How a Boss Can Tell Your Personal Brand is Fake

Your Reputation Precedes You…NetClarify Can Help!

Inc. recently posted a great article called 9 Ways You’re Ruining Your Online Reputation. If you are on our blog, you already know how strongly we feel about discovering and protecting your online reputation, but this article made us think about the “good” things people post online that can give as much pause to a future boss as those salacious pictures and posts.

Below we review what descriptors you are using in your personal branding messages that are as over-played as a Beiber song on the radio these days. Find new and honest ways to describe your skills to really set yourself apart from the pack.

1.      I am a CEO…

You may have had a dog walking business catering to your neighbors when you were 10 or you very well may own your own graphic design business, but calling yourself CEO indicates that you have gone through the legal and somewhat pricey process of incorporating your business. If this is not the case, avoid looking like you are blowing smoke up someone’s…er…computer monitor, and call yourself a founder, president, or the like. Better yet, use a platform like Linkedin to really summarize your initiatives like seeing a need in the market and gathering the resources to fulfill it.

2.      I am a guru…

While there is nothing that would legally prevent you from calling yourself a guru, hopefully the smirk you get on your face when you introduce yourself as a business guru means that your b.s. thermometer if working. If you are self-involved enough to proclaim yourself a guru or an expert on anything that you haven’t been doing for at least the last 20 years, you should know that a potential boss, though he or she may appreciate your confidence, will think you are clearly overestimating your skills.

3.      I am my degree…

You just graduated, and you should be pretty proud. We are proud of you! But, you are not your degree. I am not Tracy Shank, MSE…mostly for the fact that most people would not know MSE means Master of Science in Entrepreneurship. Rather, explain who you are not in terms of your schooling, but rather in terms of your experience and passion. “I am Tracy Shank, a communicator with experience and interest in Startup and growth-stage company marketing execution.”

Your personal brand is defines you online. And as important as it is to be appropriate, you also have to be honest. You may think of yourself very highly, but do yourself a favor and mix a heavy dose of modesty into your online image to avoid making the rest of your notable accomplishments seem as outlandish as your other statements about yourself. Of course there are many other ways a personal brand can go awry, but we will have to address those another time.

Comment below if you have any that you think we should cover.

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