Lifebrand

Do I need my own career website?

In the ever changing work marketplace we have each of us got to think like a free agent and discover what sets us apart and market it shamelessly. Whilst a CV is an important and necessary document the pressures placed upon the length of the CV by the recruitment market, make it impossible to do this wholly with a CV. We therefore must “get visible” and find a medium that will allow us to more fully inform recruiters, researchers, employers and networkers. This is where the career website comes in; a far more complete document than a CV can ever be and easy to use so it is a really valuable marketing tool.

These days you do need your own website, but not just any website. It is essential that it should look professional, be believable and honest. It must project your own personal brand – what it is that you are selling to others. It must not be tacky and amateurish and it cannot be seen as an exercise in self-promotion that is not impartial and independent. An unfortunate and common error on CVs is the inclusion of the URL of a personal web site that contains inappropriate content.

This is a quick way to let employers know you lack judgment or maturity. A Lifebrand career website is a purpose built professional and impartial mechanism that will allow you to market yourself much more effectively.

What will my career website seek to project about me?

Can you state your five most relevant and compelling adjectives that describe you (brand attributes)?
Do you know what those around you would say is your greatest strength?
Do you know how your self-perceptions differ from the perceptions from those around you?
When people introduce you, do they all use the same or similar words to describe you?
Have you identified and documented your short and long-term goals/vision?
Are you clear about your greatest weakness – what could be holding you back from achieving your goals?
Do you know where you will be in 10 years time?

If you cannot answer any of the questions above completely objectively, we can help you. These are among the questions that we will help you to answer and the end product will be an impartial and independent portrayal of your brand. To ensure this level of independence, credibility and quality LifeSites can only be changed by Lifebrand.

Everyday your very own personal brand is 'out there' representing you in a number of ways in the workplace. It is already either working for you or against you. So, it isn't just well-known people in the public eye who need to manage their personal brands; you need to manage and take care of yours too. Do you wish to take more control of your personal branding? Lifebrand can also help you to actively and positively manage your career.

How do I choose which of your offerings is right for me?

You have taken the first step and realised that a Lifebrand career website is going to be an invaluable tool in your career toolkit.

The next step is to decide which one is the right one for you. Once again this will be worth taking a little time to consider (not that it isn’t easy to up-grade at a later date). Lifebrand offer four different LifeSites: 3-page, 5-page, 7-page and Bespoke. Making the right choice depends largely on what you want your LifeSite to do for you.

The following is a summary of possible uses to help guide you to the right decision for you – it is by no means a definitive list:

- LifeSite 3

This is the basic 3-page site and will give people an idea of who you are and what it is you do, or want to do. This is an ideal size for someone who doesn’t have or doesn’t want to include more than a synopsis of their career to date. It works very well for:

Graduates – who won’t have a lot of career detail to include just yet.
A Sole-trader who just wants to let customers know they are there – whether you are a hairdresser or a plumber it can work for your business.
A business owner who wants to be able to give clients/customers a quick idea of who they are – it can easily be linked to your business website
Professionals who are at the stage of their first or second major job change and are beginning to look for a new position
Young professionals who realise the benefit of owning a superior marketing tool
IT technologists – 1st & 2nd line support, help desk, programmers – to have a professionally designed and attractive website which will stand out from others.

- LifeSite 5

The 5 page LifeSite is able to include more detail about your career with space to give career highlights and project details plus key skills and competencies. This site will work well for:

Professionals with an established career who appreciate that a significant upward career move is possible within the next 12 – 18 months
Someone who has recently gained a professional qualification and wants to make that information available to potential employers, agents. Examples might be: accountants (ACA, ACCA, ICMA) on qualifying, architects (RIBA pt 3), medical professional, (junior doctor to specialism, nurse to psychiatric/staff nurse etc, academics to head of department etc, projects managers (Prince 2), HR professionals (GCIPD, MCIPD), etc
People reaching a career milestone, e.g. sales professional, project managers, etc.
A Sole-trader who has started to build up a good portfolio of work and needs a larger marketing tool than the 3 page version can offer
Owners of new SMEs where the site can provide information about the man/woman behind the business.

