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The term “Branding” used to be reserved for businesses but with rapid digitization, increasing competition and gig economy, personal branding has become fundamental.

 

A personal brand is a unique combination of skills and experiences that makes you who you are. It is your presentation and your career story to the world expressed in the most fascinating and simple manner. It helps you to stand out from the crowd, attract potential employers and clients.

 

Why it’s more important than ever

 

Diane Mulachy, the author of The Gig Economy, says, “We’re seeing only one trend here, which is that the gig economy is big and getting bigger. Companies will do just about anything to avoid hiring full-time employees.”

 

In this cut-throat competition, creating your unique personal brand has become the top-most priority, along with up-skilling.  According to 2018 CareerBuilder Survey, 70% of employers use social media to screen candidates during the hiring process, and 43% of employers use social media to check on current employees.

 

Personal branding is not only important for people looking for new jobs, but also for entrepreneurs, corporate professionals to attract talented pool of employees and clients. If you aren’t effectively managing your online reputation, then you run the risk of losing out on business.

 

How to build your personal brand

 

Understand Yourself First

We, humans are complex beings, with a set of beliefs, hopes, ambitions, frustrations etc. The jobs or businesses that we take up may or may not reflect what we want to do in life.

  • We all have core values inside of us, shaped by self and society. When working to understand ourselves, we need to find what we truly stand for and what motivates us.
  • It is when there is a lack of alignment between the core values and work life, that people tend to become dissatisfied and unhappy.

 

In order to create a personal brand, one needs to realize his/her core strengths and weaknesses and work on both of them. They also need to identify the factors that are contributing to their success and the ones which are not. This can pose some challenges but once you have understood yourself and created your unique value proposition, you are all set to build your personal brand.

 

Define Your Audience

As every consumer brand needs to identify its target audience, so does your personal brand. To determine your niche, start with a broad category that interests you, such as sales, marketing, or finance. From there, narrow it down to a particular niche. It provides with you a well-defined service that you offer to a well-defined audience. It’s much easier to be an expert in a small niche than a massive one. An example could “Sales professional specialized in the corporate insurance space”

 

Optimize Your Social Media Profiles

In today’s digital era, the best platform is online space, i.e., social media to present yourself to the world. And these online spaces differ according to your target audience. For example, if you want to showcase your art form or something creative or personal then Instagram and Facebook are best social media handles for this but if you want to showcase yourself in the professional world, then LinkedIn is the place to go. Update your profiles and curate an interesting content co-relating with your personality and you are slowly building up your personal brand.

To expand your personal brand, you can also create your personal website. It would serve as a portfolio of everything you are into and will give your audience more clarity.  There are free website builders out there, but you may want to consider purchasing a domain and web hosting plan.

 

Develop Your Content Strategy

Create a valuable and genuinely helpful content to establish your expertise in the market. If the free advice worked, imagine what paying you would do?  Do a bit of research on what subjects within your niche are generating buzz. Google Keyword PlannerGoogle Trends, and Exploding Topics are great tools helping you uncover what’s trending. You can then jump on trends relevant to your niche to make sure you’re in the conversation. Sharing a variety of content across multiple platforms increases your visibility and helps you build your brand more quickly.

 

While building a personal brand is a lot of work, the payoff is enormous when done correctly. Personal brands allow you to build a network of professionals who see your worth and think of you first when new opportunities arise.

 

Whether you’re looking to generate business, get an investor, accelerate your career, or never job hunt again, a personal brand can get you there.