What we have noticed these days is the way many ‘would be personal branders’ misrepresent their brands without knowing. When an individual is not very careful or do not have a strategy in place,he/she will be doing a great harm to his/her brand. In the course of our job, we have monitored some ‘personal branders’ both at online and offline and our conclusion is that a little act of carelessness or lack of proper understanding of repercussions associated with  their acts have robbed their brands of greater equity.

Every morning it is part of my routine to drop my daughter at school before heading for the office. Along the route today, I noticed traffic was at standstill on a street lane that led to her school, which is very rare. After five minutes on the same spot, I alighted from the car to find out the cause. The scene I saw made me stared at the two people involved. A well dressed, respectable married woman (apparently a middle level executive) was arguing with a company driver driving his boss’s kids to school. Apparently, the road was small and may not be enough for the two cars to go at a time.

The woman in question insisted the driver should reverse for her own car to go. When they could not resolve that, both of them parked their cars on the road and caused a scene. Other road users appealed to the woman not to demean her status through a public and heated argument with ‘ a mere company driver’. But she would not listen. After a while people started to review their stands on the character of the woman because she has an image to protect than the other company driver.

As an individual, my conclusion is, if this woman in question had placed value on her cherished personal brand, she could have behaved otherwise. she has  a lot to lose than gain in this act. The reason is not far fatched, she might not know who is watching and who is meeting her in that situation for the first time. For me she is misrepresenting her brand without knowing. So this story serves as the motivation for this piece. Today wewant to examine ways we may be misrepresenting our personal brands without knowing.

Social media activities: Many create account on social media platforms without a goal, objective or strategy. This informs why many just upload any form of picture, join any group or fan pages or post any kind of content. When you do not know why you are on any platform, it is certain that you will do a lot of damage to your brand. It will have been better not to create accounts at all than to damage what you have laboured for.

Overdependence on hype: personal brand does not rest on a single legged ‘hype’ platform. Personal brand will excel through the combination of expertise and promotion/hype. If a person concentrates on building the hype at the expense of expertise, it is a matter of time before the house will crumble. So never misrepresent your brand by claiming to be what your skills can not handle.

Not dressing the part: It is essential to invest in personal image and outlook. If you are projecting your brand as a high profile one, never go on a television interview appearing like a maid in the house. You never know who will be watching you. Even if you speak the right language, people will still look at your appearance to judge whether you are the right person on not.

Being unmindful of your daily action: Always live your life in a way that will enhance your profile. Fighting with an underdog will smear your name than the name of the other party. Underdogs are looking for cheap popularity and in most cases they win.

Association: the kind of association you keep may help you to gain right perception or make you lose credibility. The only relationship that is forced on us is our parent. We have a choice of any other association.

My conclusion, be loyal to your brand.

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2. Personal brand and social investment.
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Self branding like product, service, corporate, institutional branding is now a must. When you open newspaper advert/vacancies for jobs today, the employers are looking for brands that match their DNAs.

Over time many are losing the will to participate because they do not want to follow any rule or guideline. Some complains rules make them inhuman. If you must excel in your personal branding journey, you must follow rules that will guide you against being a copy cat, robot or ‘crammers’. My take on this as expressed in a recent interview is that personal branding is an opportunity to influence others.
Every opportunity also carries its own responsibility. There is nothing like total freedom in life. The more freedom you have the more responsibilities you have to take. The difference is that the dividend of the responsibilities is the fun you enjoy as an individual. Take for instance, a financially independent person at twenty five can impact his/her environment (if he/she desires) than someone who becomes financially independent at sixty five.

So personal branding to me is never a ‘me too, I have arrived’ game. It is work. It is a permission given to you by your niche (when you have honed your skills, differentiated yourself in a niche) to use your developed, differentiated skills and make a contribution. To impact anyone you have got to honor, respect them and play the game according to what they feel, perceive is right. Anything outside the box will be a violation of trust. Violation of trust affects your perception and influence.

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1. Personal Branding:How strong is your tribe or influence
2. Personal branding for entrepreneurs.
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So today our focus will be on Nigeria Rebranding process, what I have noticed here, and I say that with a sense of responsibility is that those who know what to say often keep quiet and allow those who have nothing to say to keep talking. In situations where those who have something to say speak at all, they always speak when the situation is still fresh and after that they keep quiet eternally. While there is wisdom in saying something once, research has shown that when you want a change badly, you must keep hammering the truth. Research has also shown that consistency of purpose, determination to ensure things are done right requires that someone must continually speak the truth until it is accepted and applied.

This will eventually guarantee success. At the beginning of the rebranding process, many spoke up and gave their opinions. As at today the tempo had died done. I think our government also has technocrats who have studied the citizens so well. They are aware that any issue dies a natural death after two weeks of hot discussion. Having said this, I have noticed a trend that is missing in the present rebranding process. This link that is missing is so vital. This missing link has the potential of guaranteeing whether the initiative will be thoroughly successful or not. One of the strategies employed has been to hold village meetings. While the ‘village meeting’ is still ongoing, I guess the power of the internet has been ignored.

Part of what we are rebranding is an image issue. An insignificant number of youths are destroying our image through internet scam. I think since the internet is also accessible to the team behind the rebranding process why are they not using the internet to our advantage? If they have issues here, we have social media experts in here that can help out. What stop the team from establishing online visibility for the team’s activity where people can contact, advise, guide as well as ask questions?

Does the team also know how to use social media, internet tools? Can they guide our agencies, to set up functional social media platforms where they can be reached and the publics can get information? For instance, there was this recent rumor that imported Apples from neighboring countries are poisonous. Many sent text messages around instructing families and friends to stay away from Apple fruits. They did claim that they confirmed the story from the regulatory agency in charge. Only for the agency to deny the story after a week.

Most of these related agencies abroad have Twitter accounts that are functional. Social media tools are part of their communication plan tools. Through these tools they supply instant and correct information. Using these tools enhance their perception, efficiency and otherwise. What do we think can happen if we have our cities’ map online showing the greenery as other have? What about having established forums where issues are discussed and government officials listen to issues being sincerely discussed?

What about videos of our government officials on Youtube and other online video platforms? These short videos can address different issues ranging from encouragement, explaining, articulating where we are and where we are going? Videos of great acts, good deeds of government officials, Nigerians who have demonstrated acts that resonate with “great nation, great people’ brand positioning slogan. When an individual, nation has a great cause, the internet offers untold help.

Barrack Obama team had used and is still using the internet to great advantage. I think the issue is that internet requires that one is brutally honest, be human and open to feedback which we may be afraid of.

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2. Rebranding Nigeria 2
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