FDP - DAY 3 - PROFESSIONAL BRANDING FOR FACULTY - Dr. Geetha Jose & Dr. Megha Mary Michael

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:09:05]Good evening to all. Am I audible?

[00:09:10]>> Yes ma'am. Good evening >> dear participants.

[00:09:17]the uh participants from Nanul Catholic College. I request you all to kindly join in the YouTube link that has been shared in our WhatsApp group.

[00:09:28]So today we are going to begin our day three FDP. I warmly welcome you all to day three of our six-day national level online faculty development program on excellence in education shaping tomorrow's classroom organized by the internal quality assurance cell of nonel Catholic college of arts and science as we step into the third day of this FDP today's session focuses on professional branding for faculty now I invite Mrs. Subie Ms, head of the department of English to deliver the welcome address.

[00:10:10]Good evening to one and all gathered here. A very warm welcome to the distinguished dignitaries, esteemed resource persons and my dear fellow academicians from across the nation. It is my absolute privilege and honor on behalf of the internal quality assurance of Nigel Catholic College of Arts and Science Kablay to welcome you all to the third day of our six-day national level online faculty program on excellence in education shaping tomorrow's classroom.

[00:10:40]As we cross the halfway mark of this intellectual journey, our focus today shifted to a highly crucial aspect of an educator's journey in the modern era.

[00:10:51]The topic for this evening is professional branding for faculty. In today's digital and dynamic educational landscape, our identity as educ educators extends far beyond the four walls of a classroom. Building a professional brand is no longer a luxury. It is a necessity to inspire, network and impact the global academic community.

[00:11:16]First and foremost, I extend my heartfelt respect and warm welcome to our Reverend Dr. C. Stephen, secretary and correspondent of Nigin Catholic College of Arts and Science. Welcome you, Father.

[00:11:30]I'm deeply honored to welcome our respected principal Dr. M. Amalanad. So your dynamic leadership, unwavering dedication and academic vision have always been a driving force behind the success of our institution.

[00:11:48]Welcome you sir. I extend a very warm welcome to our first keynote speaker Dr. Ga Jo, Assistant Professor at Barat Mada Institute of Management, Kochin. We are delighted to have you with us ma'am.

[00:12:06]Welcome you ma'am.

[00:12:08]Equally I'm delighted to extend a warm welcome to our second keynote speaker Dr. Ma Mary Michael Assistant professor also from Barat Mada Institute of Management Kush. Welcome you ma'am.

[00:12:24]>> Thank you.

[00:12:26]>> Finally I welcome all the vibrant and enthusiastic faculty members and participants joining us virtually today.

[00:12:34]Once again I welcome each and every one of you to day three of this FTP. May this session be enlightening and highly enriching for all. Thank you.

[00:12:48]Thank you madam for the warm words of welcome. Today's resource persons Dr. Gita Jo and Dr. Omega Mary Michael need no introduction as they have already enriched us with their insightful sessions on the previous days. We are delighted to welcome them once again and invite them to take over today's session. Please ma'am.

[00:13:14]>> Thank you ma'am. Uh I think I'll uh take the first half of the session and u Gita ma'am would follow. So good evening everyone. So welcome back to the um FDP.

[00:13:26]So yesterday what we were looking at is we were looking at um how uh we can engage the students in the classroom. So we were looking at the students and today we are what we are going to do is we are going to look inside. We are going to look at ourselves as brands. So that is what we are discussing today.

[00:13:44]We'll discuss about how uh a faculty can brand himself or herself. Now when we associate when we think about branding or think about marketing I'm basically a person from the marketing domain. So this is a very personal interesting topic for me u marketing and branding is something that I love to discuss about and I'm sure there might be teachers from the MBA department or from the BBA departments of uh different colleges where you also deal with marketing and familiar with the basic concepts of marketing. So today what we look at is how these marketing concepts that we apply to the brands that we see around us how can we use it for our benefit and think of us ourselves as brands. So that is the whole point that we'll be discussing today. Uh uh I'll quickly move on to the slides.

[00:14:52]Uh >> can you see my slides?

[00:14:58]>> Yes ma'am. It is visible.

[00:15:00]>> Okay. Thank you ma'am.

[00:15:10]and uh put it on presentation mode.

[00:15:18]So this is what we are going to discuss today. We are going to rethink our identity through a marketing lens.

[00:15:26]So let's start with a simple question.

[00:15:29]How many of you here have googled yourself in the last six months? So you can just raise your hands or maybe put it in the chat box. Uh have you ever thought of googling yourself? Yes, there are a few of you who are raising hands.

[00:15:42]Yes, you have googled yourself in the last six months. So what happens when you uh yeah there are uh more numbers coming up which is actually brilliant.

[00:15:53]We always Google celebrities but um as teachers we are also kind of celebrities you know uh because we are dealing with a large set of u students who are actually the future of tomorrow. So uh I think we make better celebrities than probably the celebrities that we see around. So we are a set of people who are actually influencers.

[00:16:16]We are influencing our students. So it is very important that we have a presence. Let it be online, let it be offline. A presence of which we are proud of. Right? So when you Google about yourself, what might come up?

[00:16:31]Sometimes your college profile might come up. In every college, you'll have your faculty profile. Maybe that comes up. Maybe a research paper that uh you wrote might come up. Sometimes nothing comes up. Nothing related to you.

[00:16:43]Someone else when you Google it is, you know, all our names are very common and popular. probably there are so many megas around and so many mega mies around. So maybe nothing about me but about someone else. So what what is it that uh comes up and whatever came up did it actually represent who you are?

[00:17:03]Are you proud of what came out there?

[00:17:06]Was your name associated with something that you are very happy about? If a student or someone from the industry or maybe another institution look at you uh on Google, would they be impressed by what they see there? So this is the base where we are going to start. Maybe they don't find anything interesting. Maybe they are not impressed. But that is okay. Here is where we are going to start.

