In addition, thanks to the vast feature enhancements LinkedIn
rolled out in 2013, the site is quickly becoming the hub of
your online identity—sometimes outpacing the impact of your
personal website. Your LinkedIn profile often shows up first
in a Google search, so it’s likely the first place people visit
to learn about you. And it allows you to build a truly threedimensional profile of who you are, complete with images
and embedded videos.
6. Mobile—From Desktop to Handheld
Your personal branding activities are becoming easier to do
on the fly. That’s because more and more mobile apps make
it easy for you to build your brand on the go. In the coming
their own content machine—creating original content—even
if they didn’t enjoy writing or have much to say.
That has gotten old. The Blog has become another mouth to
feed—one more item to maintain on a seemingly bottomless
“to-do” list. That rush to become Rupert Murdoch or Ted
Turner has subsided. And with good reason. It’s not always
about the content you create; more often, it’s about the
content you curate—your ability to be on top of everything
that is happening in your industry/job function that will be
in demand in 2014. After all, that’s what Murdoch and
Turner did: they didn’t become successful by personally
writing content themselves. Instead, they created outlets that
showcase what their staffs and other professionals have
produced, from journalism to entertainment.
With the volume of media messages skyrocketing, being on
top of what is happening in your area of expertise—being
able to find the right content, comment on it, and share it
with your brand community—will be an even more valuable
skill than penning thought-leadership content yourself.
Distilling volumes into valuable nuggets while providing your
commentary will make you more valuable and your brand
more visible.
8. Charitable Causes—From
Afterthought to Starting Point
Every major company en gages in some type of philanthropy,
but there is a trend toward companies that tie their entire
mission to giving back.
year, more of us will spend more of our brand-building time
with our mobile apps than with an old-fashioned browser on
a desktop computer. In fact, many of us don’t even have a
conventional desk anymore.
Here are just a few of the most valuable and user-friendly
apps available today:
• LinkedIn Contacts gives you a way to bring together your
contacts that are spread across address books, email
accounts, and calendar apps.
• Lunchmeet helps you find geographically appropriate
contacts so you can expand your network over lunch.
• VideoBIO lets you record video from your iPad or iPhone,
edit it, and share it via Twitter, Facebook or email.
• UStream Live Broadcaster lets you broadcast yourself in
real-time.
Find the apps that make personal branding easy to do as
part of your regular routine.
7. Online Content—From Create to
Curate
When social media became hot, it seemed as if every careerminded professional started his or her own media channel.
PR professionals and marketers were among the first to jump
in. “I must have a Blog,” many thought. They set out to build
In a recent article published in Strategy+Business, James
O’Toole talks about the new business structure—the B (for
benefit) corporation. Patagonia is perhaps the best known
example of this model, which has been gaining traction
in the US. Facilitating the growing social entrepreneurship
movement, B charters permit boards to make decisions
that benefit society, even when those actions aren’t in the
immediate interest of shareholders (note how different this is
from the nonprofit structure).
As more and more Millennials enter the workforce and move
into more senior roles, values will enter into the equation
more than they have in the past. In Fast Future: How the
Millennial Generation is Shaping Our World, David Burstein
writes, “Millennials are highly connected to—and are
extremely conscious of—their values. They see the world
from a values perspective. Reaching [them] requires a real
investment in social responsibility.”
As companies become more serious about social responsibility,
you’ll want to think about your role. In branding, it’s important
to know your values and connect them with what you do and
how you do it. Your values, and the causes you support, are
facets of your brand. In the past we have talked about the
blending (not balancing) of work and life. Now there is one
more element: your world—how you want to contribute to
something bigger than yourself.
***
What do these trends add up to? Incredible opportunities!
There have never been so many powerful ways to tell your
brand’s story—not only for your company’s benefit but also
for the benefit of your communities, both local and global.