- LifeSite 7

The 7 page LifeSite allows for a comprehensive review of your achievements and has the space to include more about you at work, including details such as your management style. The site also has the major advantage offered by the inclusion of a page that can be tailored to suit certain requirements. For professionals who want a LifeSite to help market their expertise it can be used for testimonials, whilst for an academic it can be used for awards and publications. Other users of a LifeSite 7 might be:

Established professionals who are making a planned or unplanned career move. Here the need to ensure that the move is correct from the complex perspective of career, sector, family (schools etc) is paramount, i.e. where the move is seen to have a significant effect on their next 5 to 10 years of their working life

For an Entrepreneur running a SME, Franchise, or Division of an established enterprise – to display the man/woman behind the business facilitating potential and existing customers doing a web search on the person as part of their selection process. The inclusion of a testimonials page is a valuable extra.
For self-employed people to facilitate a direct statement of the individual’s capabilities and competences i.e. where customers are hiring the individual. Once again the testimonials page allows the inclusion of third party references.
For well established Traders who want to re-enforce and publicise their commitment to customer support by providing examples and testimonials – this website is designed to deliver this.

- Bespoke

This is the top end of our product range and is aimed at people with very specific requirements that can’t be met through our other ranges. A bespoke LifeSite is created with you on a one-to-one basis and tailored to fit your needs exactly, it may contain functionality and technical features to suit you, and will contain specific design content.

How do I use my personal career website?

There are many ways you can use your career website and everyone will have different ideas but as a guide here are the main ways our customers have used theirs to date:

As a Marketing Tool

Your website is now going to go wherever you go. It doesn’t shout out at people like a CV does it just sits quietly and waits for someone to click on it and one thing you can be sure of is that people wont be able to resist clicking on it. Your web address will sit on your letterhead, on your email-signature on your e-business card and on your ordinary business card, in fact on anything that you send out into the world. Once opened it will give a professional view of who you are and what you do.

As a Sales Tool

How much more impressive is it to say to a head-hunter or potential client, “Have a look at my website for details”? On the telephone the client can do that as he/she is speaking to you – you have their attention both verbal and visual!
This makes you stand out from the crowd – particularly as your LifeSite will look professional & cool.

As a Networking Tool

Networking on the internet is so easy it is a wonder that it is not used more than it is. Being able to include your web address at the bottom of your email or e-business card makes it possible for you to ensure that anyone who needs to can have a look at who you are and what skills you offer. You never know who might click on your web address next.

As part of your Personal Branding

Many of the ways of using your career website can be grouped under the personal branding umbrella. Personal branding is an important concept to understand and if you are unsure of what it means or have not heard of it before you would be well advised to check out one of the gurus behind the idea such as Tom Peters.

The trouble with personal branding is that, although we can all see what a thoroughly good idea it is, it is extremely difficult to know where to begin. Your career website helps to build up a picture of who you are – complete with 360 degree appraisal – and you can use this as an important first step to start the journey towards creating your own personal brand with the help of Lifebrand Ltd.

How secure is my personal data?

The privacy of our client’s personal data is given the highest level of attention. Other than Lifebrand personnel and our associates who are directly involved in delivering services to you your data is not shared with anyone else. Other than your name, job title and possible references to your employer no personal data will ever be displayed on your LifeSite. You the client always formally approve the data that is promoted to the site. Your CV is held in a secure area only accessible via a password that you allocate to anyone who you may wish to give access to. This is wholly within your personal control. We also remind you to always respect the commercial confidentiality of your employer. Lifebrand Ltd is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (Data Protection).

Lifebrand will not send spam e-mails but we cannot be held liable for the actions of spammers at large. Please see our Terms and Conditions and our Privacy and Usage pages for more detail or contact us via enquiries@lifebrand.co.uk

What is your delivery process - what happens now?

Once you have registered and purchased your chosen offering via our secure payment gateway the following sequence will unfold –

We send you a URL directing you to the Lifebrand portal, a secure login id, a unique system generated password and your unique Lifebrand registration number, to your registered e-mail address.
You receive the e-mail and login to Lifebrand. You now have the ability to change/personalise your password if you wish and then to begin to complete 3 major activities, in any sequence. The system will provide you with prompts and help during the entire sequence. The three activities are -

