In previous posts about the importance of a personal brand, we concentrated on how to create a personal brand using web tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Now it�s time to create your own personal brand statement. A brand statement will help your cover letter or resume stand out from thousands of others! In the next several blog postings, I will share information with you taken from leading personal branding expert and career advancement coach, Robert Allen Paul, and his �Company Of One� presentation at Buena Vista University. I would recommend his valuable message to every student. (Part I: Your Brand Part II: Core Competencies Part III: Brand Attributes): Part IV: Brand Identity:
Who Are Your Customers? What Do They Think You Do?
Understanding what you really do and how you do it differently provides you with an advantage when it comes to communicating key benefits to your �customers�. But who are your customers?
Traditionally, a customer �or consumer �is usually defined as anyone who uses or could possibly use your product or service. But in branding, the definition of a consumer also includes all of those who couldn�t or wouldn�t. Because even those consumers who are unlikely to become your customer (or employer) have some influence over those who might. They all participate in creating what marketers refer to as your Brand Identity; which is something different from simple Brand Recognition.
Brand Identity vs. Brand Recognition
What is the difference between Brand Recognition and Brand Identity? Let�s use a party analogy. You go to a party, you see an attractive person, and you walk up to them and introduce yourself with some Brand Advertising: �Hi, I�m (name) and I�m an awesome date.� So they say, �Hmmm. (Name)? I think I�ve heard of you.� That�s Brand Recognition. Now imagine you go to a party, you see an attractive person, you walk up to them and say �Hi, I�m (name).�
Then they say �Oh? You�re (name)? I hear you�re an awesome date.� That�s Brand Identity.
See the difference? Brand Identity isn�t based on what you say about yourself, but on what the consumer is likely to say about you. And, just as with brand positioning, your brand identity isn�t built in the marketplace. It�s built in the mind of the consumer. It consists of more than just the ability to recall your brand name. It consists of the consumer�s 360 degrees experience with your brand �personally and otherwise. In fact, it�s possible to develop a brand identity with all sorts of consumers who�ve never done business with you.
Every year, the Harris organization conducts what they call their Best Brand Survey. It�s a national poll of approximately 3,500 consumers that consists of just one question:
�We would like you to think about brands or names of products and services you know. Considering everything, which three brands do you consider the best?�
Can you guess which brand tops the list? According to American consumers, the best brand in America was Sony. For seven years running. That�s impressive performance by any standard. But what�s even more impressive is that there were years in which the percentage of consumers who named Sony as a best brand was greater than the percentage of consumers who actually own any Sony product.
In other words, you don�t have to have personal experience with a brand to have a definite opinion about that brand.
It can be disturbing to discover that people you don�t know �and who don�t know you �may still have an opinion of you. But that�s the way brand identity works; one impression or observation or interpretation at a time.
If I cut my hair or lose weight. If I�m ten minutes early or two minutes late. The clothes I wear. The car I drive. The way I answer the phone. The way I sign my emails. The way I treat my colleagues or my mother or the students in my class. Every little thing I say or do �or don�t say or don�t do �all make a little deposit in the identity account that exists in the mind of my consumer.
So, to those who might tell you the little things don�t matter, I�d say the little things do matter. More often than not, building positive brand identity is a matter of managing impressions and word-of-mouth.
Next up: Creating Your Brand Statement: Brand Promise
Friday, November 6, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Alternatives to Employment for College Entry Level
New college graduates can a face particularly tough time because of the recession. The growth of anticipated new hires, which is measured twice a year by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, slowed as it reached a high in the spring of 2007, nearly flat, falling in autumn. The figures for the spring 2009 show that for the first time in years, companies expect to hire even fewer graduates this year than last-22 percent less in fact. According to The Boston Globe, the business and financial sector have an even Bleaker prospects, as well as the northeastern region of the United States.
With this setting, dim picture in his head, soon-to-be graduates are looking at alternatives to the traditional workforce. Additional training, teaching, scholarship programs and volunteer work all popular. If you are a student completed staring into the face, note the earlier start and more competition for the research and application of, rather than later.
