Today’s post is from my friend and colleague, William Arruda. Dubbed the “Personal Branding Guru” by Entrepreneur, William is the founder of Reach and author of Ditch. Dare. Do! He is credited with turning the concept of personal branding into a global industry. Check out the podcast interview I did with William about getting from college to career in tough times.
Even if you just landed your first job or are still in the early days of your career, you can move yourself outside the regular hierarchy of your company and be seen as a leader. How? Become your organization’s most fervent brand ambassador.
In my new book, Ditch. Dare. Do! my coauthor and I say “Being a steward for the brand gives you an opportunity to connect with others throughout the company; it enables you to increase your visibility, demonstrate your commitment and attract opportunities.”
In a Gallup survey, employees were asked if they know what their company stands for and what makes it different from the competition – and only 41% strongly agreed!
What does that mean for you? It means you have an opportunity to stand out from your peers and get on the radar of senior leaders. Being a corporate brand evangelist is one of the best ways to build your personal brand.
Here are five actions you can take to become a visible and valuable brand ambassador:
1. Learn.
Connect with your marketing colleagues to get clear on the corporate brand – attributes, positioning, etc; and become familiar with your company’s marketing messages – advertisements, social media pages, web sites, etc
2. Integrate.
Look at everything you do every day and decide how you can integrate more of the corporate brand into it. For example, if your company’s brand is all about creativity, think about how you can make your meetings, emails, agendas, etc. reflect that creativity
3. Team.
Work with your team to inject more of the corporate brand into what you do and how you work as a team
4. Commit.
Add a brand-building action to your annual commitments and make sure your manager knows how important this is to you
5. Evangelize.
Promote corporate marketing campaigns through your social media channels.
Thank you to William for sharing these tips today!