[00:17:29]So why do we even do this? If you look at marketing, the basic crux of marketing is when we speak of marketing, the first word that I introduce in my marketing class is value. So we speak about value. What do you mean by value?

[00:17:46]In simple terms, value is what you get for what you give. So every time you're speaking about value, we are speaking about for the money that I have spent, for the time that I am wasting, what am I getting in return? Some there are some restaurants that could be very close to you and something some places where we are very interested. What we do is we are ready to wait for hours to get a seat there. Why do we do that? the same waiting time when you are asked to wait in a hospital you get so irritated you're like why can't this happen very fast uh why is the doctor make making me wait it is because you associate more value to what you are waiting for so your time is involved your money is involved your u other resources can be the delivery time so many things so marketing is all about value for all this that you spend for the time you spend for the money you spend for everything that you spend what is it that we are getting in return. So simple examples Apple uh why is it very expensive and even then people stand in queue and wait for the next next uh version of Apple phone because when you buy Apple phone you're not really buying a phone you're buying an identity anybody looking at you holding your iPhone okay so this is some man of a uh stature or some woman who is of some purpose a community you're all these Apple lovers they are into one community it is a promise is that you're buying.

[00:19:17]So when you buy a product, you're not really buying just the product. You are buying something more than that. You're buying everything that is giving you value. When you go see I it's some case that we always discuss in classes about Starbucks. You go to Saravanabhavan, you get one of the best coffees. So I am a huge fan of tea and coffee. And you go to Sarraanabhan, you get the best coffee. Uh you get the best coffee maybe for 50 rupees max. And then why do you go to Starbucks? Every time we go to Starbucks, when I get the kind of coffee from Starbucks, I'm like, "No, this is actually not my kind of coffee." But still we think of going to Starbucks because there you're not really buying coffee. You're buying an experience.

[00:20:01]You're buying a lifestyle. So that is uh very important. And what about you? So when we speak about Apple, Apple is giving some value. Starbucks, Starbucks is giving value. And what about you?

[00:20:14]What about me? What about the faculty who is going to the class? Every class that you're taking, every single interaction that you're making with your students, every search of your name and what comes out of it, that is the value that you give. Your students have actually spent their time, they have spent their effort, they are putting in money, everything for your class. And every time they will judge us by what is it that they are getting in return. So every time you speak to your students uh to some extent we'll have to think of them as our real customers. So we are the product we are the service that we are giving to our students and what is it that they are getting in return. Are we adding value to their lives? So that is where the whole idea of personal branding comes up.

[00:21:06]Now whether you like it or not, whether you manage it or manage it or not, you are already a brand. All of us teachers are already a brand. Every class you teach is a brand experience for your students. So we have to decide whether you are that Starbucks or whether you are that Saravanabhavin or whether you are I would say Saravanabhavin is a class by itself or are you that kind of coffee that is available anywhere. So every class you teach is a brand experience for your students. Every small corridor conversations that uh you have with your colleagues will shape how your colleagues perceive you. How do you speak to your colleagues? What is the kind of conversation you have with your colleagues? That is also part of your brand building. Every email you send whether it is to the students, whether it is to your colleagues, whether it is to your higherups, every email you send is communicating your professionalism and your personality to the other person. Especially in today's world where uh we have replaced our genuine writing skills with AI. What we sent across should actually speak about your personality. Now that is where when we depend a lot on AI. What could happen is our personality is missing out. What you are as an individual you're not able to communicate. Everything looks very polished. Everything looks very good English but probably your personality is getting missed out there. Every Google search of your name that is telling a story about you. Your research and achievements we might be doing a lot of research. You might be um doing you you're getting lot of achievements. Are they visible to the world? So whether you manage it or not, whether you are aware of it or not, you're already a brand. But the problem is there are two types of brand that you can think about.

[00:22:57]Unmanaged brand and managed brand.

[00:23:00]Unmanaged brand is where you not have a definition of yourself, but you're asking others to define you. Why?

[00:23:07]Because you have not carefully built that brand. The brand was built by someone else. Because whatever they perceive about you, that is the brand.

[00:23:16]You are invisible beyond your campus.

[00:23:18]Everybody inside the campus definitely knows you. But once you are outside the campus, nobody knows you. Invisible beyond your campus. There are missed opportunities in unmanaged brand. When your brand is not visible to others, how will someone come in search of you?

[00:23:33]Right? So then there is the managed brand where you define yourself. It is my definition of me that people know. I am visible in my field. I open doors that I never knew existed. Then that is a managed brand. So there is no question of whether you are a brand or not.

[00:23:52]Whether we like it or not, whether you are happy with it or not, we are already a brand. And the only question is are you a brand that is managing itself or are you a brand that you have given to others to manage. That is where the question is.

[00:24:10]Now I'm going to take you through two major concepts of marketing. So whenever we learn marketing uh if you look at the syllabus of marketing for any um let it be from the IM or uh any institution it is always pillared around we have we speak of two major pillars. We speak about segmentation targeting and positioning and we speak about the four Ps of marketing. And I'm sure at least some of you might be familiar with these concepts. Now what I'm going to do is the idea of segmentation and the idea of targeting the idea of positioning we are going to look at it from uh our point of view from an academic point of view. So by segmentation what you mean is see there are so many people around us and we cannot be everything to everyone. So what we do is we segment we try to see who is my actual customer who am I speaking about to whom am I going to give my communication whom should I focus on so what we do is you divide the entire uh audience that you have you'll divide them into small small segments who are very similar uh within them and then out of those segments you'll choose one and then you position so positioning is where you create an image of yourself and what we do First step is segmentation. We need to know who is my audience. Are students my only audience?

