Quick Tips: Maintaining Your Personal Brand When Connecting

Maintaining your personal brand for connection purposes can be tricky. Here are a few quick tips that you can put into action immediately:

EMAIL

• Review your email address to ensure it would not be considered “too funny” or offensive to a potential business colleague. I have seen some really crazy email addresses over the years- literally blog and book worthy! However, I am sure that is not an issue for all of you reading this.

• What I have seen by even the most seasoned professional is what I call a “cross over” email address. Maybe it is the personal account that you use for a hobby or role in the community. “HartfordSoccerDad” tells me you are committed to your family and the community; however, chances are has nothing to do with the positions you are exploring. “Preciousmoments 23” is brilliant marketing on eBay if you sell Precious Moments figurines, but definitely not helping to support your personal brand through your connection strategy unless that eBay power seller status is a part of your brand/story.

• What you DO want to be certain you have done is create an email address- a free one from gmail- JUST for networking! Clean- clear- including your name or a name/description: BrynJohnson. BrynZJohnson. Johnson Communications Manager. And it allows you to check ONE email address that has all activities that are connection/career related…. And only connection/career related.

VOICEMAIL

• Also the same sort of suggestion applies to your voicemail…loading your favorite song on your voicemail might not to be most professional way to stand out. The darling voicemail messages with your children singing hello are wonderful for family and friends but not for building your networking circle. One thought is to use only your cell phone for connecting. You can change the voicemail message to include only a professional message by you that matches your personal brand- in tone. Plus you are the only one who can access the mailbox. State your full name on the message… if people get a voice mail without an identifiable name, they get confused or second guess themselves and often hang up and call back . You do not want to give them the opportunity to hang up because if another call or meeting interrupts them, they may never call again.

PHONE CALLS

• Of course, this brings us to the last tip- when and how to answer the phone. Funny because we all know how to answer the phone, right? But when it comes to your connection strategy and the consistent messaging of your personal brand, you want the environment to be perfect when you pick up the call. Because you know that when the call comes in and it is surely that contact you have been waiting for, you are going to be sooooo excited to answer….

• Please make sure when you answer the phone you are in a place that where you can talk. In fact, my rule of thumb is that I must be in a place where I can talk and take notes- which means NO DRIVING, shopping in Target or walking down the sidewalk of the city. This could be the only time you get the critical information of where and when your one-on-one meeting will take place, what time the interview is or at what number to reach them. Don’t let that be the time when you are in the middle of picking up kids from soccer practice or ordering in a loud restaurant…Just DON’T ANSWER! Let them leave a message, and then you call them back at a more appropriate time.

Just a few ideas for you. Quick tips for connecting while maintaining a strong personal brand.