Graduate programs, including even those offered by business schools to see an increasing application as many students either their entry into the labor force delay or push-up to choose their long-term plans to graduate school. Students can potentially excellent land full-tuition scholarships or assistantships and generous scholarship. Many graduate degrees can be competitive receivers when they enter the working world, even if the economy is again significant.
Similarly, Teacher Certification programs, such as the popular Teach for America, as an increase in applicants. These programs offer a stipend, as well as teacher certification, and in some cases a master's degree in education, in exchange for a commitment from one or two years as a teacher at a school with low income or a high-need subject. Other programs are available with similar services, including educational scholarships in several large cities like New York and Chicago. College students or young professionals who want to teach, but do not want to pay more for the school to consider these possibilities.
Other volunteer programs like Americorps and the Peace Corps, also see more candidates. Such programs are often put off by a stipend or living allowance, as well as student loans or even cancellation or repayment of the loan benefits. Students can also participate in many of these programs, while still in college or graduate degrees while tracking. If you opt for an alternative to the post-college rat race are interested, there is no better time to start considering your options.
With this setting, dim picture in his head, soon-to-be graduates are looking at alternatives to the traditional workforce. Additional training, teaching, scholarship programs and volunteer work all popular. If you are a student completed staring into the face, note the earlier start and more competition for the research and application of, rather than later.
Graduate programs, including even those offered by business schools to see an increasing application as many students either their entry into the labor force delay or push-up to choose their long-term plans to graduate school. Students can potentially excellent land full-tuition scholarships or assistantships and generous scholarship. Many graduate degrees can be competitive receivers when they enter the working world, even if the economy is again significant.
Similarly, Teacher Certification programs, such as the popular Teach for America, as an increase in applicants. These programs offer a stipend, as well as teacher certification, and in some cases a master's degree in education, in exchange for a commitment from one or two years as a teacher at a school with low income or a high-need subject. Other programs are available with similar services, including educational scholarships in several large cities like New York and Chicago. College students or young professionals who want to teach, but do not want to pay more for the school to consider these possibilities.
Other volunteer programs like Americorps and the Peace Corps, also see more candidates. Such programs are often put off by a stipend or living allowance, as well as student loans or even cancellation or repayment of the loan benefits. Students can also participate in many of these programs, while still in college or graduate degrees while tracking. If you opt for an alternative to the post-college rat race are interested, there is no better time to start considering your options.
Reconsidering school scholarships based on merit
Although the needs of financial aid has remained stable in most schools, some schools are looking for scholarship programs of excellence that the next place to reduce, if budgets continue to decline. Merit-based scholarships, which often see the need, based on GPA and standardized test scores as measures of student achievement and potential for excellence at the university level.
One criticism was that the scholarships are awarded disproportionately to students from wealthy families who may have the means to better prepare for testing and support outside the classroom. However, cuts in merit scholarship programs can also affect the middle class, a group of students who can not receive any funding, but because of all the income of your parents receive more loans Bursaries ', grants, compared to low-income applicants. That may be how it should work, but middle-class families with stable incomes, do not always have surplus resources to contribute significantly to savings accounts for college than 529 plans, especially in a tough economy.
In case of merit-based scholarships while also considering a degree of necessity before the release? An article published this week in The Chronicle of Higher Education describes several schools looking to cut merit-based scholarship programs, especially those dependent on state funding to exist. In Florida Bright Futures scholarship program will establish the total public funding college tuition for a set amount based on credit hours. In West Virginia Promise Scholarship max out scholarships at $ 4,750 instead of the old walking track. In Michigan, a state that has been hit particularly hard in this economy, its own program of scholarships promised in May to cut completely. The University of Texas recently announced it would no longer sponsor National Merit, a popular program of national scholarships for qualified students based on standardized test scores. The students had not received $ 13,000 in four years. The university promised an increase in need-based financial aid to help students who had received help from the National Merit, but also qualified for many need-based federal programs for financial assistance.
