26/10/2013

This session had the interest of many people. All the seats were full in this session with people leaning on the walls around the room so that they could listen in to what Jason Mollica had to say. Jason was a really engaging speaker who seemed to connect with the audience really well. This session was all about personal ‘branding,’ how to manage yourself in a professional manner and how to maintain a positive online reputation.

In order to understand where we are positioned in the social media world, Mollica suggested we perform SWOT analyses on our own social media practice. This was interesting to me because I never would have thought to integrate the SWOT analysis method into my personal everyday life practices. There were three words that Mollica suggested we base our brand around:
• TRUST- should be the maker of your brand. You should trust yourself, and what you believe in and have trust in others.
• HONESTY- it is important to be honest about everything, to yourself and those around you.
• TRANSPARENCY- be open and authentic. This creates credibility, which is highly valued in the PR profession.

Once you have established your brand, it is important to then perform a brand audit. This is concept was also interesting to me because it implies that people should forever expand and develop their brand. Once you have established a brand, it is not necessarily set in stone; you can continuously develop it.

Mollica told us that we have the resources to go out into the world, create our brand, live by it and promote it. “Don’t be average, be great!” says Mollica, which some may think is easier said than done. However I believe if you really listened to what he was saying, then you will know that creating an effective brand that truly reflects you is a fun and rewarding endeavor. As long as you are an effective self-manager, brand establishment is achievable.