[00:25:34]No, my students whether they are UG students, PG students, research scholars, all of them are my audience.

[00:25:41]My institution is my audience. It can be a colleagues, it can be the management.

[00:25:46]In some cases, what happens is you're a very good teacher. But the management is completely unaware that you are a very good teacher. Maybe you're publishing a lot of things nowadays because we have n of knack everything asking for documents definitely the institution knows about it but how well your colleagues know about you. So your institution sometimes our segment is you just want to be known within your institution. Do you want to be known across your academic community your peer members from other institutions? Should journals ask you to be an editor there? Industry some of us might be very good with our consultancy activities. So industry corporates consultancy could be our segment. Now first you divide yourself into these kind of segments. Second stage what you look at is who do you want to reach. Do you want to be known to your students?

[00:26:40]Are you looking at your institution? Are you looking at your academic community?

[00:26:44]Are you looking at industry? Something that we all have to understand. I always tell my students, let it be in your personal life, let it be in marketing.

[00:26:54]You can never be everything to everyone.

[00:26:57]I have always personally, I'm not sure if all of you would agree to this, but then I have personally felt that the moment you try to be everything to everyone, you land up in trouble. You cannot be that perfect wife, perfect daughter, perfect daughter-in-law, uh perfect mother, everything at a time. So there might be some field where you're really good at and in between you have to be the perfect teacher as well. Now targeting is where there might be some areas where you're really good and you cannot use that expertise everywhere. So we have to decide where you want to be known. Is it with your students? Is it with your institution? Who do you want to reach the most? That is the second stage where you speak about targeting.

[00:27:44]And the third stage is positioning.

[00:27:46]Positioning when we discuss about positioning in um marketing, we always say positioning is how you build the brand in the mind of the customer. So when my when I ask my students this question for exam, if this mind of customer is not there in the answer paper, I don't give the mark because it is very important that positioning is not that happen somewhere here or there.

[00:28:07]I'll ask you a question. If I say washing powder, what comes next? Anybody who knows the answer can put it in the chat. If I simply say washing powder, what comes to your mind?

[00:28:23]Yeah, washing powder simply comes to mind. Comes to our mind. Now, uh if I say uh dentist recommended number one toothpaste, what comes to your mind?

[00:28:35]There might be one sensine.

[00:28:37]>> Sensedine. Okay. So, see look at this.

[00:28:40]And who taught us this?

[00:28:42]It just comes to our mind. They have been the company is trying to build the brand within us. It they keep telling you if you have sensitive teeth. See when the sensor and advertisements come you feel that sensitivity on your teeth whether you are very sensitive or not you feel that right? So you you feel that sensitivity. Now this is what you mean by positioning. They have been uh they have positioned it very clearly.

[00:29:10]Now think of what can make you taller, sharper, stronger.

[00:29:15]Maybe for kids or even these days for everyone.

[00:29:21]>> Hollix.

[00:29:22]>> Horics. Yeah. Horix makes you taller, sharper, stronger. See as a child all our parents would have given us this horses in the hope that we all become very tall, sharp and smart. But probably nothing really happened out of it. But see the company has built it built the brand in this way that we are actually uh so we are actually uh seeing it happen uh in real life we are we know that every brand has something to speak about us. So this is what we we speak as positioning. When you think there should be some drink that can make me tall should come to your mind. If I have a sensitive teeth, sensodine should come into my mind. If I'm going to meet a loved one and I want to smell fresh, I would probably not use sensodine. I'll use close-up because close-up is where you always say you can go close to anyone. Don't worry about your bad smelling mouth. Now, that is positioning. How do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be remembered as the expert in your subject? Do you want to be remembered as some teacher who comes with innovative ideas in the campus? Do you want to be that person who goes to the industry and speaks to them? Do you want to be a researcher who makes real world impact? So that is your positioning. What are you as a teacher?

[00:30:46]And today we know that we are not simply teachers. We are so many things. We are an administrator, we are a faculty, we are a researcher, we are a consultant.

[00:30:55]We have lot of roles to fulfill. We may not really be very good with everything and that is absolutely okay. See there are some teachers very good teachers who are very poor with research. They don't have that research acumen. I always feel that uh we have focused so much on research that the teaching learning process is getting suffered. You might be a very innovative teacher. You might be that math teacher who can make concepts very simple for students. Now that is your positioning. Can you do it?

[00:31:26]That is your positioning. You are some person with very good research uh background. You can do ABDC, you can do Scorpus, then that is what is your positioning. So this is what you call a segmentation, targeting and positioning.

[00:31:41]And our focus should be on positioning.

[00:31:44]How do you position ourselves? And remember when you're positioning, you're not positioning somewhere. It is in the minds of your customer, in the minds of your students, in the minds of your institution. What does this person stand for?

[00:31:58]And then the next concept is the four piece of marketing. We speak about product, price, place and promotion. So product is you your knowledge, your skills, your research, your teaching style, your qualification, areas of expertise, the kind of person that you are, the values that bring in that you bring in, experiences that you deliver that is your product. So what is it that I'm doing in my class? Some of us may be these vibrant teachers who are always smiling and very happy and going to class. Some of us may not be like that.

[00:32:31]But does that make you a bad teacher?

[00:32:33]No. That is also a personality. We we speak about teachers like uh he used to be very strict but somehow he taught us maths very well. Now that is absolutely okay. But what is it? You should have clarity about what you are as a person, your product, what is your knowledge, what is that one good thing that you can do. And uh you should also remember there are some things that we do very well but may not add on to your brand.