With a limited amount of state funds and federal level, schools must determine how best to address funding. The trend has been to give greater emphasis to the need, as the fundamental reason is that many students who received merit-based scholarships would be able to afford college anyway, or are eligible to Graduate Fellowships, to leave. And those who have requested need-based financial aid before the recession just need more help now.
One school takes the approach of the Good Samaritan. At Pennsylvania State University Schreyer Honors College, parents and College Bound forms of financial aid not complete, but all credit received $ 3500 scholarships based on admission to the honors college are invited to examine the distribution of this money instead of students admitted to a greater financial need. In short, the money goes to students who really need it. Should be more complicated than that?
One criticism was that the scholarships are awarded disproportionately to students from wealthy families who may have the means to better prepare for testing and support outside the classroom. However, cuts in merit scholarship programs can also affect the middle class, a group of students who can not receive any funding, but because of all the income of your parents receive more loans Bursaries ', grants, compared to low-income applicants. That may be how it should work, but middle-class families with stable incomes, do not always have surplus resources to contribute significantly to savings accounts for college than 529 plans, especially in a tough economy.
In case of merit-based scholarships while also considering a degree of necessity before the release? An article published this week in The Chronicle of Higher Education describes several schools looking to cut merit-based scholarship programs, especially those dependent on state funding to exist. In Florida Bright Futures scholarship program will establish the total public funding college tuition for a set amount based on credit hours. In West Virginia Promise Scholarship max out scholarships at $ 4,750 instead of the old walking track. In Michigan, a state that has been hit particularly hard in this economy, its own program of scholarships promised in May to cut completely. The University of Texas recently announced it would no longer sponsor National Merit, a popular program of national scholarships for qualified students based on standardized test scores. The students had not received $ 13,000 in four years. The university promised an increase in need-based financial aid to help students who had received help from the National Merit, but also qualified for many need-based federal programs for financial assistance.
With a limited amount of state funds and federal level, schools must determine how best to address funding. The trend has been to give greater emphasis to the need, as the fundamental reason is that many students who received merit-based scholarships would be able to afford college anyway, or are eligible to Graduate Fellowships, to leave. And those who have requested need-based financial aid before the recession just need more help now.
One school takes the approach of the Good Samaritan. At Pennsylvania State University Schreyer Honors College, parents and College Bound forms of financial aid not complete, but all credit received $ 3500 scholarships based on admission to the honors college are invited to examine the distribution of this money instead of students admitted to a greater financial need. In short, the money goes to students who really need it. Should be more complicated than that?
It offers students free textbooks
In recent years, universities have begun experimenting with a variety of techniques to make it cheaper for textbooks and more will be purchased by students. On demand printing of textbooks from the University of Michigan campus in textbooks and online rental options at the national level, it seems that at least two or three turns of the price of textbooks each deployment year. But this year's Williams College in Massachusetts, are trying to do something completely different: to provide free schoolbooks.
Starting this fall, students receiving financial aid Williams in the position to their textbooks to their accounts Download Save option for students from many universities, the University will be awarded on the amount of its purchase of textbooks based school will receive, since the Authorities know Williams is a unique offering of the campus. The textbook program and the reasons for its imposition have been recently highlighted in a blog entry to university in the New York Times blog, The Choice.
Williams had to be economically disadvantaged students, the book offered a payment of $ 400 per semester, but found that some students still do not buy all the necessary textbooks, because they believed that the money spent on books continue to come from his own pocket. A program in the amount of textbooks through the library is used to supplement, but there is concern that students might not fully used books will be borrowed. To mark the students and host to enable books and references in the following semesters, the university has decided to buy students are able to take all necessary texts. Thus, the current program was born in Grant Williams officials expect about the same cost as the combination of grant and loan programs for libraries, but to serve more learners comprehensively and efficiently.
Little things like free text books can go a long way towards compensating the students in their pursuit of higher education. Whatever college you attend, you may want to textbooks in their search for scholarships factor, too. While the manual is not how much an individual to care if the costs are included, groups can become an important part of the costs for college students. For many students pay for textbooks out of pocket, you can quickly have a problem with money management, increasing workload, the balances of credit card debt or student loans.
