College Students Require Personal Branding Classes
November 14, 2008 at 12:11 pm | In Career Development, Me 2.0, Personal Branding, Podcasts, Success Strategies, social media, workshop | 18 CommentsOne of my visions is to have a “personal branding class” in every college and university in the world. It is my hope that my book will become the text book. I look at college students right now and feel sorry for many of them, who haven’t gained knowledge in branding. They are all at a severe disadvantage in a market where over 760,000 jobs have been lost and the job growth rate for 09′ graduates is only at 1.3%. Aside from the economy (I don’t want to play it to death), students have to understand that if they don’t uncover their unique attributes, they won’t stand out in a world of clutter, which means they won’t get a high paying job or one that aligns with their passions.
Today, I spoke with the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth, to start to socialize many of the ideas in my new book.
Tonight’s presentation recap – 10 min / 1 hr
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Slideshare presentation
A call to arms
If you aren’t a marketing major, then be a marketing minor please. You really need to learn about marketing because it’s all around you. For a college student not to have a LinkedIn profile, not to Google their name ever or set privacy setting for their Facebook account is something to be concerned over. I’ve presented to many colleges and I see the same issues over and over again.
A new standard should be required in education, where students learn about personal branding freshman year, so they have enough time to build a brand, so they:
- 1) don’t have to apply to jobs when they graduate
- 2) can start a business based around their brand
- 3) have more experience.
Look to the internet as your savior
It appears that most college students don’t understand the reach of the internet. Also, it’s important to point out that telling students to go to networking events and to seek assistance from career counselors and teachers is not enough. You need to reach across boundaries, in a world where everyone is on the same plane, and you can almost touch hiring managers at companies you want to work for. Don’t send out a 10,000 resume blast because that is just like the 10,000 emails reporters get everyday and they are discounted as spam. The real way to succeed in college is to understand how the internet can be used to get a job or start a business, and then act.
Enter web 2.0/me 2.0. There is a massive opportunity for college students to secure jobs as early as freshman year! As you know from reading my blog, most college students can’t define web 2.0, blogging, Twitter, etc. If you want to be one of the college students that puts these tools into action, you will see extraordinary results. I want you to all be “Me 2.0,” so you can control your own online kingdom and command your career.
From promotion to protection
For about a year and a half, my messaging has been around promoting your personal brand. In the past few months, I’ve been more concerned over our reputations, so I’m now bucketing my messaging around “promotion” and “protection.” The reality is that you need to protect your name because someone either steals it from you (registers it) or people start talking about you and own your Google results. The promotion piece is more apparent and noticeable, yet equally important.
Final thoughts
Just by seeing where college students are right now is a clear indication that I’m heading in the right direction and that my book has the ability to completely reshape our education system, into one where students have the tools and confidence required to be successful. I’m here for all of you, as we conquer the world together.
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great concepts – thanks for sharing! In the future you might want to invest in a better recording — it doesn’t sell the ideals you write about.
Comment by matt — November 14, 2008 #
Dan,
I think you hit the nail right on the head, as I am a student and have started my “personal branding” for myself, I see others doing nothing. It should be taught as a marketing class, but should be required by all students their freshman year.
Twitter ID: itsaholliday
Comment by Kiel Holliday — November 14, 2008 #
Correct me if im wrong, but i think that the differance bewtween Promotion and Protection is like the differance bitween Branding and Reputation.
For the past 6 months i have been given both Personal Branding and Reputation Management services.
Intererstingly I have much more clients who need me to manage and protect their reputation because they have something bad about them in google page results, then people who need me to eBrand them and to shape their online identity.
Comment by Maor Kaplanski — November 14, 2008 #
@Maor – personal branding covers a lot of stuff. Have you seen my Octopus Model of Relevancy?
