Today is the beginning of the last weekend in September 09. So I just thought of sending out a warning signal to those who have labored so hard to work on their personal brands till now.Building a skyscraper takes months of laboring, hard work, designing as well as inputs from many professionals. Interestingly when it is time to pull that down, it will not take a lot of energy it requires to build it. We have maintained that those who start out early in building their personal brands live to enjoy greater benefits than those who start late. Though it is better to start late than never at all. We know that building personal brand is a life long process. It requires hard work, expertise, building emotional connection. We also know that results come in bit and sizes as one continues in the personal brand journey. For those who have labored and have continued to labor on their personal branding, here are few landsmine to avoid so you do not quietly destroy your efforts.

1. Inconsistency: If you want to keep at it, never forget what brought you up to where you are. You have remained consistent in doing something. You are known for that, following the inconsistent road will gradually erode your brand from the mind of your target audience.

2. Fake it: Realize that people can see behind the camouflage even if they keep silent. If you push it beyond limit, the audience may disconnect with you and that is where the trouble begins.

3 shamelessly self promote: Self promotion is a highly effective tool in personal branding. But like success, it is like a roaring load, if one does not know how to tame it. it can tear the owner into pieces. So beware, be careful how you use this tool so that it does not destroy the brand you have labored for.

4. Build negative interaction: Watch your interaction and always get feedbacks. This help. Anything opposite is self destruct.

5. Tell audience they are not important: Never take your audience for granted. They make you what you are. Without them you have no brand.

6. Never bother about what you put online: We have people of dual citizens now. They live offline and online. You must beware of what you are doing at both end of the divide. Watch the videos, photos, comments you post online, they may be hampering your personal brand.

7. Continuously hang out with wrong crowd: The crowd you constantly hang out with may hurt your brand so watch your association.

I have been thinking about the disposition of Nigerian online brands’ perception and reputation management. My conclusion is that most brands here still assume that getting it right with traditional media holds the magic to great reputation. Brand owner attitudes show lack of proper understanding of online reputation and what the level of havoc can be.

Someone has said experience is sweet when it is not yours and you have to learn from others. The big shocker for most of these brand drivers is that conversation goes on 24/7.Complaints, chats, view exchange are everywhere every moment. If the brand driver sleeps or overlook a single person’s rant, the effect can be colossal. For those who feel otherwise, the may ask Dell with regards to the popularly touted DELLHELL.

Monitoring and defending the online perception, reputation of a brand has become mandatory because the effect is much more than what the traditional media can do. Effort must be made to ensure that nothing negative is found on the first page of search engine when someone googles your brand. Do everything to move the negatives, if it exists at all to the second or third page of the search. Work hard to ensure you know what is being said or promoted about your brand online. If these nonchalant attitudes to online reputation continue, it may spark a fire we may not be able to quench. That is my advice today. Remember, several software are now available to monitor, respond to brand mentions online. If your brand fails it is because you have not taken time to prepare. Please type in your brand name in google today and find out

In the course of dealings with individuals in the area of personal and executive branding, I have noticed a flow of thought prevalent among many. People need a quick fix it answers. A tip of a sort. A wheel that one can swing in minutes and get result. My response to that is that there is nothing like overnight success. Every overnight success takes nights to birth. No half-hearted effort can supply great results. I draw a parallel that even HIV does not become a full blown AIDS in a day.

So if an individual really mean to promote his/her personal brand and excel in this, the followings will be worth considering.

1. Distribute value: do you have a unique value, plan to distribute this as much as possible. Never odd the value that you have. Personal branding is not all about you. It is about others who buy your unique value.

2. Focus your skills and promote yourself as a go-to-person: Do not sow your skills in a haphazard manner. Be versatile and yet focused. When you over-stretched yourself in different directions, there is a possibility of brand position coloring and people will not know where you actually belong.

3. Treat your brand like a corporate brand: You may not be Nike, chevron, Oando, Cadbury, but find out what they are doing ethically and apply most of these principles to your personal brand.

4. To be remembered, be noteworthy: Many voices are out there trying to impress others. Identify your uniqueness and manifest this in your own way that will make people remember you. Manage the impression well also.

5. Get a personal website/url: No brand can be out rightly successful without a web presence today. A local brand can in some cases though. Take your brand to the global arena. Go to the village square. The World Wide Web is now the new village square.

6. Record positive events, interactions, feedbacks: Some may feel this is arrogance when they document their achievements for others to see. That is also equal to arrogance to some. There is no evil in this if you know how to do it well without attracting negative comments.

7. Measure and implement: constantly measure your personal results, get feedbacks and act on them no matter how much of your ego is affected

Recently I was having a discussion with a friend who is known blogger in Nigeria. I could not but ask certain question as he ‘seems to have it made’. Anyway that is my impression. We talked about being successful and having to be known to have failed many times. This as it affects every area of one’s life adventure. Most of what we discussed and conclusions we drawn at the end were also applicable to personal branding success online. I thought why are many successful people associated and are known to have failed many times? Shouldn’t there be a short cut to success. Many times one has to try and keep trying before one hits the nail on the head.

So come along and see whether that was true or may be you have a contribution.

1. To proof any point you do not have to talk too much: in trying to establish our expertise, we go a long way to give beyond what is necessary. That you know it does not mean you know it all. You do not have to say all and bore everyone in other to proof any point. In any case there is nothing you are saying that has not been said before.

2. Share life experiences that people can relate with: it is good to engage in study and research that can help your community, but if all you are doing is just to relay new researches that you have no relationship with, you may not enjoy strong bonding that will attest to Brand You success.

3. Confidence: In whatever you are doing, ensure that you are not seen as copycat but original. Authenticity and originality are very important in personal branding. If you are seen as being lily liver and not proud of whom you are, your brand will lose out.

4. Build support system before you need one: Most people always ask for a link when they need it most. Life is built on relationship and we will once in a while need help from someone somewhere. Learn to connect, learn to give helping hands, learn to give part of your time to answer questions from those who need to know. Share the little you know as you do not know it all.

5. Do not be ‘humble’ you are not that great: Does that sound arrogant. That was a saying by one great man. The explanation he gave was that when you become great you need extra humility. When you are still growing your brand, you need to communicate; broadcast your achievements and the progress you have made otherwise no one will do that for you. That is not arrogance that is stupidity if you think no one needs to know about your influence. Loyalty is not given, it is earned. If you must earn loyalty, people need to note your own differentiation and contributions you have made to alleviate their problems and the rewards you have earned for doing that.

Before I violate point number one, let me stop here and please do give me your own opinion.