Starting this fall, students receiving financial aid Williams in the position to their textbooks to their accounts Download Save option for students from many universities, the University will be awarded on the amount of its purchase of textbooks based school will receive, since the Authorities know Williams is a unique offering of the campus. The textbook program and the reasons for its imposition have been recently highlighted in a blog entry to university in the New York Times blog, The Choice.
Williams had to be economically disadvantaged students, the book offered a payment of $ 400 per semester, but found that some students still do not buy all the necessary textbooks, because they believed that the money spent on books continue to come from his own pocket. A program in the amount of textbooks through the library is used to supplement, but there is concern that students might not fully used books will be borrowed. To mark the students and host to enable books and references in the following semesters, the university has decided to buy students are able to take all necessary texts. Thus, the current program was born in Grant Williams officials expect about the same cost as the combination of grant and loan programs for libraries, but to serve more learners comprehensively and efficiently.
Little things like free text books can go a long way towards compensating the students in their pursuit of higher education. Whatever college you attend, you may want to textbooks in their search for scholarships factor, too. While the manual is not how much an individual to care if the costs are included, groups can become an important part of the costs for college students. For many students pay for textbooks out of pocket, you can quickly have a problem with money management, increasing workload, the balances of credit card debt or student loans.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Racism and Education Reform
A question for all you foundations experts.
On another blog we were having a discussion about the relationship between racism/classism and the belief that education reform is the key to social and economic change for the poor. I wondered whether a focus on education reform is a PC way for liberals to sublimate their racist/classist assumptions, consciously or not. And I wondered whether this association helps explain the incredible unresponsiveness of liberals to basic facts about education reform (like the fact that evaluating academic achievement in poor schools with standardized tests is deadly).
Are education reform in its current form and the "education gospel" more generally, representative of a kind of new "white person's burden" and imperialism?
In a sense, focusing on education as the "solution" to anything at least partly entails "blaming the victim." If education is the solution, then there must be something about someone that is inadequate and needs to be "fixed." A focus on education inherently implies that the "problem" is with those who are being educated (and can't seem to learn).
Who has talked about this?
Some relevant data from the discussion:
On another blog we were having a discussion about the relationship between racism/classism and the belief that education reform is the key to social and economic change for the poor. I wondered whether a focus on education reform is a PC way for liberals to sublimate their racist/classist assumptions, consciously or not. And I wondered whether this association helps explain the incredible unresponsiveness of liberals to basic facts about education reform (like the fact that evaluating academic achievement in poor schools with standardized tests is deadly).
Are education reform in its current form and the "education gospel" more generally, representative of a kind of new "white person's burden" and imperialism?
In a sense, focusing on education as the "solution" to anything at least partly entails "blaming the victim." If education is the solution, then there must be something about someone that is inadequate and needs to be "fixed." A focus on education inherently implies that the "problem" is with those who are being educated (and can't seem to learn).
Who has talked about this?
Some relevant data from the discussion:
But the General Social Survey asks about 4 different explanations for why blacks are less successful economically. . . . [T]hose who give all internal explanations (blaming blacks for their lack of success) tend to blame lack of education less than 1/3 of the time: 28.1% to 71.9%. But those who give all external explanations (blaming discrimination, not blaming "lack of will") blame lack of education 3/4ths of the time: 75.0% to 25.0%.--Paul Rosenberg (scroll down)
Creating Your Brand Statement: Brand Attributes
In previous posts about the importance of a personal brand, we concentrated on how to create a personal brand using web tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Now it�s time to create your own personal brand statement. A brand statement will help your cover letter or resume stand out from thousands of others! In the next several blog postings, I will share information with you taken from leading personal branding expert and career advancement coach, Robert Allen Paul, and his �Company Of One� presentation at Buena Vista University. I would recommend his valuable message to every student. (Part I: Your Brand Part II: Core Competencies) Part III: Brand Attributes:
How do you do what you do? Now it�s time to discover your professional personality � or brand attributes. What are your brand attributes? Are you Decisive? Deliberate? Determined? Inventive? Analytical? In other words: How do you do what you do? How you do what you do is how you really set yourself apart.
