Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel

Facebook reveals your friends

No matter what you do, if your name is Google’d by someone that is not your friend, five of your Facebook friends are revealed (see the picture below). If you are in their network already, then you will see what they want you to see, which could be a limited or full profile. When an observer or recruiter is doing a background check on you (you being the stranger), they see 5 pictures of your friends and judge you, not only based on your picture, but that of your friends. This first impression is out of your control because your friends can deliberately swap their pictures to one’s that negatively portray their personal brands. Since you are associated with them through Facebook, it says something about your personal brand.

From childhood till now

When you grew up, your parents always warned you about going out with people they didn’t approve of. They didn’t want you to be influenced by the likes of children that either had emotion issues or misbehaved regularly, in hopes you wouldn’t turn out like them. The reason for this is because who you are around has a direct impact on your personal brand. Online, aside from Facebook, who you link to and promote (endorsements) has an impact on how you are perceived and are respected by your readers or visitors.

Grow by populating your world

It’s fairly easy to meet someone these days, whether it be through a class you take at school, your workplace, a club, a neighbor or at a store. The real challenge is meeting the right people. You want to surround yourself with people who are either more successful than you are, have skills you don’t naturally have or are more “socially equipped” than you. By “socially equipped” I mean that they have a vast professional and personal network. When you are around these individuals, you will learn, grow and excel. You will also gain “personal brand equity” because you will be associated with their brands.

Personal branding equity takes the form of how much you are worth in the minds of others. When you attach yourself to other brands, your overall perception shoots up. This relates back to the power of endorsements and how you need to get people of high stature to approve of your personal brand in order to be successful.