[00:33:00]Something I always think about is one thing I can I have I'm very confident of it is my handwriting. I can write beautifully but I have not found a source where place where I can put it into use as a teacher other than writing certificates. So our skills our knowledge whatever we are good at it should have some meaning to the profession that we are in. So that is your product. There is price. What is your worth? When we speak about price it is not just your salary. It is your perceived value in your field. What do people think as my value in this particular academic area? Are you able to get consultancies, publications about the talks you deliver? How will you price yourself? So if I go and say that this is my price, can you price yourself like that? I would say that it is um many times as faculty we underpric ourselves but we have to stay visible and please where do you show up? Where where can I see you? Are you limited to your classrooms? Are you limited uh only to your institution? Do you go for conferences? How good is your LinkedIn account? Are you writing for journals?

[00:34:13]How well you have branded yourself in the institution website? So in the institution website, all of us have a photograph and a brief write up about ourselves. Are you changing it every now and then? Every time you make an achievement, are you changing it? your years of experience, are you changing it? Are you asking the institution to change it? Where you show up? Are you showing up as very well neatly dressed kind of person? When you go for a wedding, be dress up. Same way you have to dress up your brand. Where do people see me? When they see me, they should always think, "Oh, wow. This person uh is very professional." Are you seen in community meetings, in industry events, media, podcast? Are you doing something?

[00:34:57]So where my audience can find me? Am I available there? And finally promotion.

[00:35:04]Am I telling my story? Am I sharing my research? Today we have multiple venues where you can do this. One article is published. Put it on LinkedIn. You can write blogs. You can speak at events.

[00:35:16]You can mentor students collaborating with peer members from other institutions. Now this is one platform that you have. You are all in an online FDP. There are faculty from different institutions. Are you collaborating with them? You meet them online and uh you just like that become friends. And this academic collaboration is very important. Your online presence, what does it say about you? So am I telling the story or am I asking other people to tell my story on my behalf? So think of it this way. You need to have if the product price, place and promotion is well done, every brand would be successful. You have to have a very good product, price it very well, uh place it very well. That is the delivery logistics part. Do it very well, promote your products, every brand is going to be successful. So that is why we call this as a pillar of marketing. So remember you are the product, you are the marketing, marketer and the brand manager all in one.

[00:36:17]In real life uh you have to position. So positioning is where you have to be relevant to people. So how can you position yourself? One way you can position is you can be the subject expert. You publish, present at conferences, curriculum design, you are that subject expert that people speak about. If there is something about marketing and see when I say subject expert the challenge with us marketing people especially is marketing is one area that we have lot of people who are marketing professors. You look at all the vacancies that are coming up.

[00:36:50]Probably marketing is not even in picture because you get plenty of marketing people. Finance and HR probably there are very less number of people who are uh part of this uh finance and uh HR but marketing is like huge. Now within marketing which is one area where you are treated as a subject expert right? So probably within marketing in consumer behavior maybe within consumer behavior there is some some niche area where every time something comes up people will be like oh that faculty does it very well. If you look at literature there are some teachers who can deal history of uh English language or history of English literature very well. As an undergraduate student, we used to call this history of English literature as hell because h e l history of English literature and it was pure hell for us because you have to learn from the first person chauer to what is happening today right now the contemporary writers everyone you had to learn and you kind of getting you you it is like whether the battle of panipet came first or the civil war came first you are not really very sure and similarly is how you learn this history of English literature. So I've seen there are some teachers who can do this really well. They don't make it a hell. They come and explain and step by step they take us through. They give us reading materials. They ask us to read just few fiction and they know how to handle this. So are you that kind of a subject expert? Somebody who can be called to make a particular subject a very small subject area which you can do very well. Second is are you that industry bridge? There are some people who are very bad with their classroom.

[00:38:33]They cannot teach but they're very good with consultancy. They can work for companies. They can interact with industry speakers. You take your students on live project. You work with them. That is an industry bridge. Are you that kind of a person or are you an innovative educator? You come to the classroom with different uh methods. You share pedagogy. You uh present yourself at education conferences. You win teaching awards because you're just an innovative educator. You do your best in classrooms and that is your space. You may not be a good researcher. You cannot interact with industry but within the classroom you do a really good job. Is that what you are? Are you a researcher?

[00:39:17]Are you building credibility through you have lot of publications, you have citations, Google scholar profile and grants. Is that the kind of person you are? So you have to position yourself.

[00:39:27]You don't try to be everything. You cannot be a subject expert, industry bridge, innovative, educator and the researcher. Decide for yourself where you want to position yourself and choose that one positioning and put it across to your uh customers. So we call something called pos map where you're looking at suppose you're a person with a thought leader but we have lot of people who have very low expertise and high visibility. The moment they open their mouth it is a problem. They are loud but lost. There are people the biggest problem is people who are high in their expertise but low visibility. People don't know about them. You are very good with your area but people do not know about you. You can write about a particular theme in the newspaper but the newspaper doesn't contact you. These kind of people are hidden gems and I'm sure majority of us sitting here would belong to that category. We have that passion to uh learn our subject. We have understood our subject. We know our subject. We are completely perfect with it. But nobody knows about it. So we are that hidden gem and our idea is to move from that hidden gem to the thought leader. So that is what the movement that you'll have to look. Now how do you do it? Your digital presence is very important because your brand is not something that works from 9:00 in the morning to 5:00 in the evening. It doesn't stop there.

[00:41:00]LinkedIn, your LinkedIn profile has to have a professional storefront. That is your professional retail outlet. So if you think of yourself as a retail outlet, how would you look like? Will you look like a Reliance supermarket or will you look like a westside your complete profile? Do you have regular post? Do you connect with industry and peers? So that is your LinkedIn. You have to make sure that you update your LinkedIn profile very often.

[00:41:32]Google Scholar. Now this is one place where you have to claim your profile.

[00:41:37]Create your profile in Google Scholar.

