Career Branding Vs Personal Branding: Any Difference?

Some time ago I read a blog article from an old colleague of mine (Jeremiah Owyang) about the difference between a personal brand and a career brand.  Jeremiah felt the personal brand focused on the “me and my offerings” and a career brand focused on the “we and our offerings” and the two should be different.   It sparked quite a debate and if you have time, take a look at the comments and see what you think.

I’m not sure it’s so simple.  Your brand is who you are and like any brand, values are the core building blocks.  What you believe will absolutely influence the way you work, your opinions and the way you communicate as a person.  You wouldn’t change your values depending on who you’re communciating with or what you’re communicating about.  In my view the line is blurred and will become even more blurred as Generation Y
flood the workforce.

What’s this got to do with HR?

I believe that HR has a huge opportunity here – a value based opportunity.  If HR can make clear the company brand values to both existing and potential employees, you’ll see something interesting happen because employees will want to align their personal brand to that of their employer…they may share interesting ‘work related’ stories with friends on Facebook, start promoting ‘work’ events to their LinkedIn network.  Aligning the two is a powerful combination because suddenly you have employees connecting to the business on an emotional level and not just a transactional “pay cheque” level.

At a basic level, it’s about having employees that are proud of the company they work for.  At a more advanced level you have social media accelerating the speed and reach of that pride to potential recruits so make an impact…make it tribal.