Why Personal Branding Is Important in Career Planning

Social media, in its many forms, will be around for a long time, if not in perpetuity. The video clip in the previous post does a pretty good job of convincing us of that, right?

In this post, I will present information that highlights the connection between the personal branding concept and one’s career planning and development.

Dan Schawbel has been instrumental in recent years of really spreading the word about personal branding for both professionals and students. He has written many articles documenting his take on getting a job using social media, and one of his earlier articles was a Mashable.com article back in Jan. 2009 that basically builds upon his Dec. 2008 article from his previous blog.

I don’t know the maker(s) of the following presentation titled “Finding a Job Using Social Media” via SlideShare.net, but I’m sharing it because though the presentation looks to be delivered in March 2009, the comprehensive content is still relevant.

Finding A Job Using Social MediaView more presentations from Red Shoes PR, Inc..

For the past couple years then, the connection between personal branding and job searching has been much discussed and shared on the web. This link will take you to a much more recent post by someone who wanted to leave Florida and go work for an advertising firm in New York. This person ultimately found job search success through a targeted social media campaign where she also chose to re-brand herself.

So at this point, in case you are asking:

“But wait a minute. I’m not really in job search mode right now, so is all this personal branding stuff relevant to me? After all, I’m in college right now and don’t need a job any time soon.”

Well, here’s an April 2010 article from StudentBranding.com (FYI, a website started by Dan Schawbel mentioned above) about a recent college graduate who has created and honed her personal brand and, consequently, has quite the online presence.

Here’s another April 2010 article from the Student Branding blog about a current student who started building his personal brand his freshman year.

What these examples show us is nothing new. They illustrate that the keys to increasing your chance for career success are knowledge and awareness, preparation, planning, hard work, and execution, all of which are the basic tenets for effective decision making.

To close out this post: Basically, personal branding can be a significant tool in career planning. Whether you’re a job seeker or a college student, it’s important to at least be aware of the concept of personal branding.

Please go on to the next post, Getting Started with Your Personal Brand, for information about getting started with personal branding.

Below is a reverse chronological list of my previous posts on personal branding, starting with this post:

Career Action Now

Purposeful career planning blog