[00:41:39]All your publications should be in place and track all the citation. A cited researcher is a visible researcher. So that is some place where you'll have to be available. Research gate and academia.edu.

[00:41:53]Share your papers. Follow peers. Look at other people who are working on similar academic areas. Follow them. I would say look at all international people who are uh on research gate who work uh interact also. You have to participate in the discussions there and people will notice you. Your institution's website is the profile updated there. Does it reflect who you really are? When you say you are a researcher, you are a teacher, everything are you actually reflecting what you want to be reflected. So if not, you have to rewrite that blogs and articles. One way in which as teachers especially if you have that um uh writing skills you can write for some media or your institution's newsletter or newspapers you have to speak maybe finance faculty or an economics faculty can speak about the budget when it is released uh or uh maybe a faculty from sociology department can speak about women's right on a women's day. So all of those are articles and blogs come out with it. If not anything look at your WhatsApp status and share your voice there. Uh something that we should do is what is called the digital audit. Does your LinkedIn reflect your best self?

[00:43:09]Are your publications access accessible?

[00:43:12]Would a student be impressed if they Googled you today? So this is something that we do on a we should be doing on a consistent basis. Look at your profile.

[00:43:20]Look at yourself. Look at what you have put yourself online. So your digital presence is going to be very important.

[00:43:29]Uh how you teach is also your brand.

[00:43:32]Your content choices. So I remember a friend of mine uh who joined our institution, not my current institution but someone who joined long back uh we had a course on analytics. So she was teaching in analytics and uh she was finding it very difficult to cope with the current way in which we teach. So I was having a discussion with her and she was like ma'am I don't know what is going wrong. I got into teaching because my father was a uh professor in a college. He said it was very easy being a professor. He said you the textbook never change. So you just have this especially in English. He was an English professor. You teach Romeo and Juliet for 10 years, 20 years. It's it's cakewalk for you there. You just like that. You don't even look at the textbook. You don't look at anything.

[00:44:19]You can just go to the class and speak.

[00:44:21]So while I join teaching, this is what I expected that I know statistics, I know analytics, I can simply go and teach.

[00:44:29]But here we have syllabus revisions happening every day. everything changes and how do I sustain in teaching and she finally quit her teaching career and she joined industry. Now what happens in teaching is maybe what you're teaching is very old. There are times when I feel that marketing every year I'm teaching the segmentation targeting positioning I am teaching about four piece of marketing. It is it it keeps getting redundant for us. But how do you change it? Do you bring current examples? Do you bring fresh perspectives or are you using the same slides that you used 10 years ago? Your content choices will define what you are as a teacher. Your personal branding inside the classroom happens when you look at the content choices. So that is uh something very important. Uh your teaching style. Are you known for making difficult concepts simple? Are you that kind of teacher who sparks debate in the classroom? Are you someone who comes on time? Now this punctuality and preparation is something that students notice a lot about us. If you don't go to the class on time, two times you do this and students would think of you as that teacher who always comes late. So punctuality is very important. Are you prepared when you go to the class? So that is a major grant attribute. How you treat your students?

[00:45:55]Do you respect them? Do you encourage them? If you respect them, if you encourage them, they will remember you long after the subject is also forgotten. So that is a personal branding and um every teacher will have their own signature style. Something that students remember, maybe a phrase that they use, maybe a particular method, maybe some teachers who bring in so much energy. So that is your signature style and you need to know that. Um most of the time you know when we'll know this when uh there is a passing out of students and during the farewell probably when they share their experiences they'll come and say about it in a very funny way. We used to speak about this teacher like this she keeps repeating the same phrase. Now that might be what people speak about you embrace it. Don't think of it as a bad thing. If you use one phrase and if that is your classic phrase, embrace it and think of that as your signature style provided it is very good and what is your life beyond the classroom. Now this is where uh as teachers some of you might disagree with me that we are uh faculty faculty members have this big challenge you know when uh when I think of my husband and me uh my husband can post anything online. uh you go out, you take a photograph, you can post anything. If there is some issue that is happening, he can voice his opinion the way he wants. But for me, every time I put something on my WhatsApp, I always think about, okay, this is this status message is going to be seen by my students. How would they judge me? We always say that you should not be worried about how other people judge.

[00:47:37]But as faculty, we are mentors. We are guiding lights for them. And uh how is your life beyond the classroom? What is it that you project outside? Are you being available for your students beyond the classroom? I know it is a very challenging thing. Very challenging thing to be available for your students uh outside the classroom because we have our own responsibilities. But to some extent are you being available? Have you given a time for your students outside the classroom hours where they can contact you? Students talk and word of mouth is the oldest form of branding.

[00:48:14]Every time a new batch of students come the seniors irrespective of which field they are in every senior will go and tell to the juniors some stories about their teachers and we have to make sure that that what they speak outside is u good about us. So some mistakes I'll quickly wind up with some branding mistakes that we make. Sometimes we become the invisible expert. We are brilliant inside the classroom but nobody knows about it. Is your profile outdated? Your college photo from 2009 is still your profile picture on LinkedIn. You have a you have an account with just three lines there. You don't have any publications listed or if your publications are listed, nobody can find it online. That is an outdated profile.

[00:49:03]You might be an inconsistent brand.

[00:49:05]You're inspiring in class but very unprofessional on social media. Your social media is also part of your brand and as faculty we cannot stay away from our uh role as faculty and yes we have a personal life but our brand building happens beyond the classroom beyond your institution. So what you post online is also part of your personal branding. Are you a silent achiever? You have won an award brilliant. published a paper, brilliant, but you told nobody. Yes, humility is a virtue, but invisibility is definitely not a virtue. Sometimes we act as islands. No collaborations, no networking, no presence at conferences.

