This is the first installment of a new feature at Personal Branding 101.  Every Sunday I will give you “the scoop” as I see it – providing links to the most interesting, useful, or downright comical pages I’ve come across that week.

Most links will be related to personal branding in some way or another – but as we all know, personal branding is defined rather loosely.  Here are this week’s top picks…enjoy!

The World’s Worst Resume by Jake and Amir.

Struggling with your own job search?  Take a moment off and enjoy the fact that your resume is definitely better than this one! (Note: Contains adult language and admittedly juvenile humor, please don’t click if you are at work or might be offended).

The Amazing Windup Salesperson by Christopher S. Penn.

The personal branding lesson here?  It should never be all about you.  Really, it should be as little about you as possible in almost every circumstance.

Guy Spends Half His Life in the Minor Leagues, Finally Reaches the Majors by Ramona Shelburne

The lesson here is that given how much I despise the Los Angeles Dodgers, you know this story must be amazing for me to include it.  The most impressive case of perseverance you might ever come across.

11 Ways to Personalize a Linkedin Invite by Tim Tyrell-Smith.

Sending an invitation to connect on Linkedin with the stock language still inserted is just plain insulting to the recipient.  Here are eleven ways to make sure you never commit this faux pas again.

12 Social Media Buzzwords Redefined by Marian Schembari.

In her typical no-nonsense style, Marian takes on 12 of social media’s “most buzziest buzzwords”.  My personal favorite is #11.

That’s it for this week’s recap.  If you loved these links and want to make sure to see next week’s edition, subscribe here to have the Sunday Scoop (and more) delivered straight to you.

Photo credit, jessicafm

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June is here – time to celebrate the 10 best personal branding articles written in May 2010.  All of these phenomenal articles will fuel your personal brand in some way.  Yet, very few of them reference “personal branding” a single time.  Why do I include them?  Because personal branding is about constant improvement – however you can achieve it.  Enjoy!

How to Build Your Brand Working for Someone Else by Lisa Barone.

“Branded employees sometimes get a bad rap for being time-wasting job hoppers, but the truth is forming a strong personal brand while working for someone else benefits both the employer and employee when done correctly.”

An 18-Minute Plan for Managing Your Day by Peter Bregman.

“How can you stick to a plan when so many things threaten to derail it? How can you focus on a few important things when so many things require your attention?”

We need a trick…”

Career Advice for New Grads in 140 Characters (more or less) by Kelly Lux.

“The class of 2010 is graduating on Sunday.  In their honor and in the spirit of true alumni networking, I asked many of the alums I interact with on Twitter to tweet me their best career advice for 2010 grads, in 140 characters or less.”

Top 10 Ways to Declutter Your Digital Life, 2010 Edition by Kevin Purdy.

“We live out so much of our modern lives on personal computers and web servers—yet so much of it is messy and over-stuffed. Clean up your email, fix your files, and tidy up your digital life with these 10 tips.”

How to Ruin (Or Build) Your Personal Brand by Dave Fleet.

• How to ruin your personal brand
• How to build your personal brand
• Things you can do today

What your personal brand can learn from the legend of the ninja by Christopher S. Penn.

“Ultimately, the goal is for each member of your clan to appear to have the skills of the whole, for you to be seen as a consummate expert alongside your fellow clan members – and the general public may have absolutely no idea that you’re all working together.

Who’s in your ninja clan?”

5 Good Personal Branding Habits for Bloggers by Jacob Share.

“The best habits lead to effective results while becoming second nature so that you don’t even notice yourself doing them. Here are 5 worth making part of your blogging routine.”

5 Good Ways NOT to Network by Nisa Chitakasem on The Undercover Recruiter.

“Networking has been quite a ‘hot’ topic recently and seems to be the ‘thing to do’. Everyone is doing it! I thought that it might be useful to jot down a few learnings and observations of what feel like pretty common mistakes made when ‘networking’ or building connections…”

8 Must-Dos for Aspiring Writers by Amber Naslund.

“…I want to tell you my unabashed truths about what it takes to make writing part of what you do and who you are instead of an accidental task on your list.”

When You are the Brand by Chris Brogan.

“The trick of being in a personal brand is that there’s a big difference between being known, being known for something, and also being able to turn that into business.”

Which was your favorite?  Any glaring omissions from the list above?

Photo credit, Leo Reynolds.

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• Top 10 Personal Branding Articles of April 2010
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Time flies when you are having fun, and April 2010 has come to a close.  Lots of fantastic articles written this month to help you build your brand, and I’ve narrowed it down to my top ten.   Enjoy these great posts, and please share any winners that I’ve omitted in the comments section below.

