I met a senior executive the other week, we arranged to meet for breakfast.
When I go there he said to me "I've been looking forward to meet you". It's not often you hear people say that, usually meeting people is usually a chore.
You know they are going to pitch to you, so if anything you avoid meeting people, or dread meetings. But this guy was excited to meet me and said so.
Why?
Like, everybody does, he checked me out on-line first of all.
Our LinkedIn profiles are often the first place where people get to see us and we form first impressions.
Many of us still think the first impression is based on a meeting. It's not.
Everybody needs a personal brand, we are working with an organisation from the top to the bottom. Let me explain.
The CEO needs to attract investors so he he needs to have a great personal brand. The whole of the Board also will be checked out by investors, so they all need great personal brands.
They actually realised this themselves, before they sought external help from us, why? They were having problems filling senior positions. they needed a new CFO and found that a great candidate gave them the feedback that the company looked crap. Why? Because all the on-line profiles looked crap.
Of course, sales needs to have great personal brands, but so does the Board and the rest of the business.
It's time to get you company looking good on social!
Consider this. Virgin has a brand, but so does Richard Branson. Spanx has a brand, but so does founder Sara Blakely. Berkshire Hathaway has a brand but so does Warren Buffett -- the list could go on. These iconic entrepreneurs did it right and have been reaping the benefits as a result. If you don't have a personal brand established,