Coining and Defining the Term “eBrand” (Personal Branding Online)

February 18, 2008 at 6:02 pm | In Career Development, Personal Branding, Success Methodologies, eBrand | 11 Comments

If you’ve been reading this blog, then you can probably grasp that my experience and content is skewed to online personal branding.  I could say “brand yourself online” or “establish your brand online,” but in actuality, what you are really doing is creating an online persona that mimics who you are in “real life.”  So instead of using this terminology that takes far too long to say, I propose we shorten it to “eBrand.”

eBrand - a digital representation of you on the internet.

Let’s further examine this definition.  Notice how general this definition is.  I did that on purpose.  My reasoning here is that your eBrand doesn’t have to conform to a specific format.  You can choose to represent your eBrand as a blog (people tell me all the time “your blog is your brand”), a simple website, or a profile on a social network.  It’s your decision what you want people to see you as, in what form and how much information you want to communicate.  Your eBrand could be a profile on LinkedIn, or a Facebook page.  Both of these profiles rank quite high in Google, but they aren’t quite yours. Although an eBrand could be an existence on one or many of these sites, you need your own website that you control.  If you don’t have the necessary skills, such as graphic design, HTML, software programs, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), amongst a few others, then you can always hire someone and take a few thousand dollar hit or take a seminar to learn more.

I use:  Microsoft Expression Web, GoDaddy.com, Adobe Photoshop CS3 and WordPress.com to do just about everything you’ve seen here and on my many other websites.

eBrand
Depending on how much information you’ve gathered over time, as well as what type of position you’re looking for, you should customize your website to match those requirements.  Remember not to just think about applying or being found for a specific job, but that this website will have longevity, therefore you need to make it focused, but general.   Next, I’d like to show you many of the possibilities available to you, for which you can construct the framework of your eBrand.  Some might be repetitive, but the idea here is to use words that match how you speak and the topics you want to include.

Choose your sections:

Press/media, contact, career highlights, distinctions, bio, blog, case studies, about, skills, experience, credentials, intro, consulting, vision, endorsements, resume, newsletters, news & events, volunteer projects, strengths, demo real, art portfolio, sample projects, personal information, professional information, wiki, speaking events, awards, profile, flickr photos, videos, social networks, associations, clubs, technical competencies.

You can even fashion your eBrand by taking your resume, splitting it apart, and placing each section as a different page within your site.  I do feel that we should all include some “personal” information, not just work.  In this way, you are rounding yourself out and establishing an emotional connection simultaneously.  eBrand’s will soon get to a point, where you must use video to even be a “player in the game.”

eBrand yourself to success and subscribe now.

11 Comments »

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  1. btw dude, steve pavlina just did a big thing about personal branding. you should check it out:

    http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2008/02/personal-branding/

    Comment by julien — February 18, 2008 #

  2. Thanks for sharing Julien..I’ll check it out!

    Comment by Dan Schawbel — February 18, 2008 #

  3. I like it and will shamelessly use it! I will of course attribute it to you because I’m smart enough to spot a good term when I see it and honest enough to give credit where it is due. :-) Great insight, thank you for sharing!

    Karen Swim

    Comment by Karen Swim — February 19, 2008 #

  4. Interesting post Dan. I think that if you own a blog, it’s your eBrand (I like this term ;-) ). I’d like to know your opinion about one thing. If I have a career in software development and my other interests are about productivity, writing, self-improvement… How do you think is the best way that all this things could fit into a blog?

    Comment by wintermute — February 19, 2008 #

  5. Any website that contains your information/picture/video is the brand people see.

    Due to the complexity and “conversation” style of the internet, you can only control so much of what people see as your eBrand.

    When people write about you, that writing becomes how a certain audience views you.

    It’s a very interesting beast.

    Comment by Dan Schawbel — February 19, 2008 #

  6. Nice concept. A better way of thinking about the face you are putting out to the world about oneself and how to make sure what you are doing online across eveything is consistent. I realise that I probably have 2 online personal eBrands. One is my marketing/ professional one and the other is a travel one wiht my blogs/ podcast and profiles being split by both of these. Gary

    Comment by Gary Bembridge — February 20, 2008 #

  7. Hi, Dan,

    Thanks very much for linking to my blog. When I went on my own, I thought hard about the brand I wanted to promote. Eventually I concluded that the brand I need to build is “me”!

    Even though Shop Talk isn’t named after me, I write every post. As such, it’s a 2-year archive of what I think about and care about (related to business). I told my wife the other day, “If anyone was bored enough to read all 500 of my posts, they’ll know me pretty well.”

    All of which is a long way of saying that you’re onto something with this blog and the idea of personal branding.

    Thanks again,

    John

    Comment by John Caddell — February 20, 2008 #

  8. [...] the fuel, concerns and opportunities for our brands. From personal branding, we now have personal eBranding, where we have to take who we are in reality and compose an internet version of it, without losing [...]

    Pingback by Personal Branding Tips From the Hidden Vault « Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel — March 18, 2008 #

  9. Hi – I realy needed that post!

    I have a question:

    your definition to ebrand is

    ONLINE PERSONAL BRANDING

    but i talked with someone and he told me that his definition to ebrand is

    ONLINE BRANDING

    which means that

    ONLINE PERSONAL BRANDING is PERSONAL EBRAND

    what is right?

    i like your comment on that.

    Thanks alot,
    Maor

    Comment by Maor Kaplanski — May 28, 2008 #

  10. @Maor – Just like “brand”, “eBrand” takes into account all forms of branding, such as personal, product and corporate. A “personal eBrand” would therefore resemble the online version of someone’s personal brand. Personal brand covers personal eBrand though.

    Comment by Dan Schawbel — May 30, 2008 #

  11. [...] Personal eBranding is the next wave of personal and professional development online. A personal brand is how you market yourself to others, whereas an eBrand is a digital representation of yourself online. Your brand is who you are and what you stand for, including values, competencies, attitudes, vision, mission, personality and appearance. The combined sum of everything you are and how you project it to others, whether online or offline, is your brand. [...]

    Pingback by eBranding Becomes Mandatory for Surviving the Digital Age « Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel — June 30, 2008 #


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