Complete a detailed questionnaire. You are encouraged to take your time as the questions are thought provoking and the website will give you lots of opportunities to save your input data and return at a later time. This will allow you to re-work your input until you are satisfied with the content.
Provide us with your referee’s details and to send them automated emails from within Lifebrand asking them to login and complete a questionnaire. We ask you to categorise your referees so we know who your 5 career referees are. All your referees will now all also be sent a URL, secure login id, password and Lifebrand registration number so they can go through a similar process to the one you undergo. Theirs will be a different questionnaire and they will also be required to register.
Select the style of website and any abstract image that you would like portrayed on your LifeSite. Upload any images that you wish (see associated FAQ item below - Can I upload my own images including my photograph?)
Once these three steps are complete and we have received feedback from a minimum of 5 professional career referees we will activate a button that says “Build my LifeSite”. We will not take any further action until you select the next step via this button. You can wait until all your referees have provided their feedback before pressing this button. The system will give you an overview of responses received and the number that are outstanding so you can manage your referees by sending them polite requests to send their responses to Lifebrand.
Once you have pressed the “Build my LifeSite” button, Lifebrand personnel will now be allocated to examine and consolidate your data before commencing the creation of copy and building your “beta” LifeSite. This is the development version and is built within our development area and is only accessible by Lifebrand personnel. Once we are happy with the site we will notify you by e-mail that you can now view your “beta” LifeSite so as to approve its content and ensure its accuracy. Changes to the personal profile will only be permitted if it is a matter of presentation rather than fact. Lifebrand will always seek to protect the impartiality and independence of this page. The system maintains a full audit trail of all correspondence and input including telephone conversations. You must warrant the content of all the other pages as being honest and accurate and Lifebrand will apply the agreed changes to your LifeSite. Once you have approved the LifeSite it will be promoted into production i.e. to the web.
You will be notified of your websites URL and your new Lifebrand e-mail address along with a PDF file that will give you the details on how you can configure you e-mail client e.g. Outlook to send & receive your Lifebrand e-mail.

Must I complete the entire questionnaire?

We do ask you to complete your questionnaire as completely as possible. Most questions are mandatory and the remainder are highly desirable. We have researched our questions and their individual contribution to the creation of your personal profile and other pages hence the classification. As with most things in life you get out what you put in. This could not be truer in this case as your LifeSite is going to be available to the world and you must project your personal brand in its best possible light.

Are the referees really able to provide impartial feedback?

A Lifebrand website is special because we include 360 degree feedback as part of the process. This is a key feature of our process, and it produces an independence and credibility to you website that raises it above the crowd of ‘bloggers’. In life we rarely get the opportunity to get a view of how others see us. We are familiar with our reflection in a mirror, yet can be surprised at our appearance in a photograph – and so it is in our work life. Do we always know how others perceive us? For those of us who are familiar with performance appraisals at work, know that these appraisals have vastly benefited from the gradual introduction of 360 degree methodology (subordinate, peer and superiors opinions sought and combined) over the last 10 years.

This has been a huge improvement over the standard process. At Lifebrand we have borrowed from this good practice and brought it strengths to directly help your career develop. We get views from a minimum of 5 career referees to help us build a picture of who you are in your work life. The other referees will help us to build a picture of you at home and you can have as many referees as you like. We will of course need your help to persuade your referees to provide their feedback in a timely manner.

Your selected referees will be sent a shorter version of the questionnaire to answer and their answers will be put into the mix that our professional copywriters and website designers will use to create your final LifeSite. The referees’ questionnaires give us essential information and without it, building an accurate website, would be almost impossible. Meanwhile, you get the additional benefit of seeing a more rounded version of who you are.

All through the process there is complete anonymity – we don’t want anyone to fall out because of us! We urge you to use as many referees as possible in order to create a balanced view and as a rule of thumb - more than 5 is good; less than 5 won’t work. Impartiality comes from our being able to compare your colleagues’ responses with each other and with your own and the fact that our system completes protects the referees’ anonymity.

What if my skills and achievements change?

No problem. Lifebrand offer a series of packages that allow you to update your website as and when you need to – see description of the change capability - below.

You are able to upload a new CV at any time (your CV is password protected and you will note our advice regarding using your Lifebrand email only on your CV). If that can support your website details adequately, then it’s fine. However your LifeSite is a prime marketing tool and you must try to keep it ‘sharp’ and updated at all times. An out of date LifeSite or CV will not aid you in marketing your personal brand.

What is in the maintenance, upgrade and rewrite packages?

