriety to get others to follow, engage, and pay
attention to their account. Shock value is a reaction and form of publicity for a
personal brand, but at the end of the day, it is not worth it.

FOLLOWING RULES REGARDING WHAT YOU SHARE

Using images, ideas, videos, GIFs, photos, and other creative works without
proper attribution or payment is not okay. Deciding to do so and getting caught
looks very bad on your personal brand. It is better to give credit where credit is
due and make sure everything is above level. This especially is relevant for
ideas. You want to give credit to the person that came up with the original idea
— this is similar to citing a source in a research paper. No one likes it when
someone else gets the praise and shout outs when they were not the one who
came up with the idea. That’s not good manners.

BEING TRUTHFUL TO WHO YOU ARE AND TO WHAT YOU KNOW

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It is very easy to present yourself as an expert in a field. One could buy
followers, create momentum of engaged posts with the help of bots and other
automated tools, and take ideas and work from others and claim it as one’s
own.

There are professionals who have built their entire career on unethical
practices, unfortunately. Yet, this does not mean YOU should do this. You have
to act better than individuals who chose this dark path to personal branding
fame and fortune. This means you must identify yourself, what you know, what
your experience has really been, and the actual work you have produced.

SECTION 4

Professionalism in Personal Branding

Best Practices

When it comes to professionalism in personal branding, there are some underlying
best practices to keep in mind and follow through on.

BE A STUDENT OF ETHICAL BEHAVIOR, CASE STUDIES, AND SITUATIONS

In this case, learning from others is a great way to see what works and what
happens when something goes wrong. Be aware we are all human and make
mistakes, but each case provides real-world viewpoints on the consequences of
what could happen if the wrong action, statement, or initiative is taken. Real
cases will teach you more than you would have expected, and you want to make
note of these examples so you will not take the same actions with your own
personal brand.

HAVE A PLAN IN PLACE

Have steps to follow in the case you are faced with an ethical challenge and need
some structure on how to handle the situation. This infographic, “6 Steps to

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Ethical Decision Making,” from infographic company Venngage, is a great resource
for identifying the steps of how to handle a situation in an ethical manner.

When it comes to the first step given in this infographic, “Establish the facts in a
situation,” you want to make sure you are looking at the given situation from a
balanced perspective. In determining ethical and legal issues for Step 2, determine
as well the implications for your personal brand. For Step 3, it is good to evaluate
what could potentially happen based on choosing certain routes. At Step 4,
determine what would be the best option for you based on the ethical code of
conduct you have committed to and the values you hold dear. For the last two
steps, identify and then select the best option.

ROLE PLAY HOW YOU WOULD APPROACH ETHICAL SCENARIOS

Preparation is always good, and one way you can prepare for the ethical scenarios
you may be faced with is to role play how you would approach each of these
situations. Have family members or friends help you, and see how you will act and
respond based on potential scenarios. It is better to learn from these staged
experiences rather than getting a crash course in the real world where there could
be significant consequences.

HAVE YOUR OWN ETHICAL CODE OF CONDUCT

As mentioned in a previous section, make sure to write out your personal code of
conduct — tailored to you and including what behaviors you want to communicate
as part of your personal brand. Each code of ethics is going to be different from
person to person, but you want to be realistic, committed, and aligned with values
and principles.

LIST THE SITUATIONS IN WHICH YOU WOULD “WALK AWAY” FROM A BRAND PARTNERSHIP

When it comes to working with brands and others, list all you want to see from
them from an ethical perspective. Identify their core ethics and principles, and see
if they live up to what they are presenting. In addition, outline the

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non-negotiables for brand partnerships and collaborations and what steps you will
take to walk away from the situation.

