Describe Your Personal Brand in a Single Word
October 7, 2008 at 11:17 am | In Career Development, People, Personal Branding, Positioning | 23 Comments
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Your mission today is to use a single word to describe a company, product and person. Then take a stab at yourself! The word doesn’t have to be an adjective. It does, however, have to be true to that person, place or thing. Why one word? A single word should require the least amount of thought and analysis. After you’ve thought of the word, create your own blog post and explain why you used that word and what word you want everyone else to cite when they see your name.
Two aspects of personal branding to remember
1) Your brand is how others perceive you
2) Your brand is your self-impression
Once you understand how you want to be perceived, you can proactively explain your brand to others, with body language, gestures, personality, etc. On the web, you have much more control over perceptions because people will judge you solely based on what’s available to them when they Google your name. In this regard, you can shape perceptions by using these describers to your advantage in resumes, social networks, blogs, and more. If you tell people who you are, then they have less time to make their own impression of you!
One word exercise
People
Myself – Resourceful, Ann Handley – Content, Mike Sansone – Trains, Drew McLellan – Friendly, Brian Solis – photos, Geoff Livingston – Communicator, Jeremy Shoemaker – AdSense, Valeria Maltoni - Wise, John Moore – Autopsy, Chris Brogan – Community, Mitch Joel – Digital, Rebecca Thorman – Storyteller, Loren Feldman – Uncensored, Pamela Slim – Savior, Jason Alba – Connector, Andy Sernovitz – Viral, Tiffany Monhollon – Relationships, Steve Rubel – Influence, Joel Cheeseman – Monster, Ben Yoskovitz – Startup, Mack Collier – Garden, Gary Vaynerchuk - Hustle
Companies
Gillette – Innovative, Apple - Creativity, Google - Search, Dell - Hell, EMC – Information, McDonalds - Gross, Disney – Mickey, Toyota - Sturdy, Nintendo - Mario
Products
iPhone – Connectivity, Photoshop – Imaginary, Ferrari Enzo – Lightening, Kindle - Futuristic
Brand tags experiment
Noah Brier developed a very simple website not too long ago. His theory is that a brand exists entirely in people’s heads, which I completely agree with. If you’ve heard about a brand or experienced it before, your might react either either positively, negatively or neutrally. What ever you say a brand is, that is what it is to YOU.
“Brand Tags” is Noah’s experiment in brand perception. All tags are generated by people like you and do not reflect the opinions of Noah. As you view each logo, write one a single word or phrase that enters into your mind. You’d be surprised what people have already tagged for brands!
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I love this. I think that sometimes other people are good at helping you find your brand too. Like I think you’re right on in the way you describe everyone.
Comment by Rebecca — October 7, 2008 #
[...] Describe Your Personal Brand in One Word [...]
Pingback by Pixelated Conference Series - Personal Branding « That’s Great PR! Blog — October 7, 2008 #
I wouldn’t have picked “connector” for myself, but I like it
Interseting how we would think one thing, and our contacts would think another…
Jason Alba
CEO – JibberJobber.com
Comment by Jason Alba — October 7, 2008 #
My word would definitely be……EMPOWERED!
Comment by Veronique — October 7, 2008 #
For my company I would say “Personal” since we’re all about building personal websites for people to help strengthen their personal brands.
For myself I would say “focused” because I just have that type personality: I start businesses and run marathons!
Comment by Brett Tilford — October 7, 2008 #
Wise? Can you articulate how you got to that? I’m a Gen X, like many others in the space… Better for me go to work and shake things up a bit!
How about Conversation Agent? Would that be too obvious?
I see myself as connector (as in connecting ideas and people, my brand), communicator (my work), content creator (at the intersection of what I do and who I am), catalyst for ideas (curator of social network for Fast Company)…
Comment by Valeria Maltoni — October 7, 2008 #
“Conversation Agent” is 2 words
. When I think of you, I think “wise” because you are a good rolemodel and I learn a lot from you. Notice, how people have different impressions of the same person?
Comment by Dan Schawbel — October 7, 2008 #
Hey Dan, Nice Stuff over here..
Well, One word “Projections” or “Fame”.
