Not sure why it's taken so long for companies to embrace employees in their branding efforts.

Employees as heroes create strong emotional connections with an audience for corporate brands.

That's why I prefer the immediacy of the documentary format.

Sure, professional talent have their place.

But, heck, think about it.

The dawn of personal branding is here to stay.

So why not capitalize on your employee's brand to strengthen your corporate brand story?

---Tom

Are Your Employees Your Story Stewards?

Personal branding. People are talking about it everywhere.

That means a lot of people are talking about Dan Schawbel.

Dan is an entrepreneur, personal branding spokesman, marketing consultant and author of Personal Branding Blog. Dan also launched the Personal Blog Magazine and was recently featured in a Fast Company Expert Blog article, "Careers: The Young Turks of Personal Branding."

Dan recently invited me to participate in an interview for his site. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance! It's an honor and pleasure to share my story with Dan's readers.

Head on over to Dan's site to read the responses to five questions Dan asked me about my personal branding efforts.

• What are 3 ways you've branded yourself as a director online?

• What brands need the most help in coming to life?

• You produce many videos, but which are the most successful? Are you looking to generate buzz by making a viral video?

• What are your thoughts about production quality vs. blogger "podcast" quality?

• You own directortom.com, but not thomaclifford.com. What is your reasoning here? I know that you've branded yourself as director tom, but what about your real name?

I hope you enjoy it :-)

Thanks, Dan!

---Tom

Thomas Clifford's Interview on Personal Branding Blog

...and now for something completely different.

Jibber Jobber is the perfect personal relationship manager for anyone seeking to optimize their network of relationships. Jibber Jobber is more than just a job search tool and contact management system. Think of it as a personal tool to manage your every aspect of you career.

Jason Alba is the architect behind Jibber Jobber. His blog is jammed packed with topics from social networking and personal branding to technology to the latest tools...all designed to help you manage every aspect of your career.

Jason decided to create his own "relationship tool" when he realized that the current tools available for job seekers were not filling his own job search needs. Jibber Jobber has tons of unique and customizable tools to help you in every way, no matter what your profession or what stage in your career you are in.

Jason's own efforts at branding Jibber Jobber has resulted in the Jibber Jobber, "You Get It" award. The award features people who "use technology (yes, heavy on the bloggers) to quantify their breadth, depth and passions." In other words...recognizing those who embrace technology for personal branding efforts.

Thank you, Jason, for recognizing me with your "You Get It" award.

---Tom

P.S. Many thanks to Phil Gerbyshak at Make It Great! for pointing me to Jibber Jobber. And to Liz Strauss for the tag line, "Let's see that again!"

Jibber Jobber