There are three levels of “change capability” offered by Lifebrand. They are –

Standard maintenance – Application of changes to the website that are purely at the level of adding data that reflects changes in an individual’s career e.g. a promotion therefore change of job title, acquisition of new skills, new achievements. Your personal profile (created from feedback obtained from your referees) does not change apart from the application of the changed data as appropriate e.g. job title. Also included is an annual change of look and feel via a change of colour and style template, abstract image - only if you the client express a desire to do so. You will be able to do this via your secure login. In addition it includes the cost of hosting your site/domain and the management and maintenance of your Lifebrand e-mail.
NOTE - The Maintenance package is not optional. Lifebrand Ltd strongly recommends that your LifeSite is not allowed to become out of date as this would not assist in the marketing of your personal brand.
Upgrade – You can easily upgrade from a 3 page to a 5 or 7 page LifeSite at any time. When upgrading, as above, your personal profile will not change but you can add more data to your LifeSite via additional pages – giving a fuller more rounded picture of you and your skill set.
Please see the Product pages for details of the additional pages that make up the difference between the 3, 5 & 7 page offerings.
Rewrite - This option basically is a fresh start of your chosen 3, 5 or 7-page option.

We create a new website from scratch based on a new set of feedback from your referees. This can be because you need to re-orientate it for some reason; perhaps a change in career direction or you would just like to benefit from carrying out another 360 degree feedback session.

If you are unsure you can contact us and we can assess how much of a change is needed and advise on the correct package to use. It may be that we have to re-write the whole website to suit your new direction but whatever it involves we are confident we can do it for you using the relevant package.

Why can I not change the details on my career website by myself?

Lifebrand’s LifeSites are meant to be a means of projecting your personal brand with a view to enhancing and improving your career prospects. It must therefore be credible and its integrity must not be questionable. For the data on your LifeSite to have credibility it has to be independent and Lifebrand will not promote any information onto any of our LifeSites that is not warranted by our clients. Lifebrand creates our client’s profiles from independently corroborated data and this gives the level of separation required to ensure that researchers, recruiters, employers and networkers can rely on the data within a Lifebrand LifeSite. Our clients clearly understand the risk of promoting themselves with fraudulent data and this makes their LifeSites a useful resource.

Can I upload my own images including my photograph?

Yes you can. We do however insist that any abstract images that you wish to add to your pages that are not from a Lifebrand provided source are royalty free. The risks associated with using images that would attract royalty payments clearly belong to our clients.

In the case of personal images (photos) we at Lifebrand do not believe they are necessary unless your photo is an integral part of your profession e.g. actor, model and in this case that the photograph is in keeping with the professional standards demanded by Lifebrand of any client’s LifeSite.

Life changes – what if I need to have my website reworked in a few years?

Life does change and so do all of us. At Lifebrand we will make sure that we keep up to date with current trends so that we are always ready to provide what our customers want. You also need to accept a degree of responsibility and keep your website up to date. As with any marketing tool it can only be really effective if it is relevant. Whilst a 3 page website was fine when you just started out in work you might like to consider upgrading to a 5 page and 7 page over time. Each website functions at a different level and although the 3 page version can readily meet the needs of a young graduate it is difficult to reflect a more experienced person’s skills on a small site.

At a more basic level it would be wise to keep updating your career highlights and key achievements pages to ensure they reflect your abilities accurately.

We offer a series of update and upgrade packages to help you keep your website working at its best.

What other services do Lifebrand provide?

Lifebrand provides career counselling. There are ‘crossroads’ moments that we all face in life when independent and professional advice can be of very significant help. To be able to speak with a professional advisor, with empathy and experience can and does help us all.
Through our associates we can offer professional CV writing support. In this area work can be done to ensure that every aspect of your career experience and skills are captured succinctly within your CV. It’s important that your CV does not let you down by over or understating your abilities and potential.
We offer Life Coaching services at different levels, whether working with professional employment psychologists or skilled life coaches.
We offer Bespoke Website design and hosting, with wide commercial functionality tailored to your requirements, and configurable levels of support. This service is offered to individuals, SMEs or large businesses.

Please contact us to discuss any of the additional services listed above.

Can I contact other Lifebrand customers?

Lifebrand will be offering professional networking functionality in the not too distant future. This will be from within the Lifebrand Portal and potentially via links to other existing, mature and secure sites that offer such services.

In future, we will be categorising our client base e.g. by industry sector so as to allow new and improved networking facilities. You will be able to find other Lifebrand customers who have similar professional and career interests as yourself thereby assisting in the building of personal career networks as part of your personal branding activities.