Building Your Personal Branding!
Personal branding is something that may not seem relevant to pay more attention to, yet it is actually quite the opposite! Whether you’re an entrepreneur thriving over your business, a freelancer seeking new jobs, a fresh graduate puzzled between pursuing higher education or starting their career, or a college student wanting to earn money to add to their allowances, how you present yourself to society will play a key role in shaping your future. With the rise of social media and digital platforms, building and managing personal branding can help you reach goals that may seem out of reach before, but is possible with it.
Now you may be wondering, “What exactly is personal branding?”
Personal branding is how you present yourself to others and, in turn, how they view you as an individual. It’s the practice of defining and promoting who you are in both your personal and professional life. Just as businesses have brands to represent their products and services, individuals can also develop their own brands as well! How to do it? By showcasing their uniqueness, which can be from their strengths, skills, values, or expertise.
Benefits of Building a Personal Branding
Building a strong personal brand will make you gain a lot of benefits, such as:
- Increases Recognition And Build Trust
When you consistently present your skills, experiences, and values, people will begin to recognize you as an expert, thus making you look more capable and reliable in their eyes. This recognition will earn you something from them, which is trust, and this can lead to stronger professional relationships, where colleagues or clients are more likely to seek your advice and collaboration, which helps you stand out more from your competitors! - Attracts The Attention of Others
By highlighting your strengths and what you’ve achieved throughout your life, it will attract the attention of potential employers, clients, or collaborators seeking a suitable person, just like you! A well-defined personal brand will make you stand out from others, making it easier for you to be noticed and approached for job opportunities, consulting gigs, or speaking engagements. - Networking
A clear personal brand makes it easier for others to connect with you on a deeper level since people who share similar interests or goals will notice that you’re someone worth knowing, and this will lead to meaningful partnerships or mentorship opportunities. - Differentiates You Between Others
Knowing how intense the job competition is, you will need something that can differentiate you from others, to make you look more special and worthy of notice. This is where your personal brand will come into play, as it will act as your unique identifier. It tells others what sets you apart from the competition, whether it’s a specific skill, experience, or approach, and helps you carve out your niche.
How To Build Your Personal Branding
Based on the benefits we’ve listed above, you will realize that “Oh, there’s a lot of benefits that we can gain from building our personal branding!” But, at the same time, it may raise a new question.
“How can one build their personal branding?”
With how we phrased it, yes, personal branding is not something that can always be naturally presented. Instead, we have to build personal branding in order to present it to others. Fear not, because we will give you guides on how to build your own personal branding with just these four steps!
- Getting To Know Yourself
The first step is to get to know yourself. What are your strengths? What is your specialty? What do you excel at? Discovering this may lead to a deeper understanding of yourself and knowing which strengths or skills are valuable and unique that can differentiate you from others! - Highlight Your Uniqueness
After understanding your own values, start thinking, “How can I make others notice my strengths and skills?”. The answer is to show them what you’ve achieved with your skills! Make them realize that your skill is useful by showing them examples of where it was used and how impactful it was. It can be how your extraordinary public speaking skill managed to turn a dull seminar into an engaging event, or it can be how you manage to build a project from scratch, or even more! By sharing real-life examples, you not only tell people about your abilities but also prove their impact, making your personal brand memorable and credible. - Advertise It!
Once you’ve figured out your uniqueness and how to implement it, we will go forward to the next step, which is to advertise it. For example, while interacting with someone, always maintain a good and positive vibe. Consider this: if someone asks, “How are you?” and you respond with a low and slumped tone, how do you think that will affect their perception of you? They might pick up on that negative energy.Now, imagine responding with enthusiasm instead: “I’m feeling fresh and ready to start my day!” Such a positive response not only brightens your own mood but also spreads good energy to those around you. By radiating positivity, you create an environment that encourages uplifting interactions and builds stronger connections. - Engage With People
With all of the previous steps done, it has come to the last step: engage with people. Advertising personal branding all by yourself can be quite challenging, because who has all the time in their life to do it 24/7?! Whether you notice or not, people do talk a lot about others, and you can use this to your advantage!Just like what Jeff Bezos, founder and Executive Chairman of Amazon, said: “Your Personal Brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room”. Your reputation is shaped by how people experience interacting with you, both directly and indirectly. What colleagues, friends, or acquaintances say about you when you’re not around can really affect how others see you, whether in a personal or a more professional context.
Conclusion
Personal branding is an important thing to focus on to ensure that you’ll have a good and positive image in society. The benefits in building a personal branding are a lot and advantageous, whether in a personal or a more professional context. With only four steps provided, we can build a great personal branding, making us seem special and more noticeable to people!
Reference:
Avery, J., & Greenwald, R. (2023, July 6). A new approach to building your personal brand. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2023/05/a-new-approach-to-building-your-personal-brand
O’Neill, K. (2024, January 18). Creating a Purpose-Driven personal brand. Berkeley Exec Ed. https://executive.berkeley.edu/thought-leadership/blog/creating-purpose-driven-personal-brand#:~:text=Jill%20Hauwiller%2C%20owner%20and%20principal,Energy%2C%20Legacy%2C%20and%20Ownership.
Oppelt, J. (2024, June 22). Personal Branding: Why it Matters. The Branding Journal. https://www.thebrandingjournal.com/2022/08/personal-branding/
Joubert, S. (2024, July 22). Boosting Your Career with Personal Branding: 10 Tips. Graduate Blog. https://graduate.northeastern.edu/resources/tips-for-building-your-personal-brand/