Lots of networkers have adopted networking personas that they hope will leave lasting impressions in their new acquaintances' minds. The overall exercise of making yourself "sticky" to other networkers is called Personal Branding. People spend lots of time and energy on cultivating their personal brands -- some even spend money on it, by hiring pros to help them become unforgettable to the people they meet.
One woman I know wears a little zebra pin in her lapel, wherever she goes; and she hopes people will remember her zebra pin and her networking tagline, "I put small businesses in the black." I'm not sure how she explains the white part of the zebra. Another networker in town hands out little fortune-cookie-type scrolls with quotes on them, and says to everyone, "Call me for a quote!" He's an insurance agent. He also has quotations of famous people on his voicemail machine. Quotes -- get it?
Labels like "The Documentation Doctor" or "The House Whisperer" (for a real estate agent) are supposed to have the same effect as the lady's zebra pin -- to stick in people's minds. I'm not sure this happens, but I can't blame a networker for trying.
Choose Your Label Carefully
If you use a moniker like "the SEO scientist," however, make sure it's descriptive and not evaluative. That is, tell people WHAT you do, not how well you do it. It's one thing to use a personal brand that describes your work, like the Teamwork Specialist. It's another thing entirely -- and not an impressive one -- to include in your personal brand a statement about how well you do what you do. As soon as you label yourself The Organization Master, you've already lost credibility. "Master" is one of those terms, like "expert," "guru," and the like, that can only be conferred on people by other people.
The fact is, if you have to call yourself an expert, guru or master, you're not one. If you were, you'd only have to tell a new acquaintance your name, and people all around you would say, "Oh, you're an expert on X, I've heard of you!" True experts, gurus and masters wouldn't dare compliment themselves, much less include those self-conferred titles in their networking overtures.
Let Others Sing Your Praise
When I'm not writing advice columns and speaking to groups, I sing opera. And way back in music school, I learned that a diva never calls herself a diva. If she is a diva, other people are only too happy to introduce her that way. She'd never dream of doing it herself. So it's sad for me to see "marketing divas," "web design divas," and all sorts of other divas and goddesses crowding the landscape. Don't they realize that those titles only detract from (and distract from) the talents and gifts that they have?
So be wary of the visionaries, gurus, mavericks and goddesses you'll meet on your networking travels -- there's something fishy about complimenting yourself, rather than waiting for the business public to do it for you.
And more importantly, cutesy networking brands aren't necessary. What's wrong with introducing yourself as Cameron Smith, Lacy Evans or Parviz Williams, and letting a relationship develop from there? Our parents gave us perfectly sturdy and wonderful personal brands when we were tiny. Imagine how wonderful it would be for your own name to say more about you than any dreamed-up personal brand. After all, what else does your name do than represent you to people you meet?
Liz Ryan is a 25-year HR veteran, former Fortune 500 VP and an internationally recognized expert on careers and the new millennium workplace. She is the author of "Happy About Online Networking," creator of the Career Bound workshop, and founder of the global women's organization formerly known as WorldWIT. Contact Liz at liz@asklizryan.com.
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