The newest Personal Branding Magazine, published by Dan Schawbel (I am co-editor along with Jessica Lewis) is about how to enhance your personal brand online.
This is how Dan describes it:
Volume 4, Issue 3 is focused on teaching you out to become internet famous through video, sHowocial networking, and blogging. We’ve collected stories from the most well-known internet superstars to teach you how to do it too! We spoke with Julia Allison, Judson Laipply, and Mr. Chocolate rain himself, Tay Zonday. Gracing the cover is Chamillionaire, who is a Grammy award winning musician, and someone who has pioneers the use of social technologies in the music industry. I’ve always said that visibility creates opportunities, and when more people know you, the possibilities are endless!
Features:
- Full paid issue (November 1st): 22 articles
- Sample issue: 10 articles total, including how to make a good first impression, how to manage your digital image, and wardrobe tips.
- Interviews with: Chamillionaire (Grammy Award Winning Musician), Julia Allison (Co-creator of NonSociety.com), Tay Zonday (creator of the Chocolate Rain viral video), Judson Laipply (creator of the Evolution of Dance viral video), Brian Solis (author of Engage), Amy Marin (Shaquille O’Neal’s social media manager), and Brian Clark (founder of Copyblogger Media).
This is my introduction to the magazine:
Are you taking full advantage of the tools available to enhance your personal brand online? Are you achieving your business and career objectives? This issue’s columnists offer some great tips to help achieve your goals. The first thing to remember? It’s not all about you! Celestine Chua explains how important it is to be a role model. If you write, do you think about what your readers want? Are you sharing valuable information that will make people want to come back again and again? If you make your audience your #1 priority, it’s likely they will appreciate you and your value, which in turn increases your online cache.
Authenticity (as always) holds a lot of weight in this issue. Are you faking it? Michael Durwin makes an important point when he says:Â There is no “virtual” you: Your online self is a direct extension of your real world self.” How should you respond? He says, “Be yourself: But try to be the best you can be — your reputation precedes you.” Rich Nadworny agrees, “If you stand for something online, you’d better act that way in real life.”
Once you identify what you offer, it’s much easier to extend your reach. Sam Decker explains that social media “is primarily about an exchange …a personal brand is best built by facilitating give and take. That might look like connecting people, retweeting or contributing to others’ ideas and projects.” Are you making that two-way connection?
One great benefit of using the social web to share information about you is the opportunity to avoid the “push and pray” method in favor of the “pull and stay” approach. Georgina Taylor’s book review notes that Scott Stratten’s book UnMarketing offers a strong case for the latter, which is about “focusing on engagement as a means of building trust, creating value for the customer by giving them a sense of support from your business.” What are you doing to engage your target audience?
Success is about so much more than just being online. In his interview with Harry McCracken, Howard Sholkin, founder of technologizer.com, explains that he attributes some of his success to going “where smart people are, rather than expecting them to come to us.” For him, that meant having a presence on Twitter and Facebook, which was key to growing his site’s traffic. Jack Humphrey echoes this sentiment, noting that “your virtual you must span your own domain and key sites around the Web where your targets hang out.”
Extend it a step further, as being where they are is an important lesson for anyone. When I coach job seekers and entrepreneurs, that is advice I offer: find “your people.” If you are lucky, they are spending time in social media, but maybe it makes more sense to physically go where they are. That may mean attending conferences or speaking engagements in person. It’s worth it.
- Free sample URL: http://personalbrandingsample.com
- Paid subscription URL: http://personalbrandingmag.com
- Facebook page: http://facebook.com/PersonalBrandingMagazine