Personal branding: Here’s how you can establish your personal brand
When we speak of talk shows, perhaps the first thing that comes to everyone’s mind is Ellen Degeneres or Oprah. These two people have been renowned talk show hosts worldwide for over decades.
Throughout the years, these famous personalities have strongly worked on their personal branding to achieve big names. Likewise, in today’s online world, personal branding works wonders for influencers, artists, and all kinds of personalities or professionals.
But how exactly can you work on your branding? Why is it important to succeed in your particular field or industry? Here’s all you need to know about personal branding.
What is personal branding?
Have you ever tried Googling yourself? Better yet, have you ever wondered what kind of impression you leave to people, be it online or offline?
Personal branding refers to how you promote your career or yourself generally as your brand. It is a continuous marketing process, establishing your name, leaving an impression, and maintaining your brand.
Your personal brand can be a mix of the following:
- How you are in real life
- How you are represented in the media (for media personalities)
- All available information about you online
Working on your personal branding gives you the opportunity to tell your own story, especially on social media. It lets people know how you are uniquely different from others. More importantly, you can use your personal brand to help you stand out from other individuals like you.
Remember that your personal brand is your image. You need to have the right set of skills, experience, and the kind of personality you want your target audience to see.
Why is personal branding crucial to your success?
Personal branding is essential in building and strengthening your professional identity. It allows you to showcase your strengths, expertise, and other capabilities especially to potential employers, customers, or clients.
With personal branding, you can easily earn people’s trust, and at the same time, they may get to know you better.
When you have a strong personal brand online, you gain more followers. This also means that more people will be encouraged to share your content. The more people interested in your content, the more likely they are to engage with you and your brand.
Further, it helps you create a community of individuals who share the same interests, passion, and principles as your brand.
5 basic steps of personal branding
If you want to be influential in your field, you have to start by working on your personal branding.
Follow these five steps to help you build a strong personal brand:
Identify your purpose
Ask yourself, why do you want to establish your personal brand? What goals and objectives do you want to achieve in your own personal branding?
Not all individuals will have the same purpose in developing their personal brand. Whether you are aiming to land your dream job or get other brands to work with your company, you need to have a clear vision.
Research
Once you have laid out your goals and objectives, the next step is to conduct your own research.
It is best to make a list of successful people who have gone through the same path you are aiming for. They can either be your competitors or people you look up to, but you need to set them as your example.
Get to know their journey and determine what you can learn from that journey, including the things you can do to avoid mistakes along the way.
List your brand attributes
Of course, you also need to identify what personal attributes you want to include in your brand. Before you make your list, consider your profession, your skills, and your expertise.
Apart from what we have mentioned, you should also have a clear understanding of your type of niche. If you’re an individual who enjoys and is good at making all sorts of arts and crafts, then your niche could be lifestyle, design, or simple arts and crafts.
Know where you’re currently at
Assess where you are currently at before you start working on your personal branding. This will also help you know how far you still are from being able to achieve your goals.
For example, you plan to grow your online presence by adding more followers to your social media and having other brands notice you. Knowing your current state will help you think of better ways you can reach your personal branding goals.
This may also give you ideas about the changes you can apply to your personal branding strategies to make them more effective. These changes can include the type of content you post on social media, how you present your brand to people, or the way you communicate with them.
Time to take action
Lastly, once you have all the information you need, it is time for you to plan out how you can develop and maintain a solid personal brand.
Always remember that, in today’s modern era, everything and everyone can be found online. Although your offline presence is also important, you need to have a greater focus on your online presence.
Ultimately, if you are not fully confident in independently working on your personal brand, know that you always have the option to outsource! Check out our BPO Directory page to help you find the best outsourcing firm that fits all your requirements.