Personal Branding Blog – Dan Schawbel

Maor Kaplanski is the top personal branding evangelist in Israel and is finally ready to tell his success story. He positions himself as a Personal eBrand and Online Reputation Management Expert. He is the first to establish the term personal eBrand in Israel through his Blog INTERNETISHI. Over just a few months, the blog attracted many readers and many people in Israel today know what “Personal Branding” is.

Following the success of the blog, Maor has been written about in the papers TimeOut Tel Aviv, Ha’Aretz and Maariv. Maor has successfully positioned himself in the SEO field and opened a new company called eBrand.co.il, which offers unique services and products for the Israeli audience.

Background

In the course of the last year and a half I’ve spoken to a number of people who told me that the perception and application of the principle of “personal branding” changed their lives dramatically. My story is similar, since I branded myself within the “personal branding” field.

Only a year and a half ago my personal brand was completely different. I mean that both in the sense of my external branding (the way other people perceive me) and my internal branding (I didn’t feel so good about myself).

I had a job that I loved as a writer and editor of the sports section of the newspaper Maariv, but I felt I had no fast options of promotion or of improving my pay and conditions. At last, I took a deep breath, mustered the courage and after 7 fun years (but unrewarding) I left the press and decided to go into the commercial Internet world.

But then I found I wasn’t alone and that the competition is hard. These days, there is some growth in the field in Israel but for every position there are some 100 candidates. I understood that in order to gain advantage over other candidates, I had to make myself stand out.

Personal brand discovery

Then I read an interesting article about how 77% of potential employers check names of job candidates in Google, before inviting them to an interview. That’s when it hit me: I had to stop sending my CV automatically to all kinds of employers and instead try to make them get to me – search for me!

I realized that I had to convince employers that I was more than just a standard page of a CV/resume. I realized I had to brand myself, my name – to make those employers realize I am no longer just a sports reporter but an expert of commercial Internet. “How does one go about doing that?” I asked myself, “How the heck do you brand yourself?”

I typed “Personal branding” in Google in Hebrew in order to find information or services in the field. To my utter surprise I found less than 10 results, none of which explained the term “personal branding” properly. I realized that “personal branding” is, in fact, not an academic term, so perhaps there isn’t a good enough reason for anyone to write about it professionally.

In September 2007, in what seemed as a gimmick to me, I decided to open a Blog called INTERNETISHI (as part of my attempt to assert myself in the commercial Internet world) on the topic of: “Personal eBrand”, in the hope of branding myself as an eBrand and Reputation Management expert, thus setting myself apart from the other people in the online marketing field.

Until then I didn’t know the term in English but when I typed “Personal Branding” in Google I nearly dropped from chair: thousands of results of web sites, Blogs, forums, movies, pictures, personal sites and portals dealing with a topic that is much more than a hot trend – Personal branding!

I was mesmerized by Dan’s Blog where I found interesting and fascinating information. I was happy to host him on my Blog for an Interview post where I found that, in addition to roots, we have much more in common in the sense of our ideas and views on personal branding in general and on eBrand in particular.

Success = confidence + happiness

The past year was the happiest year of my life. I have not only evolved professionally and financially, but also made a lot of new friends from all over the world (both online and offline). I found a field I am passionate about, that I can lead and most important, I gained self confidence. I’ve improved the way I perceive myself and the way others perceive me. All of this is thanks to Personal Branding.