JOhn Lilley CV | Resume

Is there anything new about Personal Branding?

July 9th, 2008 John Lilley

Having created a Google Alert to notify me of new web pages referencing Personal Branding it is amazing the amount of buzz that surrounds the topic. The buzz has got me thinking that the hype about selling yourself, differentiating yourself and promoting yourself is nothing new.

I remember my Mother coaching me about it being a small world and you should never burn your bridges. Your bosses, colleagues, partners e.t.c. could show up anytime, any place. In fact we would joke and say look after the Martini people (”Any time, any where, any place”) as you moved on. Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to work with people I have known from a previous life!

My reputation or “brand” was not something that was created in words and web pages or on a CV. Your reputation is about saying what you do and doing what you say! It is who you are and what you stand for. No change there.
There is no question that the reach of a personal brand can now spread far and wide. There is also no question that we stay connected with more acquaintances (not necessarily true friends) than before through the use of the Internet and social network websites. The depth and breadth means we can project our profiles to the globe, where once it took you to send a CV to a specific person for them to learn about you. You released your information on a permission basis. Now it is important that your online brand not only tells the truth but does so attractively as anyone can Google you and form an opinion on your abilities, products or services. Based on what they find they may not even reach out and have a real conversation with you.

I wonder if Lee McQueen’s (the recent winner of the apprentice) Online CV had the same lies as his submitted CV, coupled with the bad spellings and grammatical errors? In fact I am going to take a look and check out how his brand is developing! As Lee was an ex-recruiter this was a sad state of affairs, he should have been ejected there and then.

So from my perspective personal branding is no different from what it used to be. It simply that good news travels faster than even and I’d say bad news even faster. What do you think?

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Now over 83% of recruiters use the Internet to dig up digital dirt

July 9th, 2008 John Lilley

Just came across this article written by By SELENA DEHNE, JIST PUBLISHING backing up one of the new facts of life. People are looking for you online. In fact it seems Execunet has updated it’s percentages. They are now saying over 83% of recruiters use the Internet to check on candidates.

The article is based on recruitment practices and essentially using the Internet to do social background checks on potential new hires. It should be something you take very seriously. It can be surprising what information can be found out about you online. Just try googling yourself and see what pops up!

This is not just the domain of individuals looking for a job.

As an employee / business owner / or entrepreneur I can guarantee that customers, partners, employees and potential investors will be using the Internet to find out information about you.

Let me know if you have had any experience of managing your online profile? What tools do you use? How much time do you invest in managing it? Do you check up on others? Have you had others check up on you?

I’d love to hear your stories.

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