Glossary

code of ethics: a list of values and principles that you stand by in practicing in your
professional and personal activities

ethics: guidelines of behavior based on values and principles that influence actions
and help in the determination of what is right or wrong

Assignments

Creating Your Own Ethical Code Assignment

The chapter presents key principles of ethical behavior. For this assignment, you
are to create your own code of ethics as a professional. To complete this
assignment:

1) Identify at least five core values as part of your code of ethics (list values you
feel are part of your code of ethics)

2) Identify and specifically highlight the rationale for why you have chosen these
five core values

3) Discuss the steps you will take in order to make sure you follow these values for
your personal brand

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Ethical Scenarios Assignment

Identify a possible ethical scenario you could potentially face during your career
and professional activities. Then, provide answers to the following questions:

SCENARIO OVERVIEW

● What are the risks to your personal brand?
● How does this scenario tie to your personal brand?
● What are some of the potential consequences to your personal brand if faced
with this scenario?

STRATEGIES AND ACTIONS TO PREPARE FOR AN ETHICAL SCENARIO

● What will you do to prevent the scenario from happening?
● How will you determine whether or not you have overcome these
consequences if they arise?
● What next steps will you take to be proactive in your ethical behavior with
your personal brand?

Project

Create a Personal Brand Ethical Guide Project

Expand on what you created for your code of ethics to identify what you will and
will not do for your personal brand. For this project, complete the following steps.

1) Create a two-page document that highlights:

● Scenarios you could potentially face with your personal brand and what
actions will you take
● Some non-negotiables for your personal brand when it comes to ethics
● Responses you would give based on these non-negotiables

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2) Create an infographic displaying the main principles of your two-page
document.

3) Sign the document at the bottom of the infographic to keep yourself
accountable to these principles and guidelines.

Chapter 10: Measuring Success, Progress, and Improvements

Learning Objectives

● Define “measurement” for personal branding
● Explain the importance of measuring success in personal branding
● Identify key successes for measuring progress and improvement in personal
branding

SECTION 1

Introduction

Did you know that all of the times you were monitoring for brand mentions,
measuring KPIs and campaigns, and listening for work in the marketing and
communications field will be more important than ever? Why is that? Because as
has been shown in this book, your personal brand and you are your most
important client. You have to take the same energy, commitment, and
investment in understanding what is working for you, what you need to
improve, and where you need to go in your personal brand with your
measurement strategy.

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You may be thinking, “Really? Why is that the case?” Because you need to
understand how your personal brand journey is evolving and identify what it
means to have success in personal branding.

Success in personal branding comes in many forms, shapes, and events, so there
is no one unifying definition here. In many ways when it comes to personal
branding, it seems people would know the definition of success, thinking that
the ultimate goal for a personal brand is mentions that come across Google
Alerts, highlights of one’s work being showcased around the world by other
professionals, or the amount of influence gained based on what one has created
or said.

Figure 10.I.1

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Success could also be attached to one particular factor people may focus on
when it comes to doing business or managing a personal brand, but that
approach is limiting to what can be possible for personal brands.

Success does not mean gaming the system and getting yourself on a top 100
influencers list. Does it mean you are making millions of dollars? No. It comes
down to what your goals are, what have you achieved, and what is possible
moving forward. Success is a broad term and can mean different things
depending on a person’s goals.

What about a piece of content that resonates with an audience that is opened
up numerous opportunities? Or a partnership that has resulted over a long-term
relationship that is authentic and that can help your personal brand and
business to new heights? We sometimes overlook the smaller milestones and
focus on the end goal.

However, life is not made up of one big end game. Life is made up of many
small victories and accomplishments that help keep us grounded while also
motivated to improve. If you sit on your accolades and say that you have
accomplished everything that you could possibly accomplish by the age of 20,
what else is left? This is a very limited viewpoint that many people in
marketing, public relations, and even social media fall into. It is a trap to not
see personal branding as a long, evolving, and multi-level game.

SECTION 2

Measuring a Personal Brand

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You can have the best ideas out there for your personal brand, but if you are
not able to measure and learn from experiences, you will not be able to
measure your progress, success, or brainstorm ways to improve your personal
brand. Data and numbers can tell a lot about our stories and overall impact on
others, our professions, and even on society.

You Ask, I Answer: Succeeding Online Without a Personal Brand?

