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 Japan and India-Personal Branding from Two Angles Peter Sterlacci-The Japanese Angle The Secret to Understanding the Japanese Personal Brand  When I was first introduced to personal branding I learned two things. First, everyone has a personal brand whether we realize it or not. Second, our brands are based on how others perceive us or as William Arruda says, they are "held in the hearts and minds of others." I also discovered that strong brands are based in authenticity and only by being true and genuine can we truly differentiate ourselves and deliver on our unique promise of value.  The Outer and Inner Self in Japan  Authentic, true, and genuine. While these words are at the core of any personal branding process they present a very interesting challenge in accurately understanding personal brands in Japan.  For the Japanese, there are two mindsets called 'tatemae' (建前) and ' honne' (本音).  Tatemae, literally meanin...

Japan and India-Personal Branding from Two Angles Peter Sterlacci-View from Japan 7 Tips to Capture Your Personal Brand on Video We all know the saying that a picture says a thousand words. Video takes those words one step further and makes them real and memorable. In the world of Web 2.0 people want information in bite-sized chunks. Video is a perfect medium for establishing your visual identity on the web and delivering your personal brand in a clear and concise way.  Only a couple years ago using video was going beyond what was expected in personal branding. Today it has become the norm. Consider this fact. In July 2011, ComScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, reported that 180 million Internet users in the US alone watched online video content. This averages almost 19 hours per viewer in a single month! For 2012, personal branding guru William Arruda says that video continues to be a major trend in branding through DIY (do it yourself) and profess...

Japan and India- Two Angles Blogging Japanese Style   While the Japanese may have been slower at embracing social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn, they quickly jumped on board to blogging when it became popular in the country from 2002.  Since then, Japanese have slightly edged out English in becoming the dominant language of the blogosphere.  Pretty amazing considering that English speakers worldwide outnumber Japanese speakers by over 5 to 1.  Here are some interesting factoids about blogging in the Land of the Rising Sun. • While 40% of English-language bloggers blog to raise their visibility as thought-leaders, only 5% of Japanese bloggers are motivated by the same reason. • Americans blog to stand out, make a point, or complain. Japanese blog to fit in and keep a record of their thoughts.  • Compared with Americans, Japanese write at less length but write much more often. • Japanese are 5 times as likely as Americans, t...

Japan and India-Personal Branding from Two Angles Peter Sterlacci from Japan How Earthquakes and Role Models are Influencing Personal Branding in Japan? In past decades young Japanese have focused their career efforts on a 'job for life' at a big company.  After all, life-time employment has been a virtual mainstay in Japanese business culture for years. However, given the current economic factors in Japan recent university graduates have had to change their mind-set to realize that jobs with the traditional lifetime employment "guarantee" are disappearing.  Interestingly though, something beyond this economic reality is having an even more profound impact on this mind-set change -- specifically the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster in March of 2011.   In the wake of the disaster last March, more and more Japanese are questioning their traditional cultural values of not taking risk, maintaining harmony, and not standing-out.  The aftermath of a ...

Japan and India; Personal Branding across Two Cultures Peter Sterlacci from Japan Is Japan the Twitter Nation? Last year I read an article calling Japan "The Twitter Nation". Recent data clearly supports this. The number of Japanese internet users who tweet is close to 17% surpassing Americans at about 10%. Twitter also estimates that Japanese write nearly 8 million tweets a day, which is close to 14% of the global total!  Twitter really gained credibility in the country after the massive earthquake and tsunami devastated the Tohoku region on 3/11/11.  New users flocked to the network for real-time information about the nuclear crisis, blackouts, and aftershocks.  Now with the huge number of users in Japan, workshops are cropping up helping individuals to learn the tricks of the tweet as well as companies to use the platform to reach consumers and get feedback.   Clearly the personal and corporate branding potential for Twitt...

Japan and India-Personal Branding from Two Angles Peter Sterlacci from Japan Are Japanese LinkedIn? LinkedIn operates the world's largest professional network on the Internet with a current membership of over 135 million.  Close to 60% of these members are located outside the US. The latest data shows that professionals are signing up to join at a rate that is faster than two members per second! Clearly LinkedIn has become an essential tool for professionals all over the world to network, share business expertise, find jobs, advance professional knowledge, and build personal brands.  Recently, LinkedIn has set up shop in Japan with offices in Tokyo and the inclusion of the Japanese language on its site from October 2011.  For Japan, LinkedIn’s proposition is to focus on local professionals and students keen to build their true identities and personal branding for their careers as well as the ability to connect with a global network. Yet ...