(ThyBlackMan.com) “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” William Butler Yeats
Student’s Build Your Brand and Reputation and Protect It
The story of Laremy Tunsil is a strong lesson to middle and high school youth that their Social Media content can influence their future. The mistakes of the past can come back to haunt you especially if someone is out to hurt your reputation and personality.
High school students across this nation as harsh as it may sound need to be involved in, associated with and actively participate in positive educational, social and leadership building experiences in and out of school. Social Media has grown into a tool that can build a career or potentially destroy it. Violence and drugs obviously have no place.
It is important that high school students understand the importance of what their Brand and what their developing Brand and Reputation are. Branding and Reputations are collaborations, before high school students can market themselves they have to establish a Brand, their personal Brand. Understanding their abilities, recognizing talents, building skills and planning strategies that involve gr
owth and staying away from stupid stuff.
“It takes years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” Warren Buffett
It is important that a students’ e-Reputation (electronic reputation) and e-Personalities (electronic personality) be protected at all costs because Laremy Tunsil is not the first nor will he be the last to suffer from their past juvenile immaturity.
Branding is not the style in clothes, current footwear fads, artistic hairstyles, video gaming high scores or even the latest language slang; it is being prepared to academically compete in a highly competitive and diverse world on a foundational level based on education, personal growth and improvement, now athletes realize their Brand is fragile.
Tunsil has proven that even in professional sports an e-Reputation is important because athletes are judged by their behaviors even from high school. High school students and their parents are making decisions that will have long lasting affects throughout their lives; ranging from higher education, military service, entrepreneurialism, vocational school or other avenues of educational programs and/or employment decisions.
Branding and protecting the Brand must be taught early to establish a foundation of success. High school and middle school students are allowed to be stupid to a point and make mistakes, that is what life is about, making mistakes and learning from them, but now families must be careful about those who would use mistakes to ruin careers.
“A good reputation is more valuable than money.” Publilius Syrus
20 Suggestion to build a high school students Brand learned from Tunsil’s mistake.
1. Write down what you like to do.
2. Write down what you can do.
3. Write down what you would like to learn.
4. Write down what you need to learn.
5. Write down what you struggle with.
6. Write down what you avoid learning and why.
7. Write down the last book you read.
8. Write down the last time you went to the library, museum or cultural event.
9. Write down who your mentor(s) are and why.
10. Write down the last productive thing you learned from your friends.
11. Write down the last time you volunteered in the community.
12. Write down who influences your thinking and why.
13. Write down where your faith is and where you got it from.
14. Write down what you believe are your; morals, values, and ethics
15. Write down your 5, 10,15 year goals.
16. Write down who your favorite teacher is
and why.
17. Write down what teacher you don’t like and why.
18. Write down what excites you and what saddens you and how you can change each or would change them.
19. Write down the type of Social Media content you create and share, is it positive, negative, can it come back to hurt you.
20. Write down 5 self-perceptions of the type of person you are and have your parents and 3 friends write theirs about you and compare the results.
21. Write down how people can hurt you.
22. Write down what could stop your dreams.
23. Write down the dumb stuff your friends do and ask yourself would you follow them.
24. Write down how valuable is your future.
25. Write down how badly do you want to achieve your goals in life.
High school students need to understand that their lives are under scrutiny, people are watching their personal decisions, who they are associated with; “guilt by association” and alliances. It is important for high school seniors to strategically place themselves where they can network to increase their visibility to others who have similar interests and goals and build their personal Brand.
The hope of this blog is to help high school students and their parents understand that their activities and associations do matter. How they Brand themselves can earn scholarships, internships and employment.
In today’s society parental guidance is needed more and more. High school students and their parents should understand that societal perceptions, peer influences and judgments are influential in a young person’s life. A high school students’ reputation has several parts:
e-Reputation: e-Personality: Social Branding: e-Brand and the perceptions that people have play a strong part in the Branding of students.
High school students need to ask themselves how do I perceive myself and how do others perceive me, this encourages areas to be addressed that need strengthening, modification, explanation and weaknesses transformed, just as importantly who to leave out of your life.
“Everywhere I go, I’m second to arrive. My reputation precedes me.” Jarod Kintz
In this world of constant change, competitiveness, and cultural diversity and lifestyle decisions high school students must leverage their greatest asset THEMSELVES in their Brand.
Staff Writer; William D. Jackson
Find out more about this talented writer over at; OCS For Education.