First, you have to make sure you have items you CAN measure as part of our
personal brand. Speaker and blogger Christopher Penn outlines the necessary
items for a personal brand to be measured. His list includes:

● Website
● Blog
● Portfolio
● A free Google Analytics account (to be tied to your personal website and
blog)
● Social media accounts
● A Talkwalker and Google Alerts free account

Measurement for personal brands follows (or should follow) the same standards
and guidelines used for measurement and evaluation for most strategic plans,
and that is to make sure the objectives (statements of what you want to
achieve in any strategic venture) are sound and systematic.

SMART Criteria

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With that being said, personal branding objectives follow the key SMART
criteria. Using the SMART criteria is, as Chapter 6 explains, an established way
to categorize effective objectives into five categories. SMART stands for
specific, measureable, achievable, realistic, and time-specific.

● All objectives must be specific. This means you have to be very clear
about objectives. What do you want to accomplish in your personal brand? To
gain a following on TikTok? To increase your brand collaborations? To become a
leader in the field? You have to be specific on what you want to accomplish.
● All objectives must be measurable, which is the focus of this chapter.
Measurements must be aligned with what you want to accomplish. Assign a
numerical value to your objectives. For example, by how much do you want to
increase the number of followers on TikTok by? How many brand collaborations
do you want to create?
● All objectives must be achievable. You have to make sure you have the
energy and resources to make these objectives happen. Be aware of the success
rate these may have.
● All objectives must also be realistic. You can’t say you want to have 100
brand collaborations by tomorrow. Or that in the next few hours you want to
become the biggest TikTok star. Those are not realistic objectives.
● All objectives should be specific in their timing. It is only fair that your
coworkers know when they can expect objectives to be achieved.

KPIs

To determine whether or not you have achieved your objectives, you need to
establish a set of key performance indicators (KPIs), metrics you will use to
evaluate whether or not you have successfully achieved your personal branding
campaign objectives.

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KPIs should be determined before you venture into measuring these objectives.
KPIs are not to be decided when you start measuring. Determining KPIs before
measurement begins will allow you to monitor over time how these KPIs have
changed and help in determining what you can do for the future in your
personal branding efforts. So, with that being said, here are some questions you
will want to ask yourself in determining KPIs:

● How do these metrics align with my set objectives?
● How easy will it be to calculate, collect, and analyze the data?
● Will these metrics be able to provide insight to help in the decision-making
process for future recommendations for my personal brand?
● Do I have the right tools and knowledge to collect and analyze using this
metric?

Historically, most brand and marketing initiatives focus on evaluation based on
the objectives and KPIs classified as awareness, consideration, and action,
according to Smart Insights.

AWARENESS

Awareness focuses on how your content has been viewed by others, and, in
many ways, is considered for highlighting what are often referred to as vanity
metrics. Vanity metrics are basic metrics that focus on the big numbers (ex.
Follower counts, views, likes, etc) that look good, but they really do not mean
a lot. For example, how do impressions tell us anything about the chances
people would take action in following our personal brand?

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CONSIDERATION

Consideration focuses on the engagement and interest in what was presented to
others and their willingness to learn more about you and your personal brand.

ACTION

The most valuable objectives and KPIs fall under the action (behavior) items.
Action includes the behaviors audiences took in response to what you have
shared and discussed. Individual tasks such as signing up for a newsletter,
advocating for you to others, subscribing to your YouTube channel, and more are
more valuable than anything else. This shows the ultimate impact of what you
said and how many people took action based on what you said or shared.

Measurement Strategy

As presented, measurement is more than just collecting data and analyzing it,
and, as with creative execution of content, there is an art to analyzing and
discovering insights gathered from data to best tell a story of what happened
and what can be done for the future. Such a measurement strategy is one of the
things missing from personal branding campaigns. To fully integrate the
importance of measurement into personal branding, you have to first
acknowledge the difference between mega-wins and micro-wins.