[00:49:49]You work as an island. So here the problem is your reach is getting limited. And some trap where we all fall into is the I'll do it later trap. You are waiting for the perfect moment to build your brand. And trust me that moment will never come. And again your designation is not your brand. You might be an assistant professor. You might be an associate professor. You might be the head of the department. You might be a director. Your title is just your job.

[00:50:21]Your brand is your legacy. So you don't have to limit it to what? Okay. Uh there is a book by Robin Sharma u leader without a title. So we can be leaders without a title. You might be a lecturer, an assistant professor in a college but what you your title is not going to define you. You're going to build a brand that is a legacy. It is not uh built in one day but it is something that is built every single day. So we have to make sure that this brand building happens intentionally not by someone else. So these are some uh thoughts that I had uh as a winding up for you. Um we can probably Google ourselves, update our LinkedIn, write a brand statement for you. What do you do?

[00:51:10]Who are you? What do you do? For whom do you do it, right? And then you can claim your Google Scholar profile. Look at all the publications. Make sure that your research is visible. Try writing one article or a post. Go attend one event which is something that you're doing right now. some industry meetup, some webinar, show up where your audience is.

[00:51:30]So this is all that I have to speak about in terms of the personal branding that you are uh building. So I think I have taken slightly more time that than what was allotted to me. Uh but this is all that I have to share with you. So if there are some questions, something that you would like to discuss, uh I'm here to take it up or some experiences that you would like to share.

[00:51:56]anything or if you want to keep it towards the end of the session even that is fine because Gita ma'am is waiting for her session as well. Now what we have done is uh I have discussed uh about personal branding. Now Gita ma'am would be looking at how your institution is also a brand. So your brand and your institution brand should go well together. It has to be integrated well together. So you have to brand your institution also. All of us as faculty members are playing a role in institution building. We cannot think of us as separate entities. We are all part of an institution and it is our responsibility to build that institution. So that is also part of our branding. So are we building our uh Sure ma'am I'll share the PPT. I'll uh send it across to the team uh to the IQC team and yes we'll uh I'll share the PPTs.

[00:53:01]Great. So uh I think Gita ma'am probably you can uh take up and if there is Thank you sir. So um Gita ma'am you can take up uh the session and probably um if there is some questions you can uh post it across in the chat which we can take up uh later on.

[00:53:25]So it was wonderful having the sessions with you and thank you so much again once again for this opportunity. Thank you so much.

[00:53:36]>> Thank you ma'am.

[00:53:38]Gita ma'am now the session is yours.

[00:53:53]Yeah my esteemed good evening everyone.

[00:53:56]My esteemed colleague Mega Mam have uh given a fantastic road map about on how to build personal brand and how to be a good brand uh for your institution, how to build credibility, how to build visibility and how to build academic identity and um your your personal brand as an educator or as an expert in research or um or any area as a as an educator doesn't exist in vacuum. So your voice need to be heard to the outside world through some medium and that medium is your institution.

[00:54:39]So it is the institution that helps you to amplify your voice to the outside world and for example an institution has an excellent set of professors and it is not not not known to the outside world.

[00:54:56]The brilliance of these professors is just closed behind the walls of the classroom. In the walls of the classroom what happens? The excellence of the institution is not known. So uh the institution's excellence is not visible to the public. So there is a biblical phrase like a lamp is not meant to be hidden under a bed. It is meant to be placed on a stand so that its light reaches everyone.

[00:55:27]Institution should become that stand that gives visibility to that light. So excellence in the institution, excellent teachers, excellent classrooms are not just enough, it should be visible.

[00:55:41]So uh so that is where the importance of institutional branding comes in.

[00:55:48]So for the uh next 15 minutes I'll just be sharing the importance of institutional branding and at the same time what are the different methods of building institutional brands. Maybe you your institution will be doing all that but just to uh pinpoint some point there pinpoint some elements. I'll share the BPT now.

[00:56:35]Is it visible? Is the PP?

[00:56:38]>> Yes. Yes, ma'am.

[00:56:45]So this is about so your voice should be uh known to the public through your institution and that institution that is the ecosystem in which you have to thrive. So an exceptional uh excellence is not enough it should be visible, recognizable and structurally supported by your organization.

[00:57:06]So next is like have you ever uh let me begin with a simple question when you hear about a well-known institution well-known institution in the country or like IM or IATS or good universities uh Harvard's Harvard University MIT or Stanford what comes to your mind maybe something uh you have Some something comes to your mind when you hear about the their quality. Yes, of course.

[00:57:46]>> Yeah.

[00:57:46]>> Standard >> uh standard quality maybe again maybe excellent placements academics the quality uh of uh teaching learning process the standard yeah we have some perception about them. So the next question is we have never seen that inst maybe we have never at least most of you have never seen the institutions.

[00:58:10]I have never visited such institutions but I have not even met a student there in Harvard or MIT. But we have a perception about them that is a a well a good perception a rock solid perception is framed in our mind that is brand that is raw institutional branding.

[00:58:32]Do you think it is just through advertisements?

[00:58:36]If a company, if an ind educational institution is giving a full expensive uh onepage advertisement in a newspaper, is it the only way? Is it is it how they become more, you know, known to the public? Is it their excellence or if they give uh you know glossy brochures?

[00:58:57]No. So if if if that is the case, every institution can become a good uh brand.

[00:59:04]So here is the difference. So for example, here comes the importance of both internal and external environments.

[00:59:13]Maybe people in uh social sciences, faculty of social sciences may be understanding the importance of internal uh internal environment and external environment. So internal environment means what the institution really is.

[00:59:28]The people, the teachers with respect to academics, our preparation, uh the examination we conduct, the academic culture, the leadership, the values, all that becomes the internal environment and extern Yes. U through through the students and faculty who are the brand ambassadors. Yes ma'am.