Comment by Dan Schawbel — November 14, 2008 #
Sure! Personal Branding covers Online Eeputation
What im saying is from what ive experienced, the need of “protecting a name”, is much more stronger then the need of “making a name”…
Comment by Maor Kaplanski — November 14, 2008 #
@Maor – I think they are both equally important.
Comment by Dan Schawbel — November 14, 2008 #
I didn’t know about ‘personal branding’ until I got my job online. I was a student who knew nothing about getting a job, marketing myself, and all that. Not until I got to experience it. There is a need to know these things. But I wonder why I wasn’t aware of it while I was still studying.
~Free Student Resume Network for jobs, internships, projects and more. Get Listed, Get found, Get Hired. Visit NUresume at http://www.nuresume.com and start building your free student online resume!
Comment by Claire — November 14, 2008 #
Dan .. very interesting at the college level. I believe that it will continue to push down into earlier ages as things progress. I have two young daughters and I can only imagine how they will be communicating online.
As my first was born many people would joke about the cost of a college education when she was older, and I would always reply that I was more concerned that she develop a marketable trade more so than a degree. They sort of thought I was joking. I’m not.
Applying what you are pointing to .. they will be better served by establishing who they are, what they represent, and what they can contribute rather than some sheepskin.
The only way they will be able to achieve that is to implement the practices of a personal “brand”.
Comment by Joe Magennis — November 14, 2008 #
Dan,
Great presentation and your slide show covers every major idea we should all be aware of. Every college student should read this article!
Comment by Lewis Howes — November 14, 2008 #
Thanks everyone. I’m happy you support these “big ideas.”
Comment by Dan Schawbel — November 14, 2008 #
[...] College Students Require Personal Branding Classes « Personal Branding Blog – Dan Schawbel One of my visions is to have a “personal branding class” in every college and university in the world. It is my hope that my book will become the text book. I look at college students right now and feel sorry for many of them, who haven’t gained knowledge in branding. They are all at a severe disadvantage in a market where over 760,000 jobs have been lost and the job growth rate for 09? graduates is only at 1.3%. Aside from the economy (I don’t want to play it to death), students have to understand that if they don’t uncover their unique attributes, they won’t stand out in a world of clutter, which means they won’t (tags: branding brand) [...]
Pingback by » Blog Archive » links for 2008-11-14 — November 15, 2008 #
Thanks for the great presentation. My thoughts:
1. Why no mention of MySpace? Despite it’s reputation, shouldn’t you still have a presence or claim your name?
2. Where did you get your Google statistics (47% of people self-google, 53% of people google others)?
3. Do you really think a marketing minor is necessary? I feel like one solid class with a few solid books and a feed from blogs like yours might be adequate.
Comment by aklepchukov — November 16, 2008 #
Great post as always Dan, I’m going to be sure to share this with my friends on Facebook
Comment by David Heiser — November 17, 2008 #
Loved this post — it really is important for college students to pay attention to this stuff, but most of them don’t…
Comment by Nisha — November 18, 2008 #
Hi Dan – It’s funny to hear that college kids don’t get this, as I’m working with Boomers who may be out of a job sooner than they think but still “don’t want to be found on the Internet.” I think the winners in any demographic are going to be the ones open to using web 2.0 to brand themselves!
Diane
p.s. Have your book and can’t wait to review it.
Comment by Diane K. Danielson — November 19, 2008 #
I wanted to write you and let you know how much I truly admire what you are doing in your mission to talk to college students, and push for a personal branding course in every college / university.
I graduated in 2007 from Penn State University more unprepared then I thought. I was lucky to have several mentors that steered me in the right direction, urging me to educate myself on the “new” forms of marketing that I didn’t learn about at all in my undergrad of Advertising.
I too am a big proponent of better preparing college students for the real world- and that means learning how to market themselves to potential employers.
Thank you for all your hard work and dedication!
Comment by Erica DeWolf — November 22, 2008 #
[...] Gen Y’s personal branding guru Dan Schawbel has this same vision. [...]
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