MEGA-WINS

We always seem to think of mega-wins when it comes to putting together a
personal branding strategy. We want to be the next viral star for TikTok, to
follow in the shoes of Charli D’Amelio. We want to become, like Olivia Rodrigo,

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a millionaire with brand deals and fame. We want to have immediate success in
the forms of new shows, endorsements, dream jobs, and more.

It’s important to note what these mega-wins represent. Many times, people
assume that a lot happens overnight, but in many cases, we do not know the
complete story or what sacrifices were made to make such events and
partnerships happen.

MICRO-WINS

It is important to know the steps that have helped build personal brand success.
Keep track of every small or large win that comes your way. Of course, we focus
on the larger goals, the big wins and the momentous life events that have
shaped our personal brands. Life is not made up of just those big moments, but
also those smaller moments that help you understand your journey.

These smaller wins, otherwise known as micro-wins, are reflections of how you
are able to make an impact on people, our communities, and solidify your
position in your industry with our content stories and experiences. Measuring
micro-wins helps us to appreciate steps along the way and to know that we are
moving forward rather than backward in achieving our ultimate goals for our
personal brands.

If you just focus on achieving the major win for a personal brand, you may not
be motivated and might feel overwhelmed looking at the big picture. Micro-wins

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are essential for us to move forward; however, we need to be aware of how to
measure these wins appropriately and how to determine whether or not we are
making progress so that we change course as needed.

There are many micro-wins to be celebrated and evaluated as they show us we
are on the right track:

Shout-outs and Mentions

If you get a shout-out on Twitter for creating a blog post that really resonates
with someone on a topic you're passionate about, you have made an
impressionable connection and a difference in one person's life. It is best to
start small, with one connection at a time, and that will grow from maybe two
people, three, to even 10 or more people.

Direct Messages (DMs)

Another example is a DM thanking you for sharing some great resources with
your community. This DM is a win and a measurement of your personal brand.
People are willing to spend the time and energy to reach out to you to thank
you for what you've created. What's important to realize about these micro-wins
is that by winning these little opportunities your brand continues to make
progress in the field.

Loyalty and Commitment

These are individual metrics that can be evaluated and measured to determine
how often audience members are sharing your content for their own

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communities and how they are advocating for your brand on their own channels,
according to Penn.

Measuring these items over a span of time (ex. week, month, quarter, etc.) can
help you determine your most loyal advocates and how they are sharing your
content, as well as the overall impact loyalty and commitment have in driving
people to subscribe to your work and to follow and connect with you.

Other examples include returning website visitors, ongoing mentions and
conversations on social media, and active participants and audience members of
live videos.

Evangelism

As Penn outlines, evangelism, which focuses on recommendations (ex. LinkedIn,
Facebook Page recommendations, etc.) and referrals (virtual introductions
conducted via DMs and email), is important to note, acknowledge, and keep
track of.

Mentorship and New Connections

Mentorship is one way to celebrate micro-wins. If you are willing to become a
resource for others and share ideas and tips, you're providing value and making
an impact.

Tone of Mentions, Shares, and Content

What is the overall tone of the messages that are mentioning and talking about
you? Conducting sentiment analysis will help you determine the overall tone of

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the messages (which includes positive, negative, or neutral) of what people had
to say about your personal brand.

Creation of Content

You need to create content you want to be known for but also measure if this is
content audiences are resonating with, according to Penn. What content and
messages did you create and disseminate to your audiences? How did it perform
on each platform? Understanding the engagement (shares, comments, reactions,
etc.) and awareness (views and impressions) metrics will allow you to determine
which pieces of content worked and which did not.

Also, specifically, the nature of how audiences reacted to your content is
important to note here. For example, how well did the audience receive your
messages? Did you change their views or attitudes? What behaviors did
audiences take in response to the content you shared on your blog or YouTube
channel? How likely were they to recall (remember) your content and share it
with others?

The ultimate goal is to have audiences not only remember what they saw as far
as content goes, but that you were the one who did it. That’s the perfect
combination here to be aware of. If people remember the content, but not who
created it, that’s a problem. Or, if they remember you created something, but
it didn’t really resonate with them, that’s another problem. The perfect
combination is when they remember the content and it was created by you, and
it resonated with them in a positive manner for them to take action. That’s the
ultimate goal.

