If i had to buy you would you be a store brand or Name brand?

My new addiction, Infinity dresses. If you have been living under a rock for a minute and are not sure what an infinity dress is or does please do yourself a favor and click right here. There was one on Ideeli yesterday that I ended up not buying because I am trying to listen to my own advice and not buy unless I have money and I did not have the money (sigh). I am keeping my eyes open for if they have anymore on sale though, the dress is very versatile.

Moving right along. So today's topic is simple enough. If you were for sale, would you be considered store brand (cheaper) or name brand (more expensive). In other words how have you or how do you market yourself?

There are many ways that we market ourselves consciously or unconsciously and today I am going to go through some of these ways and how we can change the way we market ourselves.

What do I mean by how you market yourself? Well I am sure we are all very familiar with the term, "lasting first impressions" well kick that phrase out of the window and let the new phrase for 2011 be "last impressions". Anytime anyone see, hears about, hears from you, you are making and leaving an impression. In this mediated society where things never disappear you need to make sure that every single impression you send out is one that you are comfortable sending out.

1. Your personal appearance
Yes we all know this, or at least should know this. Your personal appearance speaks volumes about who you think you are or what you think about yourself before you even open your mouth. I know some people are of the mindset that they do not want their personal appearance to be a reflection of themselves and of course I have met some very interesting and knowledgeable people who looked like crap etc. Like it or not your personal appearance does speak on your behalf. Your personal appearance is what speaks when someone does not have a chance to even speak to you. I have been in situations where I have gone out (alone) and someone has complimented me on my outfit (men and women) and this has lead to interesting conversations. When you say personal appearance people immediately think you have to be dressed in designer garb from head to toe, which is false. Whatever you choose to wear make sure you are wearing it and it is not wearing you. Make sure the message the clothes are saying are always Hi I am X, I believe in myself and take care of myself as can be seen in my clean (and possibly fashionable attire). Do not wait for a job interview to look your best, take everyday you leave your house as an opportunity to meet a potential job lead etc. and look appropriate.
In terms of the rest of you make sure you look clean at all times, hair looks good, nails are clean, no hairs where they should not be, ears cleaned etc. How many of us have met dirty people and could not wait to get away from them so much that we did not even listen to what they were talking about? I have! Be presentable at all times.

2. Your cyber footprint
When I was younger (Kiki eat your heart out), I like many others were running rampant online. I am sure if you had plugged my name into a search engine I would be all over it like I owned it. As I have matured, however, (hopefully) I have to tried to decrease my presence online. (Then why have a blog? Lol because I control what goes up here and I have control over it, if I don't like it I can just delete it and case closed).
In terms of social networking sites, however, the content you post up there is not really yours to do with as you please. I have heard of and been guilty of taking peoples pictures (well people I know) and sharing them with others who may not be on facebook. This is a situation where I know these people but what about situations where someone sends your information to someone you do not know? Your status message, yes it may seem funny at the time but what does that tell your "friends" about you? I know I have deleted some people off my newsfeed because they seem like idiots based on the nonsensical messages they post which clutters my newsfeed. I also have little or no respect for people who curse or use profanity. I personally do not encourage that in my day to day speaking so I do not see why someone will subject me to seeing it on my page. Profanity simply displays your lack of communication skills. Trust me it is easy to put a swear word than to truly communicate what it is you are frustrated about. We are too old to have anything of ours laced with profanities.
Let's move from social networking pictures and status information and talk about how easily you can be tracked. One of the most dangerous apps I think out there is any kind of tracking app which "announces" to people your location. Of course the intent of these apps are so friends can know when other friends are in the same area and meet up. (isnt that what texting or phonecalls are for?) I distrust these kind of apps because they can be used for so many wrong things. The good thing I guess is the police can use it to trace your last known location ??? (Yes I dislike them that much) If you MUST use those trace me apps be very very careful NAA! (sigh).

3. Verbal communication
So your personal appearance and how you present yourself can be called your nonverbal way of communicating. Your verbal is what you say, what actually comes out of your mouth. Now with the verbal there are many ways you can take your name brand self and make yourself a store brand.

Ignorance is one way. If you do not know something it is ok to say you do not know rather than argue loudly so people know how truly ignorant you are.

Language. I touched a little bit on language when I talked about profanity. Let your language be rid of profanities, it is as simple as that. Also there are some tell words that we all use, mine is "ok" when I am teaching and "basically" when I am speaking. What are your tell words? Be careful of using them too much in conversations as they "interrupt" your message. Try to always be concise and say what you mean and mean what you say when speaking.

Know a little about something. Some people know nothing about anything and they are boring to speak to. I am guilty of this to some extent, I am usually clueless when it comes to current events (news and not gossip). Knowing this about myself, I usually quiz Francis (who is always up to date on current affairs) to get a vibe about whats going on in the world. Yes I could turn on the news but then I would worry because "the sky is falling, the sky is falling". Obviously I look at the news at night just to get a recap of the top stories but if there is anything major usually Francis draws my attention to it and we battle it out with our brains. ( I have finally figured out why I keep him around).

Sometimes it is better to shut up. Speech is silvern but silence can be golden and knowing when to keep your mouth shut platinum. Communication is also about listening. Are you a good listener or are you always in a hurry to say your part and leave? The making of a good communicator is someone who speaks (sense) and listens(impartially) and is able to respond based on what they have heard. (Try it sometime).

There are many other ways you can choose market yourself but the ones I have listed above are some of the few ways that people "judge" you, whether you choose to believe it or not. No one wants to be a store brand, i.e., someone who may do the work and just be ok but is the cheaper version of what we truly want. We all believe we are name brands, the better created and longer lasting and therefore more expensive product and as such we need to behave like that. People are only going to respect you in as much as you respect and comport yourself. Think about the way you choose to market yourself, if there is something you do now that you do not like, change it. Better to make the change now than never. I hope this has opened your eyes to some of the ways you can better yourself in 2011. Its still a new year let's work on making ourselves the best we can be.