My RSS Feed has a consistent personal brand on, well, personal brand and career topics. Maria Elena Duron has Just Posted the Following on her blog:

On the back roads of New Mexico, you’ll drive on lonely two lane highways that will every now and again feature these signs… “Pass with care” and then “No Pass”. There are times when there are huge 18-wheelers blocking your progress as well as your speed down the highway and you might make the decision to pass or it could be that inevitably slow vehicle that can only hopes to achieve 55mph that stunts your progress. Either of those obstacles provide you the opportunity to make a decision….”Pass with care” or “No pass”. For safety sake, there might be times when you have to drudge along these drivers and look for another opportunity to leap frog to the front.

In personal branding and most specifically with word of mouth, there might be times when obstacles slow your progress.

In personal branding, it could be that you get frustrated with the process of discovering your brand attributes, strengths and unique value proposition. Often, that discovery process can be frustrating and seem too “fluffy” especially when someone is so in the hurry to get their brand statement, business cards, logo, websites and make a sale! Or, it can seem stupid especially to that executive who thinks that they already work for a company with a brand they just want to garner enough people speaking positively on their behalf to get a promotion or land some great connections – they’re thinking “let’s get on with it already”!

You can choose to pass this process with care. Yet, it is one step that I coach my clients to “No Pass”. Sixty-percent of personal branding is making sure your solid in knowing what makes you unique in strengths and deliverables. If you merely position your personal brand, you risk much in there being a disconnect between who you say you are and who you really are. And, as we know, reputations take life times to build and moments to destroy.

Take the time to go through the process. No matter how slow or tedious the process might be of brand discovery and creating the subsequent communication plan. If you pass this part, even with care, you are likely to run head onto oncoming traffic and your survival chances will be determined by the size of the obstacle that hits you. Would you rather be chartering your own survival? And, better yet, wouldn’t you rather thrive?

In word of mouth, the lesson also applies. There are thousands of different social networking sites to engage in and lose time in. There are hundreds of networking opportunities to participate in. And, there are thousands of potential referral partners that you could coffee with every 20 minutes and fill an entire day. There are some that are good fits. Some that are far-fetched. And, some that are just plain time wasters. How do you decide what “opportunities” to pass up and which ones to take on?

The basis of knowing your niche (the perfect client or contact that provides YOU the most pleasure and profit) and having strategy as to why you would need to participate, engage, log on, link to, friend or follow, provides you the measuring stick and guidance to make choices on which ones to “pass with care” and which to participate in and “no pass”.

So now that we’ve started on this process – I won’t leave you on a lonely highway. Over the next few days, on my blog, I’ll provide a road-map to how you can engage some of the vehicles that will be helpful to you on your road to success.

It’s been a long time since I’ve taken a one week break from posting on my blog. I’ve been blogging since April 2009 and did what every blogger does at the beginning…struggle to find the right time, consistency and clarity in their blog. Answering the who, what and when of the posts that I would write was vital to the tone and flavor of the blog so that it would entice and engage the right reader. Hope that this selection this week engages and helps you!Maria Elena Duron, CEO, Buzz to Bucks, broadens the network of busy people through effective social marketing strategies. Buzz to Bucks provides online profile management services, social management and reputation management - helping key employees to establish higher visibility and provide consistency in branding as well as establishing the expertise in their industry for entrepreneurs.


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