When we talk about branding, it usually refers to a company and its market positioning. But what about personal branding?
As it turns out, the principle is the same. All these intentional efforts to position and portray yourself as an authority within your industry are not applied to your company, but rather to yourself.
The goal is to establish credibility and influence with as many colleagues as possible, eventually advancing your reputation and career.
Here are a couple of principles to help you build a personal brand that will propel your career.
Define your personal brand
The idea here is to try to understand what it is you have to offer to your business environment that sets you apart from other colleagues. Once you identify those traits, you make sure to emphasize them as much as possible.
Focus on your values, passions, qualities, and strengths. Try to answer the following questions:
- What are my key skills and competencies?
- What are my career goals?
- What makes me unique in my industry?
- What values do I want to communicate?
Answers to these questions should serve as a foundation for your personal brand. Try to be as sincere as possible. Skewing your true possibilities is fruitless at this point of the personal branding conversation.
Identify target audience
This personal brand you are creating exists only in relation to other people. It can be as true as possible or created out of thin air – without an adequate audience, it’s nothing.
And when we say audience, we mean potential employers, industry peers, or clients. In the same way you reassessed your needs, preferences, and challenges, now is the time to do it with theirs.
Research your target audience to gain insights into what they value most. There are ways to do it:
- Try reading industry publications,
- Participate in relevant business events,
- Conduct informational interviews.
The more you know about your audience, the better you can recreate yourself to meet their expectations.
Establish online presence
This used to be a pretty straightforward thing to do. Before “online” existed, all you had to do was contact colleagues or show up at various organized events. Things have changed. Now you need to be versatile.
Right off the bat, you need to own an optimized LinkedIn profile. As your professional window to the world, it has to be a well-crafted display of your personal brand.
A personal blog could also be a good idea. This could represent a hub for your online presence, linking to your social media profiles and providing a comprehensive view of your professional persona.
The content you create should be unique, adding to the value of your business environment. But this is not a must. Just the same, you can share and repost other people’s content. What’s crucial here is to stay engaged.
Naturally, you should consider joining and actively participating in other social networks such as Instagram, TikTok, or X. This can only prove helpful in establishing your online presence.
Seek feedback and adapt
To build a personal brand and consequently advance your career means to know what others value, and use that knowledge to advance your goals.
To be able to grow and redefine yourself, you need to constantly ask for feedback from trusted industry peers. We often confuse the way we perceive ourselves, with other people’s perceptions.
It’s important to try to stay flexible and open to change. Continuously updating and adapting your personal brand keeps your career afloat and job options open.
At this point, it’s a good idea to consider using personal CRM software. Regularly reaching out to your business associates requires a good contacts log. Which is exactly what any good CRM software offers.
You can record important details such as interests, past conversations, and significant dates (like birthdays or work anniversaries). Personalized interactions show that you value the relationship, fostering deeper connections.
Stay Authentic
Although it sounds corny, authenticity should be a cornerstone of a strong personal brand. It builds trust and fosters deeper connections with your audience.
Building a personal brand does mean sometimes painting a nicer picture of yourself. But, if we bend the truth too much, people will notice.
So, try to avoid the temptation to create a persona that isn’t reflective of who you are. It will build mistrust with your colleagues, and a bad rep is hard to fix.
People usually notice when somebody is acting, especially if you are bad at it. And the more you try to portray yourself in a way that it differs from your true self, the harder it will be to stay in your role.
Instead, focus on highlighting your true strengths, values, and aspirations. An authentic personal brand is more likely to resonate with others and open doors to meaningful career opportunities.
Conclusion
Building a personal brand is an intentional process that calls for self-awareness, perseverance, and commitment.
You can build a personal brand that advances you professionally by identifying your distinctive values and utilizing both online and offline assets.
To make sure your personal brand stays significant and relevant, always remember to be true to yourself, ask for input, and make adjustments to it if necessary.
Building and maintaining a good personal brand means always being one step closer to landing that great job everyone in your industry is after.