It�s not always what you say, but how you say it. So it follows that �just as with your core competencies �there are no �bad� attributes. Do people find you impatient? -You�re driven and proactive. Have others accused you of too little tact? -You�re a clear communicator. No matter which adjectives you (or others) might attach to your personality, there�s a positive way of redefining them to communicate your professional approach. And while it�s always easier and more pleasant to lead with the �positives,� you may find that some of those �negatives� are what actually make you successful. And unique!
While you are thinking about how you do what you do, try to think about how you do what you do differently from everyone else who does what you do. Attributes play an important role in making your personal brand unique.
Ask your best friends what three adjectives come to mind when they hear your name � and write down whatever they say. Then use a thesaurus and find a few synonyms that convey those traits in more professional terms. So, once again, just as with your core competency, the most important thing is that you choose attributes that are true. Here are a couple of practical guidelines.
Next up: Creating Your Brand Statement: Brand Identity
How do you do what you do? Now it�s time to discover your professional personality � or brand attributes. What are your brand attributes? Are you Decisive? Deliberate? Determined? Inventive? Analytical? In other words: How do you do what you do? How you do what you do is how you really set yourself apart.
It�s not always what you say, but how you say it. So it follows that �just as with your core competencies �there are no �bad� attributes. Do people find you impatient? -You�re driven and proactive. Have others accused you of too little tact? -You�re a clear communicator. No matter which adjectives you (or others) might attach to your personality, there�s a positive way of redefining them to communicate your professional approach. And while it�s always easier and more pleasant to lead with the �positives,� you may find that some of those �negatives� are what actually make you successful. And unique!
While you are thinking about how you do what you do, try to think about how you do what you do differently from everyone else who does what you do. Attributes play an important role in making your personal brand unique.
Ask your best friends what three adjectives come to mind when they hear your name � and write down whatever they say. Then use a thesaurus and find a few synonyms that convey those traits in more professional terms. So, once again, just as with your core competency, the most important thing is that you choose attributes that are true. Here are a couple of practical guidelines.
- Compatibility Rule: You can�t be tough and gentle. You can�t be spontaneous and strategic. Don�t choose attributes that appear to be in conflict with one another.
- Two-Thirds Rule: When buying a product there are usually three primary factors that drive purchasing decisions; however we seldom get all three, so choose based on benefits of the other two. If you�re a new college grad, the primary factors prospective employers consider when choosing candidates are likely Education, Experience and Compensation (Price). So, if you�ve earned good grades from a good school, but have no relevant experience, then you may have to offer prospective employers the benefit of lower compensation. If you�ve graduated cum laude from an Ivy League school and worked several related internships, then employers probably shouldn�t expect you to come cheap. Whatever the three factors are in your category, you need to choose the two you�re going to focus on and forget about the third.
Next up: Creating Your Brand Statement: Brand Identity
Secrets hidden subsidies for scholarships
It does not require an economist to tell us how rough the economy has for some time. The cost of the school has gone through the roof, and shot through the recession, the unemployment rate and expanding enrollment options after secondary school look bleak. The financial breakdown is available for student companies in the attempt to help. For many students a scholarship secret or hidden from her only path to a college education, expecting, in addition to loans after graduation from school loans paid by you
Scholarships are out there and it is no secret, but you need to know what to do to qualify and how to choose. Winner of a scholarship does not secret method passed down from generation to generation. You need to do the organization and the ability to right at the right time.
If you really want to prepare for a standard scholarship must begin when young to win, even as early as elementary school. Parents must begin to shape their children to students of tomorrow. The students have to insist that the right of academic excellence from the very beginning and never let out openly. If students can prove they have been to ensure scientifically inclined, from primary school, where the question of subsidies, the ambitious education throughout their lives.
