HOW TO BUILD YOUR PERSONAL BRAND
Personal branding is the practice of marketing and establishing what you stand for. It is an ongoing process of developing and maintaining a reputation and impression of yourself. Your personal brand is the unique combination of skills and experiences that make you you.“If you don’t brand yourself, someone else will and it probably won’t be the brand you want,” - Glory Borgeson. Here are some tips on how you can develop your personal brand.
- Examine your core purpose
Asses yourself, think about your accomplishments, what you are passionate about and what your goals are. Identify your strengths and weaknesses; what you are good at, what motivates you, what makes you not to be productive enough etc. Then from the list of strengths, choose what you want to focus and excel in. You also need to determine who you’re trying to reach, what you want to achieve and why. This will help you to have a clear sense of your purpose.
- Build relationships
Both in business and personal life, strong interpersonal relationships are really helpful. If you don’t put in the effort to promote yourself, nobody can find you. “Wherever you live and whoever you know, it’s not too late to build your network and find a mentor,” -Kathryn LeBlanc. Formal and informal networking events have led to internship opportunities, jobs, and promotions. This will help build your personal brand as it is likely to be noticed, the more you provide value to your interactions.
- Grow your professional online image
A strong visible online identity is often a positive thing for a job-seeker. For example, LinkedIn offers a chance to highlight your academic and professional accomplishments. Link anything impressive about you to your online profiles. Your potential employers might Google you so make sure your online identity is consistent with your brand and your story should match across all platforms.
- Be authentic to yourself
Reflect on who you are and identify skills that make you unique. Be confident and don’t let inexperience make you feel insecure. Develop a set of traits for yourself which are positive and strong. Be very clear in your mind about the combination of things that you can offer and how they can make something compelling and unique- this will help solidify your personal brand. Don’t exaggerate anything in terms of skills or levels of responsibility.
- Prepare an introduction pitch
Learn how to articulate your experience and goals. Practice a 30- second pitch. Practice it until you are comfortable saying it. Tell an authentic story that would help sell yourself. A story that communicates your values and skills clearly and distinctively, but still manage to keep it short.
- Prepare all the right materials
The right materials for your brand are, a professionally done resume and cover letter, an email address (preferably one that includes your name) and business cards. With the business cards you can keep it simple, just your name, all your contact information and your degree. This might help as you don’t know who you might meet in that long line at the supermarket or even in that football match.
- Keep your brand up to date
Your brand is a work in progress and you’ll need to regularly re-assess it. Build your professional development plan around the things that you value as a person and as a professional.
Finally, “Building a profitable personal brand online is not a sprint and something that happens overnight. Don't aim for perfection early on. Instead, allow your brand to evolve naturally over time and focus on providing massive value and over-deliver to your target audience. Then you will get more clear over your message and brand as well. Always remember that!” – Navid Moazzez