Question the Rules to Create a More Remarkable Business (and Life) by Sonia Simone.

“I don’t buy into the idea that the best way for me to make a living is to work in a box from nine to five every day. Even a really nice box.”

Indispensable vs. Irreplaceable by Amber Naslund.

“…there’s a big difference between being indispensable and irreplaceable. One is important and can propel your career forward. The other can stagnate you.”

The 8 Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers by Annabel Candy of Get in the Hot Spot.

“The good news is that even if you don’t have all these personality traits already, most of them can be developed over time. Best of all, if you can cultivate these traits, you’ll become more effective in the rest of your life as well.”

31 Tasks a Job Seeker Can Do Every Month by Mohammed Altaee.

“I used Twitter to tweet the best career experts in the world and asked them: Give me a task a job seekers can do once per month?”

How Unsociable is Your Blog? by Marko Saric.

“Here are my observations, tips and advice on what makes a sociable blogger and why it is key to blogging success.”

Public Speaking – How I Prepare Every Time by Timothy Ferriss.

“Truth be told, I don’t think I’m that good at public speaking. .. Here are the ground rules I developed for myself to compensate, and I’ve been able to jam with some fun audiences as a result.”

9 Ways to Breathe Life Into Your Blog by Amber Naslund.

“Several folks have asked me how I keep content fresh and where I find blog ideas…if you’re interested in my take, I’ll celebrate this milestone by sharing some of my basic tips and strategies.”

13 Strategies to Jumpstart Your Productivity by Celestine Chua.

“In this article, I have selected 13 of my best productivity strategies – tried, tested and validated. If you follow all of them to a tee, I can guarantee you that your productivity will double, triple whatever it is right now.”

Lessons Learned from Seth Godin by J.D. Meier.

“As you explore Seth’s work, find what you can use for the business of life, or the game of work.  If you walk away with the goal of finding 3 ah-has, you’ll change your frame … and a key to life is that if you change your frame, you change your game.”

10 Free Social Media Tools Every PR Pro Should Master in 2010 by Adam Vincenzini.

“For some of you, these might seem basic, for others, they might seem a little foreign, but no matter which camp you are in, they should be part of your daily routine…no excuses!!”

Photo credit, psd.

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After scouring the globe far and wide, I present to you the ten best personal branding articles around the web from March 2010.  These articles cover topics that help you build a rock-solid personal brand, and do so in a way that makes me wish I had written them myself!  In no particular order…

12 Kickass Ways to Love your Job and Life, by Arvind Devalia at The Undercover Recruiter.

“See your work as a game. Life is meant to be fun and if you are going to spend a third of it at work, you might as well enjoy the game.”

We Can Do It, by Seth Godin.

“Successful people rarely confuse a can-do attitude with a smart plan. But they realize that one without the other is unlikely to get you very far.”

30 Valuable Lessons Learned Using Social Media for Small Business, by Mark Hayward at Problogger.

“After almost three years of working hard, learning continuously, making lots of mistakes, and monitoring successes, below are thirty valuable social media marketing lessons that I have learned through my experience.”

How to Give Yourself a First-Class Online Business Education, by Sonia Simone at Copyblogger.

“Today I’m going to talk about what I’ve learned, so if you’re a little earlier on the path you can avoid some blind alleys.”

New Twitter Tools for Job Seekers by Jessica Miller-Merrell of Brand-Yourself.

“These tips will help you turn Twitter into the ultimate networking tool…”

Stop Talking About Yourself, by Chris Brogan.

“Check your last 10 blog posts, your last 10 tweets. Are they all about you. Are they all about your products, your services, whatever it is you’re pushing? How many are about you versus those that are about others…?)

Four Reasons Why Focusing on Goals Leads to Failure, by Melissa Cooley.

“There is such a huge focus on the goal of getting a job that the process of attaining that goal is all but forgotten.”

How Guest Posting Builds Your Brand, by Ann Smarty at Personal Branding Blog.

“…per my experiencethere is nothing as effective for self-branding as guest posting.”

25 Easy Ways to Grow Your Personal Brand in 5 Minutes, by Jacob Share at Personal Branding Blog.

“Here are some ideas of quick personal brand-building steps you can take right now.”

From Tweet to Hired: The Definitive Guide to Land a Job with Twitter, by Patrick Ambron of Brand-Yourself.com.

“We worked very hard to put together an easy to follow, easy to read, extremely informative guide to leverage twitter and advance your career.”

This is my first top-10 compilation of this sort, and wow, was it easy to find 10 great articles.  I didn’t have a chance to feature work from a few of my faves, like Mohammed Altaee and Tim Tyrell-Smith, so stay tuned for next month’s edition.

Photo credit, sam_churchill.

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