What is a Personal Brand?
It’s not just businesses that can have brands. As more and more people work for themselves in either home-based, training or multi-level marketing companies – personal branding has increased in popularity. But what is it? Personal branding is the process of developing a “mark” that is created around your name or your career. This mark is a way of demonstrating who you are, providing you with a way of expressing and communicating your skills, personality, and values – in essence, what makes you, you! A great example of these are sports people who trademark their brands – think of David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo etc.
Your personal brand should reflect you, be unique and stand out in the marketplace. This uniqueness is a magnet that attracts people to our product, our services, or even just what we are saying. Your personal brand should be about who you are and what you have to offer.
Why Personal Brands Are for Everyone
Traditionally, personal brands were restricted to public speakers, trainers and entrepreneurs, but that’s no longer the case. A great personal brand can also make you stand out if you’re looking for a new job or looking to present / promote a new opportunity.
The danger is if you don’t develop your own personal brand those around you will do it for you. By taking control of your personal brand you can control your career development and how you are perceived within your marketplace.
Here’s some tips that you can utilise in creating your own personal brand:
Create Your Platform
If you are going to have a personal brand, you will need to create your virtual platform. A great way to start will be to focus your social media accounts that represent you and your brand. Using Facebook, Twitter and / or Instagram will help you to share your message and define who you are and what you are offering. This can include before and after shots of people who’ve achieved great results using your products, what’s special about the services you deliver, your personal journey, lifestyle and related posts and special offers. You can use these platforms to build up and share your personal voice.
Identify Your Uniqueness and Your Strengths
Think about the characteristics and strengths you’ve built in your career. If you are stuck thinking about that “one thing” that everyone says you rock at. If you’re still stuck, ask others. If you don’t feel comfortable undertaking this for yourself, ask a friend or partner that you trust. They will give an honest assessment of your strengths and where you shine. To promote your business, you will need to understand where you have something to offer. Be honest with yourself – this is not a vanity project but a way of seeing yourself as others do.
Own Your Space
Once you’ve identified your uniqueness and strengths, it’s time to work on them. How can you make the best of yourself? Instead of being a generalist, focus on one sector and learn all that you can to own that space and become the expert in that area. Join appropriate social media groups, listen to podcasts and webinars, attend relevant events and keep learning about your area of expertise. Learning doesn’t need to stop when you leave school, you can never stop learning. Read, absorb, and communicate what you know to others.
Share Your Knowledge
No one should hide their light under a bushel! It’s not enough to learn it; you have a unique set of knowledge and it’s your responsibility to teach it and share your learnings by helping others. There are many channels you can use – consider videos and Facebook lives, social media, and writing both online and offline. Present yourself as the expert in your field – prove you know your stuff and gain exposure from doing so.
Be Yourself
Everyone has their own unique gifts and attributes and their own way of doing things. Find your own style. You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing and just follow the crowd. Use your style and uniqueness to communicate to and attract your future customers. The key is to be consistent. If you’re promoting good health on your social channels, people don’t need to know the times you are ill or hungover! You are the best representative of your brand and you need to reflect that in all your communications with your key audiences.
Identify Your Values and Set Your Priorities
It’s important to have a clear picture of what you are trying to achieve. Ensure you have a written description of what you are looking to achieve and your personal and professional goals, both short and long-term. This will help you be focused in your activities and identify the most important things to spend your time on. Use your values and priorities to direct you both in action and your decision-making process. This will ensure you remain on track.
Craft Your Personal Brand Persona
If you have a clear sense of self, you can use this to help create and build your personal brand identity. You can create this by:
• Being clear on your emotional appeal. What are your unique personality characteristics? What defines you – do you have a crazy sense of humour, are you a gym bunny or are you extremely organised. Sit down and make a list, why do you think people are attracted to the brand of you?
• Describe yourself (or ask your friend or partner to do it for you). When it comes to your brand who are you and why do people enjoy working with you? What will make people buy from you?
• Know your specialty. Be clear on what you do, what you offer and what your audience want you to do for them?
To summarise:
Personal brands are for everyone and there are simple steps to achieve this. You need to create your platform, identify your own uniqueness and personal strengths, own your space, keep learning and sharing your knowledge, set your priorities and most importantly be yourself! We look forward to seeing what you can achieve – you’ve got this!