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Through additional mentions, highlights, and fans supporting your personal
brand, the power of word-of-mouth will allow you to improve your personal
brand within the community. Over time, this will result in more accolades and
recommendations, which could result in more opportunities professionally.

Track which pieces of content, actions, and connections help you progress with
our personal brand.

SECTION 3

Best Practices for Personal Branding Measurement

As noted throughout this chapter, measurement is a key part of personal branding
strategy. It needs to have the same respect and commitment as for content
creation, strategy, and some of the other items we have noted in this book. Yet,
measurement is sometimes viewed as a complicated, overwhelming, and unknown
part of the strategic process. However, the overall goal is to make sure we do take
into account what is working, what is not, and what needs to be done to move
forward. We do not want to move backwards on our personal brand.

This section presents some best practices for measurement of a personal brand.

First, if you can’t measure it, don’t. If you want to look at your personal brand
through a network analysis but you do not have the tools to do it, then do not list
network analysis as part of your measurement strategy. Invest in the tools that will
allow you to measure the KPIs you have set forward.

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Second, choose your tools and stick to them. You have to audit the tools,
approaches, and methods of evaluation and measurement. You also must set up a
realistic timeline for collecting and analyzing data.

Like all social media platforms, social media measurement tools also change. You
want to make sure you have the best tool to do the job, and this means constantly
determining which tools and methods will help you accomplish your measurement
objectives.

Next, conduct regular personal branding measurement audits. Have a checklist of:

● Items to analyze (what needs to be evaluated on a continued basis, and what
are the overall goals for the measurement for your personal brand?)
● Keywords to collect (ex. Names, brands, etc)
● Objectives and their associated metrics (are you focused on gaining
awareness of your brand? Or do you want them to take action based on what you
have said or done with a brand partnership?)
● Which tools will be used (to analyze content, report and showcase metrics)
● When / how often data will be collected (schedule of deliverables for metrics
for accountability purposes)

Planning these steps relevant to each platform will not only help in the daily
measurement activities for your personal brand, but also help you determine what
is working and what needs to be done for the future.

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Lastly, make sure you are realistically evaluating the data. Personal brands do not
have success overnight, and at times some approaches do not work at all. These
“failures” do not define your personal brand or you as a person and professional.
We need to take these failures and learn from them. In many ways, looking at data
and evaluating them from a strategic angle can open new lessons, best practices,
and ideas to work on for the future.

Data and measurement is all about taking the insights that have been gathered and
putting them to good use for the future.

Glossary

sentiment analysis: conducted to help you determine the overall tone of the
messages (which includes positive, negative, or neutral) of what people had to say
about your personal brand

vanity metrics: basic metrics that focus on the big numbers but that really do not
mean a lot

Assignments

Measuring Objectives for Your Personal Brand Assignment

Identify three objectives you have for your personal brand, and make sure they
each follow the SMART criteria outlined in the chapter. For each objective, list the
methods and tools you will use to evaluate whether or not you have accomplished
the associated personal branding objective.

Mega-wins and Micro-wins Assignment

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Identify one mega-win and one micro-win you could evaluate as part of your
measurement strategy for your personal brand. Then, using the key performance
indicators outlined in the chapter, explain how you will evaluate each of these for
your personal brand.

Project

Measurement Strategy Proposal Project

The chapter shows that at the end of a personal brand strategic plan, you are to
provide an evaluation of your personal brand campaign. For this project, you are
to create a measurement strategy outlining the evaluation components for the
evaluation step of a strategic plan.