As much as the scholarship committees focus on academics often focus so much on the participation of candidates from the community. It is important that all students attending the school seek to participate in school programs and activities, pending a summary of active participation. It is so important to volunteer in their community and help to make it a better place. All this shows leadership and a genuine concern for those who share the world around you.
The technology has to find grants, hidden or secret, much more pleasant. The age of computers and the Internet around the world has doors that had opened an unpleasant amount of time in the past. Students, a scholarship can be hidden, go online and find hundreds of scholarships available. Scholarship Search is only half the battle. The real test is the application in order to derive them. Applicants must have a well prepared CV shows all his personal success in school, awards and school and community involvement. In addition, testing should always be a field available to its list of professional goals. Students must also support strong reference letters to his recommendation for the scholarship. These letters and essays to a large extent on the sale, what are you and what is about to scholarship committees.
It is always useful to help a council to pay for college or some of the secrets of the scholarships that help you find some of the grants can sometimes unknown or hidden about it. They are really hiding their secrets scholarship to pay in the experience and him some money for college tuition? It is a good example in the search as hard as you can, with a sort of scholarship / grants and a quick way to check, but that's not all.
It does not take a secret scholarship for a college education. It takes hard work and commitment to the process of obtaining a scholarship. The process usually begins early in elementary school and continues until the last year in high school. It requires active participation in school and community programs. It takes a strong resume with letter of excellent reference. There are no hidden secrets to get scholarships to only the normal.
What if you did not have the best skills you can implement many of the standard scholarship? Now, you can still have a chance. You may have to start calling the schools is likely that the least popular choice to participate, because most do not offer any help to you and then move down the list and call to see what's behind the next school for you. What I prefer is to make an appointment in person, meet with financial aid advisors orientation. This is the best because you can add valuable tips that will lead you closer to your grant / aid target.
Scholarships are out there and it is no secret, but you need to know what to do to qualify and how to choose. Winner of a scholarship does not secret method passed down from generation to generation. You need to do the organization and the ability to right at the right time.
If you really want to prepare for a standard scholarship must begin when young to win, even as early as elementary school. Parents must begin to shape their children to students of tomorrow. The students have to insist that the right of academic excellence from the very beginning and never let out openly. If students can prove they have been to ensure scientifically inclined, from primary school, where the question of subsidies, the ambitious education throughout their lives.
As much as the scholarship committees focus on academics often focus so much on the participation of candidates from the community. It is important that all students attending the school seek to participate in school programs and activities, pending a summary of active participation. It is so important to volunteer in their community and help to make it a better place. All this shows leadership and a genuine concern for those who share the world around you.
The technology has to find grants, hidden or secret, much more pleasant. The age of computers and the Internet around the world has doors that had opened an unpleasant amount of time in the past. Students, a scholarship can be hidden, go online and find hundreds of scholarships available. Scholarship Search is only half the battle. The real test is the application in order to derive them. Applicants must have a well prepared CV shows all his personal success in school, awards and school and community involvement. In addition, testing should always be a field available to its list of professional goals. Students must also support strong reference letters to his recommendation for the scholarship. These letters and essays to a large extent on the sale, what are you and what is about to scholarship committees.
It is always useful to help a council to pay for college or some of the secrets of the scholarships that help you find some of the grants can sometimes unknown or hidden about it. They are really hiding their secrets scholarship to pay in the experience and him some money for college tuition? It is a good example in the search as hard as you can, with a sort of scholarship / grants and a quick way to check, but that's not all.
It does not take a secret scholarship for a college education. It takes hard work and commitment to the process of obtaining a scholarship. The process usually begins early in elementary school and continues until the last year in high school. It requires active participation in school and community programs. It takes a strong resume with letter of excellent reference. There are no hidden secrets to get scholarships to only the normal.
What if you did not have the best skills you can implement many of the standard scholarship? Now, you can still have a chance. You may have to start calling the schools is likely that the least popular choice to participate, because most do not offer any help to you and then move down the list and call to see what's behind the next school for you. What I prefer is to make an appointment in person, meet with financial aid advisors orientation. This is the best because you can add valuable tips that will lead you closer to your grant / aid target.
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