Your personal brand refers to how you promote yourself. Your personal brand is how you want the world to see you, i.e., to perceive you through your unique combination of personality, experience and skills.
Personal branding is the process of creating your personal brand. It is the process of developing a mark that you create around your name as well as your career.
Through this mark, you communicate and express your values, personality, and skills.
According to Thinking Heads, a firm that positions leaders who have a particular area of expertise:
“We use our personal branding to differentiate ourselves from other individuals.”
In the world of business, the word ‘brand’ is the image and personality of a product, service, or company. A product’s features, such as slogans or logos, make it unique and different. When the brand applies to an individual person, we refer to it as their personal brand.
1. Build your own platform
Anybody who plans to have a personal brand needs a website to create their virtual platform.
If your name is John Smith or Mary Robinson, the website should be called, if possible, John Smith or Mary Robinson. Your should also open social media accounts that represent your personal brand.
Social media websites like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. are fine to start with, but you will eventually need to build something for yourself. That is where your own website comes in.
2. Find out what’s already out there.
Before you can start improving your personal brand, you need to know what’s already out there. The best way to do that is to Google yourself. You would be surprised how often recruiters Google job applicants before deciding whether to invite them for an interview.
When you Google yourself, focus on what needs to be taken down, what needs to be improved, and what is missing. Is there embarrassing information about you online?
3. Identify your strengths
Your strengths are things that you are naturally good at. We tend to be good at the things we find easier to do.
Knowing what your strengths are can help you choose the right careers. It also makes it more likely to bring out the best in you.
Ask other people what they think your strengths are.
Create a personal brand statement
A personal brand statement should not be more than one or two sentence long. It explains who you service, your value, and your unique value proposition. The statement must be memorable and relevant to your target audience.
Get free press coverage
Free press coverage can get you valuable exposure. There are several tools to make it easy to build connections with media personnel, moderators, and bloggers.
Building relationships with these people and understanding what the news media wants can give you the power to get free press.
Brand – an intangible asset
Your brand is an intangible reputational asset. If you develop it properly, it can become extremely valuable.
In the world of business, some company’s brands are worth more than all their other tangible assets. Intangible assets are assets that we cannot touch, they have no physical form, but they are valuable.