[00:59:52]Exactly.

[00:59:57]Then external environment is about how our college or how our department is perceived outside the public image, the digital visibility and market reputation.

[01:00:08]For proper institutional branding, there should be a proper balance between this internal environment and external environment. So do you know how this imbalance imbalances? For example, when we give advertisement, we give like uh we have uh a 24 by7 Wi-Fi facility, good classrooms, well equipped uh classrooms, excellent teachers, uh we give all the endless list of positive things and we try to attract the students and when the actual students are are customers when they come in where they are actually searching for all that we have listed out in the advertisement and when they come in and they find out that okay there is shortage of faculty the teaching learning process is not happening properly uh maybe the discipline is not uh not um as expected what happens there is some dissonance in the minds of our students so there is an imbalance between internal and external environment so that will definitely influ affect our institutional branding so definitely when you uh what all you promise our students promise our stakeholders we have to fulfill that then there can be imbalance in the other way also. For example, uh we have an excellent team of teachers. We are doing excellent research. Uh we have collaborations. We have good campus placements. But we are not we are not visible to public. We are not posting it anywhere in social media. So again there is an imbalance. So we have to remove all this uh imbalances. There should be some balance between internal and external environment. Then definitely institutional branding will be we can do it in way.

[01:02:00]Then how to uh work on institutional branding? For example, we have three levels here. Uh one is foundation level, infrastructure and uh finishings.

[01:02:15]like every building has a foundation.

[01:02:18]Same applies to institutions. So our foundation includes uh includes especially the elements we have included in our uh vision and mission statements.

[01:02:30]I don't know whether uh we might even I we might we may not remember the mission statement of our institution. I don't know any of us here word by word it is uh we remember the mission statement. So mission statement and vision statement is like that is the promise that we give to the community and that we give to the uh give to the students. So for examp I have just taken the mission statement from the uh from from colleg's website that is Nel College's website to provide innovative teaching opportunities environment and experience that enable students to grow proper in and grow prosper and transform the world. So these are the promises that we have given to the kids here. So in the foundation we have to ensure that we have a culture we prom we have promised um we have promised different educational opportunities we have promised a different experience we have promised that okay you will have a good uh environment here so all this becomes the foundation so for for that what we have to do we have as faculties we have to prepare we have to prepare uh we have to conduct exams in a disciplined Okay.

[01:03:52]All that becomes our foundation. But the foundation is never seen to the outside world. Our works are not seen to the outside world. So that is the foundation. And next comes the infrastructure that is all the facilities in the organization becomes the infrastructure. Placement cell. For example, we have promised placement cell and a student ident finds that the placement cell is not uh working. It's not functional. What happens? that will reduce that that will the reduce the confidence of the students. We are not providing aptitude training that again will reduce the confidence of the students. But if you are providing aptitude training and we have a fully functional placement cell especially the placement cells of the uh organizations maybe the placement officer may be making 500 plus calls to connect with the companies to arrange the interviews and all. So that actually this is not reflected in our to the outside world.

[01:04:52]But all this come to the finishings.

[01:04:54]Finishings means marketing the public relations the campus aesthetic social media logos all that we that Dr. Mega Madame already discussed with this.

[01:05:11]So uh if you have a rock solid foundation and infrastructure finishings finishings will be lasting. A brand that build on flawless finishing without a strong foundation and infrastructure will definitely it will crack under pressure. So make sure when you show up everything uh to the public you have good foundation so that will last forever.

[01:05:36]Now uh it is five elements for of institutional branding. I'm sure that your this college will be practicing many of it. Mission and vision we have explained. So the role of or the importance of vision and mission is that we have to it is a behavior.

[01:05:55]It is not something that is to be written in a piece of paper. Mission is that it is something it is a living culture of the organization. It should be practiced every practiced every single day. The punctuality of the students, you help students, you provide remedial training even after classes. Uh you clear doubts of students. Then students and staff treated with genuine uh mutual respect values in the classroom. So these are all mission. So mission is basically a behavior behavior. The next one is your unique value. Why should someone chooses some someday one brilliant student comes to you and ask madam sir why should I join this why should not why shouldn't I join in the other college you should have something concrete to tell them you should tell them the distinctiveness of your department what I I'll say is like every department should have this uh unique value that should be by heart for every teacher and you have to communicate it to the students yesterday we had a session in our college and um one of the resource person told us that earlier we had this distinctiveness. We we wrote the distinctive we used to write all this in our diary but the resource person told us like you have to by heart this and you have to make students by heart this. So what is your uh specialtity?

[01:07:22]What make you different from other colleges other departments? Maybe some department uh is famous for their some colleges are known for their stellar placements. Some are into research and innovation discipline and student support good student uh support. So what is be known for something specific? You should not be general when you tell about your unique value. If you are telling something or communicating something very general that is same for every college. So students may not find it so attractive. So find a try to find something that is that that should be that should be your competency that should be your USP. Then the next one uh community and uh student programs student programs I would like to know about what are the extension and outreach activities in the college.

[01:08:22]I'm I'm sure that you'll be practicing uh some community activities going to the students will be u going to rural areas and they may conduct classes something like that.

[01:08:38]>> Yes, we take them to orphanage >> uh even old age home then for uh rallies and all in the areas to create awareness.

[01:08:52]is actually when that is called distributive justice. If we take something from the society, we have the obligation to give it back to the society. So through community programs, maybe you can conduct I camps for the area or the nearby areas or blood donation camps and um even rural sensitization programs can be done.

[01:09:14]Maybe students can be asked to take classes for some schools near nearby schools. So these are uh areas by areas where live branding happens. You need not um actually you know put a billboard there. Live branding happens and this is how you can reach and reach to the community and another way is like u student ambassadors that is definitely as teachers we know that every uh two months we can see in some colleges fest will happen national competitions and at the same time um paper presentations conferences management fest all these happens in nearby colleges. So what one thing is like at least we can send a team of students to management fest. So this is how uh the students are actually talking ambassadors of our institution.

