The Personal Branding Blog by Rob Cuesta

Keeping it all together

At the last count, I had 14 profiles on different web sites. I'm not talking about the type that just say "tell us about yourself"; I mean full blown profiles where you describe your experience, what you do, and basically express your personal brand.

I've thought for a long thime that what the world of online personal branding needs is a service that lets you feed all those from a single source. In the days of XML and RSS and all those other TLAs that mean something about passing information between sites you, you'd think it would be easy.

The matter has been brought into even clearer focus this week, because I'm moving offices. So I nowface the prospect of going into every one of those profiles to see which ones have my office address, and updating it. Wouldn't it be great to have a single dashboard where I could log in, make the change, press the button, and *abracadabra* all my profiles changed at once.

When I heard about new startup Nombay.com I thought my prayers might be answered.

TV scandal rocks the nation

For weeks now, the British public has been gripped by a scandal unfolding on our screens almost nightly. We've watched in shock and horror the very public cavortings of a senior political correspondent, married and well into his sixties, with a young, slim, attractive blonde. Judges have openly called for him to resign or to be removed, but a wave of public sympathy and support has, until now, kept him in place.

Safer Social Networking

When I'm helping a client to build their online reputation, one of the key tools at our disposal is social network sites - you know the ones: Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Alongside concerns about how to keep the profile 'professional', the next most common concern clients have is about privacy and fraud, so I was pleased to find a post on microsoft.com listing 10 very useful tips on how to use these sites safely.

Networking through Meetup.com

I recently discovered meetup.com, a site that allows you to connect with people with similar interests in your area. As soon as I saw it I was struck by the fact that you could just as easily use it to connect with people who share your passions while you're travelling. And that's exactly what I did.

Managing your personal brand

Fellow brand strategist Hajj Flemings, author of "Brand Yu" has some great info on his blog, and is well worth following on Twitter. His blog post on reputation management is a great checklist of actions to take to track what's happening to your online reputation.

And the folks over at Jobmob have put a lot of time and effort into tracking down pretty much every tool you could want for managing your online reputation. For the most comprehensive list I've seen head on over to their site.

You have to develop your personal brand before you communicate it

A reader's comment on a post by Chris Wilson over at The Marketing Fresh Peel blog caught my eye this week, and inspired me to add my own comment.

One of the hardest things in working with clients is that they want to skip straight to communicating their brand. Thinking about your brand is the hardest part. In particular because it often means letting go of things that you’ve allowed to define you in the past, but which may make your brand “fuzzy”. A lot of books on personal branding focus on the communications aspect because that’s the “fun” bit, and you can get a lot of “stuff” done quickly.

Developing a brand is a slow, thoughtful process, and it can be a long time before you see where it’s all going. But it’s like laying down the foundations of a new building: you have to dig deep, and 90% of what you’re laying down won’t be seen by anyone else, but it needs to be there, underpinning what you’ll build on top of it, otherwise it won’t stand up!

Putting back into the community - the Financial Services Career Bailout

We are living in "interesting times". Even with the many government-funded interventions around the world, with the collapse of so many old and respected financial institutions, I know many people on Wall Street and in The City who are still worried about their future. For those who have already been caught up in the turmoil, I - in common with many of the Reach Personal Brand Strategists - am taking part in a worldwide initiative called the "Career Bailout" programme.

If you are an employee of one of the failed banks or financial institutions and recently lost your job, you qualify for a free career services package that includes a CV review, 360°Reach personal brand assessment and an Online ID evaluation. This package will help you differentiate and position yourself in a crowded and competitive job market.

Whether you are in the UK, the US or any other country, if you are a former employee of Northern Rock, Alliance & Leicester, Bradford & Bingley, or other affected UK firms, or of one of the American banks (Bear Sterns, Wachovia, WaMu or Lehman Bros), and have lost your job as a result of the recent failure, you qualify for brandedLeader’s  career bailout package free of charge. This package is comprised of:

• a resume review;
• a 360°Reach personal brand assessment;
• an online ID evaluation.

In addition, affected financial service professionals will receive preferential rates on related products and coaching services. These services are limited, and will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.

To get started, contact me by email. Please provide your former institution, position, date of separation, and the type of position you will be seeking. You can also expedite your access to your free consultation by making sure to include your CV in Word ro PDF format.

Want to know more?

Getting the most out of Twitter

I have to confess I have been a bit of a slow starter on Twitter. Yes, I'm ashamed to say I only joined a few weeks ago, and I looked at it and thought "that's interesting. What do I do with it?"

Apologies to my friends in the USA...

I am truly sorry... but... I'm afraid...

...you won't be seeing the new Bond movie for another couple of weeks :)

Now, if all had gone to plan, I would have been in New York this week, and I would have missed the first day. However, thanks to  last minute change of plan, that didn't happen. So instead I was here in the UK for the release of A Quantum of Solace.

By now you may be getting the fact that I am a bit of a Bond fan, so it was inevitable that I'd head down to the cinema for the first showing of the day. And so, 'bucket' of Coke in hand (not very Bond-like, I know, but it's the cinema!) I waited with baited breath as the lights came down.

Star of the small screen!

In September 2008, Dexter Moscow of the Entrepreneurs' Forum interviewed me on why organizations need to develop and leverage the power of the individuals in the company to survive the economic downturn. We discuss the idea that HR has become as much the custodian of the corporate brand as the Marketing Department, and HR managers now need to see themselves as brand champions.

I was also interviewed with fellow personal branding expert Tessa Hood on the subject of our forthcoming seminar in London for HR professionals.

The videos are all on www.robcuesta.com/video