thesuccesstoday

Very few argue today that corporations have raised the bar for all those who seek a quick climb up the corporate ladder. The once great advantages one could wield in the fight to the top, such as knowledge, skills and resources, no longer intimidate or impress. Everyone is so busy at work that we don’t have the opportunity to make real connections with those who manage the company and the futures of those within. With so little face-to-face interaction between manager and employee, your future becomes greatly dependent upon the information they can gather during each “drive by.” In essence, your career mobility is driven more by what your leaders perceive.

Influencing what managers perceive, as most experts agree, is a difficult task. The proliferation of advice on personal branding will have you trying to figure out ways to improve the way you look, speak and act. While these suggestions are good, they leave you with an incredible amount of work to do before you can even begin to work on them. You’ll need to assess what each manager values and then try to adjust yourself to accommodate them. These values will vary all across the board forcing you to manage a great deal of information. Not to mention you’ll spend a lot of time acquiring this data.

But what if you could put your personal branding into overdrive by using “mass personal branding” techniques. These techniques are similar to using a resume distribution company to send your resume to 1000 employers when you are looking for a new job. It’s a way to get the word out about you to as many people as possible during a single event. Using this type of mass perception management has many great advantages. One of the greatest advantages is that you can influence people who will pass along their thoughts of you, giving you that most sought after “word of mouth” advertising. Knowing that managers greatly value expertise and opinions outside of the company, you can easily build a fan base with the ability to mount a career campaign on your behalf with all the validation a manager needs.

While these techniques are highly effective, they must be carefully implemented to avoid communicating the wrong message. However, a careful execution of these methods can take years of work out of your career plans. The following “mass branding” techniques are designed to give you the most exposure for your effort.

1. Blitz Approach. If you don’t recognize this approach, you’ll start hearing more about it soon in a forthcoming book called “Blitz the Ladder.” The premise of this technique is that you build a team of close supporters that work closely together to market and promote each other’s knowledge, skills and abilities. Each member builds a career strategy map that is shared with all team members. Once all team members are intimate with everyone’s career goals, they all get to work making it happen. The value to you is that they help communicate your value to those in power. Remember, its one thing to tell others you are valuable and its something completely different when others are saying the same thing. Your team members instantly validate your value when they sing your praises to management. Build a “Blitz” team and put mobility back in your career. You can learn more about the Blitz Approach at http://blitztheladder.com.

2. Organizational Informal Networks. If you’re not comfortable building your own career team, you can still tap into the main informal networks of companies; that is, trust, communication and advice. These networks are basically how a company gets its work done. The formal hierarchy is not followed when we do our daily activities. As a research engineer, I didn’t go to my boss to get answers on issues I was working on. I knew he didn’t have the answers. So, I learned who was in the advice network in my company, or simply who people go to for answers, and used them to assist me in getting my problems solved. I soon became known as a technical expert within my own smaller network. This type of reputation can quickly grow throughout the company if you utilize the communication network to let the key players in the company know you are an expert. This technique is relatively simple. You need to focus on defining the networks and what you want them to communicate. Once you have all of that, put them to work and watch your reputation grow.

3. Community Involvement. This is a technique is one most people never consider but has some serious potential. My friend, David, had just finished his MBA and wanted to establish some fast recognition of his new skills. After several unsuccessful attempts to convince his boss that he was ready for something bigger, he sought an opportunity to do something really big outside of the company. David contacted a few people within a fraternal organization and asked to take charge of their largest fundraiser. David won the opportunity and decided to offer a 5K run to the general public. Being in a city that takes pride in being fit, it was sure to be a success. For months, David marketed his activity to newspapers, city officials, corporations and television stations. On the day of the race, over 1000 people had joined in to help the cause. Eventually the word got back to his company that he had managed a 5K run all by himself. The next activity within his company was in providing David the opportunity to change roles and lead in developing new business for the company.

Just imagine David standing in front of 1000 people giving his kickoff speech. He modified and created over 1000 perceptions of himself in one single event. Now that’s marketing! These opportunities are always great because you never know who may be in the crowd.

4. Blog. You should certainly know about this technique. Blogging is the biggest and fastest growing phenomena on the web. However, getting people to visit your Blog is no easy feat. The key to building your reputation by blogging is to get your info in front of as many people as possible. Establishing your presence isn’t as difficult as you may think. Here’s a simple method for creating the marketable “you” by blogging. Use the Internet to identify to top Blogs in your area of expertise. There are numerous sites that rank Blog sites like RiseSmart’s Career 100 and Top100bloggers. Check out each site to see if they post information in your area of expertise. Then start writing responses to as many of these popular blogs as you can. If you have your own blog or website, make sure you point readers back to these sites. It’s fairly easy to use the success of others to help you improve your own.

Once you’ve connected with many of these top bloggers, ask them to write for you and connect to your Blog. It is more exposure for them and will direct their readers to you. The more your Blog, the more perceptions you help others make about you. Before you know it, you will be on the top 100 list.

5. Publications. If Blogging isn’t enough, you may want to consider writing for publications with a bigger audience. My good friend, Tom Singer, author of “Some Assembly Required,” greatly improved his image as an expert on networking by writing books. He’s written 3 books on the subject. Now, when he wants to speak to an organization, company or conference, he has instant value. Writing a book is not as difficult as you think. The biggest selling media type is the 100 page paperback book. That’s it, 100 pages. If you don’t feel you have enough knowledge for 100 pages, get a friend to help out. One technique I’ve seen used it pitching an idea for a book to one of those top Blog experts, coaches or experienced writers. You can simply do a little research on your topic and what people may want to know no or in the near future, write up a rough outline and submit it to many people. Make sure they know what’s in it for them; otherwise, they won’t have much interest.

If a book is too intimidating, consider writing some articles for on-line magazines. Once you get a few of these under your belt, then the book will become much easier. Publications provide a way to reach many people around the world. It’s also the best way to create the perception of yourself you want others to have since they’ll only know what you tell them (or write for them to read).

These 5 techniques can help you quickly create the “you” you desire by reaching as many people as possible in a single event. It has huge advantages over those who try to impress one person at a time in their own company. Just like the politicians seeking a nomination for presidency, you can’t waste time reaching those you seek to influence by doing it one person at a time. You have to create events that put you in contact with many people at once. Using one or all of these techniques is an efficient and effective way to campaign the new “you” to the masses. Once you have the right thoughts in their head, getting to your career destination becomes much, much easier.