[01:10:07]If there are conferences our faculties can participate there. So this is how you know our name the the name of our college will get will repeated everywhere and this way we can brand our institution.

[01:10:21]Then alumni every colleges, every college must be uh working on this. Hope here also it is practicing alumni meetings, alumni how it is done here.

[01:10:37]Okay. In our college it is like when new students come, new batches, new batch of students join, uh we usually call few alumni students who are working in best institutions. We call them and asked to give a talk on uh talk on their experiences experiences in the college and at the same time how their work experiences what they have gained. So that person uh so how we address the our students is like okay this student studied in our college. So when alumni succeed people don't just say their name they say like okay I know this uh person he's an entrepreneur he's a leader uh so he studied in in this institution so definitely alumni success is our institutional rep reputation then management research culture usually nowadays every organization is going for accreditations like knack nf NBA so everywhere this research Such publications have they have got it has got value. So usually in we know that it's not prominent in all colleges. So some cultures if we don't have such culture we can actually uh create a culture. So this the effort can be taken from the management side. Even uh during our academic planning our manager our father was telling about we have to inculcate we have to give more importance to research culture and uh father have father insisted has insisted every teachers at least like you have to publish at least one scopus publication per uh year. So this is how we can we can build some kind of uh research culture in the organization. Again institutions, academic brand skyrockets on the global stage. You know that I have a little more time. Okay.

[01:13:04]Then the next one is small but powerful branding moments.

[01:13:09]These are small cues. Uh so uh green campus environment creates the first feeling even if as guests come to your campus the guest first sees how our campus is. So that is uh something the guests feel so that so you can actually create a good campus then discipline warm reception these are some points you can no doubt then uh this one is followed in our institution that is personalized thank you message. It is like um if you have a speaker for a conference or any other program at the end of the day we we send a thank you message to to our guest speaker. So uh the guest the the person may not the res the resource person may not be remembering uh the I mean the PPS or all that may not be uh resource person may not be remembering all that but thank you note that will be more emotional for emot there will be more emotional connect with the resource person and for every event we can obviously approach this uh this resource person. So it will not find it difficult for approaching the resource persons again and again. That is one small thing we do and we find that it is uh really working and branding is ultimately an emotional memory. So um we have already discussed all this. So these are some some elements how through points through which we can build we can build our brand.

[01:14:47]So uh along with academic faculty along with faculty branding institutional branding also is also very important because then only we can be instit we can the faculty can be visible to the uh global world uh outside world.

[01:15:05]>> Any doubt this is all from my side.

[01:15:14]>> Thank you so much ma'am. Now dear participants, it's your time.

[01:15:35]Thank you.

[01:15:45]Dear participants, if you want to share any feedback or Good evening, it was a wonderful session.

[01:15:53]>> Thank you ma'am.

[01:15:54]>> I'm Dr. Shila, assistant professor college.

[01:15:59]Uh I have a small clarification here explained very well on seed funding. Can you uh add some examples how we can mobilize seed funding for any kinds of uh events? Okay. Uh the first thing is what we do actually in our college is like for science projects especially for experiments we get um funding from the from companies and other than else other than that if you have uh research publications then you get incentives as well. That is how we motivate the uh teachers to motivate teachers to publish articles.

[01:16:42]Regarding SE seed fundings the institution there are some incubation cells in the department they contact they they try to have collaboration with other companies. So if you submit a project uh if they approve the project you we they we'll get funding on for that that project. That's how we try to get seat funding.

[01:17:08]>> Okay. Thank you ma'am. Thank you so much.

[01:17:11]Thank you dear participants.

[01:17:21]Do anyone else need any clarifications?

[01:17:29]So today we are going to wind up our session.

[01:17:33]Now for that I invite Dr. Princelind Pia, assistant professor, department of English to deliver the vote of thanks.

[01:17:41]Please sir, >> thank you. Now this successful gathering is like a beautiful book. Each person here today became a meaningful page in it with a heart filled with gratitude. I consider it's a privilege to deliver the word of thanks for this wonderful occasion.

[01:18:03]At the very outset, we bow our heads in gratitude to Reverend Dr. C. Stephen, our respected secretary and correspondent, a man of wisdom, courage and vision. Thank you, father.

[01:18:20]Then our sincere thanks to our esteemed principal Dr. M. Amala Nadan whose constant support and continuous inspiration makes the institution to the next level.

[01:18:37]Thank you sir.

[01:18:40]Then today's program found its true brilliance through the insightful keynote sessions delivered by Dr. Maha Mary Michael and Dr. Gita Jo from Barama Institution of Management. Your words were not merely speeches but sparks of motivation and knowledge that will continue to enlighten us. Thank you.

[01:19:08]>> Thank you.

[01:19:10]It's time to thank all the faculty members, IQC coordinators, volunteers and behind the scenes. Silent efforts spoke loudly through the smooth conduct of this program. Thank you for turning responsibility into excellence.

[01:19:30]And to the audience, your attentive presence and enthusiasm added life and color to this event.

[01:19:40]As we conclude, let us remember gratitude is the fairest flower that blossoms from the soul. Thank you all for being part of this memorable journey. Have a wonderful day ahead.

[01:19:54]Thank you.

[01:20:01]Thank you so much sir. The feedback link for the day has been posted in the chat.

[01:20:07]With that we come to the end of today's session. Thank you all for your active participation. We look forward to meet you again tomorrow for another informative and engaging session. Have a pleasant evening. Thank you all. Thank you ma'am.

[01:20:24]>> Thank you all. Thank you ma'am.