What exactly is Personal Branding?

First I’d like to thank Louise for inviting me to participate in the Career Hub blog. There are a lot of great minds who post in this portal and I’m happy to be a part of it. My prime focus has been on Personal Branding, as the Gen-Y leader on the subject.
I think it’s important to realize exactly what the definition of Personal Branding is before continuing to describe the various subjects around it. One thing is certain: Personal Branding has a direct effect on the recruitment process and is a best practice in career development.

Today, I posted in my blog about a new wiki I created to get all the Personal Branding experts to collaborate on the actual definition of Personal Branding. From my experience, I’ve noticed that this term has been mixed up with other concepts and is confused by the population. The more that I preached my own definition, the more I realized that it didn’t match up to some of the other ones I had read about. To solve this “Personal Branding Problem,” I decided to create a wiki so that others could collaborate and we could get a consolidated definition. I think this is especially valuable to college students who are learning about this practice (in text books). By having multiple definitions from various parties, the term has lost some meaning, so I think this is the right time to sort things out.
To me, Personal Branding is “an individual’s total perceived value, relative to competitors, as viewed by their audience.” It has four main elements: competencies, personality, appearance, and differentiation. I think it’s about how you become noticed in a particular niche, by communicating your brand through a blog, website, or in person.
Please participate in the wiki, so that your voice can be heard! Thank you.
By Dan Schwabel and courtesy of CareerHub.com. The Career Hub blog connects job seekers with experts in career counseling, resume writing, personal branding and recruiting.