Hand in each of the following for this project:

● An overview of the personal branding campaign
● The objectives of the personal branding campaign
● An overview of the evaluation measurement strategy, including:
● Key performance indicators for the personal branding campaign
● Tools of measurement for evaluating the campaign
● Factors to determine if the objectives were met
● Recommendations and lessons learned

Chapter 11: Resumes, Portfolios, Interviews, and Future Directions

Learning Objectives

● Delineate the current expectations for applying personal branding into
professional opportunities

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● Evaluate the best practices for constructing a modern resume integrating a
personal brand
● Determine the content, stories, and experiences to showcase in a portfolio
● Recognize the best practices in translating a personal brand into an interview
and professional opportunity

SECTION 1

Introduction

You may have heard some of these before:

● Resumes are dead.
● Portfolios are just for art majors, not for marketing students.
● My personal brand will nail an interview for me.
● I can do the bare minimum and still get the job.

Each of these statements is false.

While a personal brand can do a lot to help you get an opportunity to apply for a
job or chat about an internship, you have to provide evidence of experience and
work showcasing that you know what to do in the industry. You will also have the
added element of a personal brand to help you and your future employer extend
presence in the industry.

In a traditional sense, when applying for internships and jobs, a candidate needs a
resume, a portfolio, and the necessary interview skills. A personal brand can be
interwoven within all of these.

Applying to the Right Place

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Most important before designing a resume or portfolio or even preparing for an
interview is to find a position that fits with your personal brand.

Brand values and brand pillars are going to be absolutely crucial when deciding on
a company culture in which you would like to position yourself and potential
employers for whom you would like to work.

Note that there are many cases in which individual professionals have grown
personal brands while working for large brand companies and have found
themselves in a bit of a twist.

There are occasions in which employers get jealous of an employee who has grown
a personal brand to essentially exceed their role within the company in the social
and digital space. There are other cases in which employees do not have the time
to manage personal brands because they are managing multiple high-stake social
and digital accounts and do not have time to invest in personal brands. These
individuals who see a young professional coming in with a personal brand may feel
threatened, that could lead to some tension within the organization.

Understanding corporate culture and the landscape in which you could possibly be
working is absolutely essential to find out immediately — before making the
ultimate decision of signing the dotted line on your contract.

When considering an employment contract, look at what the employer is asking
specifically in terms of social media accounts. Would the employer prefer you not
have a personal brand? Does the employer claim the right to oversee essentially all
personal social media accounts if you become part of the business? These are
questions you should really think long and hard on before making a decision of
going to one place or another. Understanding the landscape in which you will be
operating is important. Ultimately, you want to be supported in a place that will

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help you continue growing and expanding your personal brand, not putting you on
the sidelines regarding your personal brand.

Reviewing Job Placement Options

Once you find a brand that fits your own values and your personal brand, take the
time to really look at what positions they have open.

It is important to sign up for email notifications or updates of job opportunities
and internship placements that become available at your dream places of
employment. Many brands showcase various opportunities online through their own
websites and job placement social media accounts.

For jobs in the media and communication fields, MEOjobs is a great online
community that showcases weekly job positions and internship programs to
students looking for various opportunities. These opportunities are both in-person
and remote, which really provides a nice flexibility for young professionals in
getting opportunities to work in places that they may have not had a chance to do
so before.

The other thing to keep in mind when you are looking at job placement ads is to
remember, it's not always the role in which the job is focused on that has written
this job placement add. A lot of times, human resources has written these job
applications in terms of what they are looking for.

That being said, a lot of times you see job placement ads that list all of the skills
under the sun. For example, they want a social media professional who has 20
years of experience, has worked in digital and social and has all of the essential
skills from analytics, data insights and analysis, copywriting, and strategy and
campaign management. When seeing a job placement like this, I do not know what
exactly they're looking for. Oh, they are looking for a unicorn candidate that has

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all of the mystical powers and skills that they are looking for. Most likely, it is the
first option that we are looking at.
When you see a job placement ad that does not have a real strong focus on what
they are looking for, highlight the skills that you have that you can integrate within
your resume and discuss in further detail in your interview.
As noted, a personal brand is not the only thing needed for getting a job or your
dream internship. This chapter is going to go over current practices for resumes,
portfolios, interviews and more in regard to personal branding.

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