Do you know what people are saying about you on the web? I recently attended a conference where one of the guest speakers was Don Yaeger – if you ever have a chance to hear him speak, do it! He talked about the advent of social media and its effect on and applications to personal branding. Great stuff not only, for personal relationships, but business perceptions as well.
What is personal branding and why should we care about it? It is what you would like a personal acquaintance or business contact to say when asked what they think and know about you! What it really comes down to is “If you’re talking the talk, are you walking the walk?” Do you communicate and act the way you want to be remembered and thought of?
How you’re perceived can literally change overnight, IE: Charlie Sheen, Mel Gibson, etc… Don Yager suggests monitoring your name with Google Alerts. It’s a free app that allows you to get alerts on just about anything. I set it up to get daily alerts on several variations of my name. I haven’t gotten alerts about me specifically yet-I guess that’s good- but I have been getting alerts about other people with the same name as me. I’m finding them to be quite interesting! One is the Cop on a Gang Unit Task Force in Youngstown PA, another, the Photographer. Then there is the Musician, the Head Teacher, the Civil War Buff, the Executive Director, and, of course, Mike Lambert the All Round Cricketer. But the one I got the other day that caused me to pause and reflect on my own life, was an Obituary. This “Mike Lambert” was 38 years old, married, with two children. It did not say anything about who he was or what he did, just that he died. Quite sad…
All this brings me back to the essential question- “What’s my branding”? I guess it’s never too early to start working on the things I would like to be said about me now and later…

We love all our referrals! What business doesn’t? However, no business can thrive on referrals alone…
