How to market yourself using a brand platform.

"Leong, you gonna tell me its about branding again right?" Partially right.

However, a person who solely brands him or herself may not be enough. In the context of the current job market, the skills of marketing yourself to employers becomes an ever more important skill. If you do not stand out, you do not stand a chance. Here are some tips from a branding platform point of view.

Creating a brand platform
A brand platform communicates about you and works for you only. It is on 24/7, 365 days. It never stops. It is a virtual representation of you (or your brand) that never sleeps. What is that? It is basically a set of communication tools. Think of them as your personal sales agent. They speaks about you and what you stand for. Be it a LinkIt account which profiles yourself, a blog or FaceBook profile. Monster and JobsDB are some of the pioneers of creating that platform for job seekers and employers alike to hook up with one another. Nothing wrong with that except that a rather 'template approach' makes you look like yet another job seeker. If you want true differentiation, you need to work a little harder.

Video, Blog or build your own website
These are basically medium which you easily use to market yourself. They are no longer confined to big corporates or brands with deep pockets. When you start spreading ideas about your skills and capabilities, you are bound to get noticed. Spread your ideas, what you do, what you are good at etc. An idea is only as good if someone knows about it and accepts it. Share smartly and this platform will work even harder and more effectively for you.

To sum it all up, a brand platform for yourself or your products/services can be achieved by:
1) Choosing a suitable medium to begin with and it can be multiple (FB, Twitter, Web page, Blog). Some marketers call this integrated marketing.
2) Branding (Communicating your brand intent/personality or what you stand for)
3) Keeping an open communication or conversation with your target audience

Essentially, you are already creating an experience for your prospects or employers before arriving at the door. Isn't that worthwhile with a little investment of time that goes a long way? Make it go viral and it cost you nothing except your time.

If you think this blog is useful, share it with someone. Please leave your comments, if you have any. I would also like to credit Seth Godin on his platform blog which got this started.

Next posting will be on branding leadership. Stay tune.