Comment by Saravanan Sahadevan — October 7, 2008 #
One Word Branding and Storytelling…
I like Dan Schawbel’s idea about using one word to describe your personal brand. I’d take it a step further…use a series of single words to capture your story. My Brand…Story My Story… thinkstorysimplephotovisualremarkablesurprisehospitalitymea…
Trackback by *Star In The Margin — October 7, 2008 #
Very interesting post, that is a fun little tool!
And I think you definitely hit the nail on the head as far as my one word personal brand, which makes me feel fantastic! To have others percieve the intended and self-percieved brand is, as you said, the goal, after all.
Comment by Tiffany Monhollon — October 7, 2008 #
Dan,
I’m flattered that you included me in your experiment and I am certainly not going to complain or contradict your kind perception of my brand.
I love that others are not seeing themselves as you see them. An excellent reminder that we don’t own or control our own brand.
We put forth our best effort…but then our audience (in this case, you) get to interpret what they see!
Excellent post!
Drew
Comment by Drew McLellan — October 7, 2008 #
I might be given the word “disagreeable” but I would like to think it would be “helpful” instead:
Lauren -> Loren
WOM -> acronym of three words
Cheers,
Jeff
Comment by Jeff McNeill — October 7, 2008 #
@ Good catch Jeff, thanks!
@ Drew – just admit it..you’re the nicest guy in web 2.0
Comment by Dan Schawbel — October 7, 2008 #
Dan,
Like I said….I will gladly wear that label!
Drew
Comment by Drew McLellan — October 7, 2008 #
Darn, so much for punk. Oh well
Thanks for including me, Dan.
Comment by Geoff Livingston — October 7, 2008 #
Love the exercise! I’m definitely going to find many uses for it. Who’s “Train”ing how now? And How!
Thanks for the inclusion and the fantastic one-word compliment.
Comment by Mike Sansone — October 8, 2008 #
I see where you’re going with the company one-word association, Dan, but I have a different thought process.
You:
Gillette – Innovative, Apple – Creativity, Google – Search, Dell – Hell, EMC – Information, McDonalds – Gross, Disney – Mickey, Toyota – Sturdy, Nintendo – Mario
Me:
Gillette – Razors, Apple – Macintosh, Google – Search, Dell – Computers, EMC – Technology, McDonalds – Arch, Disney – Cinderella, Toyota – Cars, Nintendo – Entertainment
Comment by Ari Herzog — October 8, 2008 #
Great exercise Dan.. and love the comments.
And for the record, I’m content with content.
; )
Comment by annhandley — October 8, 2008 #
[...] you describe your personal brand in one word? Dan Schawbel is [...]
Pingback by Five in the Morning 100908 « StickyFigure — October 9, 2008 #
There’s no “and” in “brand”…
A great brand can only be one thing. You can’t sell yourself as fastest and smartest – people don’t know how to process those conflicting ideas. Many entrepreneurs and consultants get stuck on this. They want to be fitness trainer…
Trackback by Andy Sernovitz's Damn, I Wish I'd Thought of That! — October 9, 2008 #
A brand is something you are, not something you do. So as a fitness trainer, your one word could be “tough” and you can convey that through all you do with your clients. If you move to another thing to “do” your value of tough remains.
That’s why Apple’s brand is not “Macintosh” because it does not represent the value they put into their projects. It’s just something they do, and these days it is far from the only thing they do well. Based on what I know of meetings that go on in inside there, the value-focus is clearly creativity (or innovation).
A barista at Starbucks has a brand. It’s reflected in the values they use to guide their actions and is represented through each relationship with another person. Again, in my opinion, your brand is based on who you are not what you do. What you do is an indicator people use to figure out who are you. If that barista gets a different job and people who knew him/her at the previous job encounter him/her at the new position, is that brand still in place? You bet it is.
Comment by Dave Saunders — October 9, 2008 #
[...] brand in a few sentences shouldn’t be hard to do. But, describing your personal brand in one word as Dan Schawbel, personal branding expert, has suggested, may be more of a challenge. Brevity is [...]
Pingback by Your Personal Brand Starts With Confidence « Life Before Noon: A Millennial’s Manual — October 23, 2008 #
[...] Describe Your Personal Brand in One Word [...]
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