How to Brand Yourself?

Brand yourself’ is a business and marketing term used for a process that creates a public identity for an individual, and establishes him or her as a brand in front of their target audiences. When you brand yourself, you advance in your career, optimize your reputation and reach where you wish to be.

Personal branding not only helps you convey your style, values, beliefs, thoughts, purpose, etc but also helps you meet the audiences who relate to you, have acceptance for you, and praise your persona. It is just like business branding but in this, instead of a company or business trying to establish itself as a brand, you will project yourself as a brand.

What is Branding Yourself?

Branding yourself is a way of creating a stellar public identity to optimize the presence in the target niche, customers, clients, etc. While it is similar to business branding, the subject here is you. Branding yourself will help you connect with the right people, and develop your career.

In today’s day and age, where anyone can learn about anyone with just a few clicks, personal branding helps you establish control over the first impression you create, be it online or offline.  It is the best way to enrich your personality by showing your skills, experience, and expertise in any field. Not only do you build an authentic front, but you also beat a lot of competition.

Celebrities who enjoy a million followers on social media platforms, and a good reputation in Google search results use the benefits o self-branding services to optimize their online presence.

11 Personal Branding Tips

 

For accomplishing your self-branding goals, you need to be authentic, plus you should be aware of different aspects of personal branding which are- values, passion, goals, and skills. Here are some ways to create an effective personal brand that helps you put your best foot forward in your career:

1. Find out what your brand is

This is going to be the answer to Who are you? Take some time to understand what makes up your identity. This includes your abilities, ambitions, values, strengths, weaknesses, etc. Remember that your personality is an essential juice in the mix, including enough information to give a clear image of your vibe. You can describe yourself using adjectives like resourceful, hard-working, collaborative, visionary, etc.

2. Establish your unique value proposition

It is essential to focus on what makes you, you. There is tough competition for every position, even if you’re branding is rock-solid. There must be an emphasis placed on what makes you different from other competitors. It is a vital element of your branding, just like in business branding. What do you bring to the table? If you left your job, what will your employer miss about you? You might be confused about what the answer is, but take time to figure it out. Your unique quality can make or break your brand.

3. Create your presence everywhere

Now, it is time to put all this information out there for everyone to see. Make sure to not restrict your reach to just one social media platform or website. Be present on as many platforms as possible, even the ones that are new to you. To make sure your information is the first viewed content in a search, you can even open your website or blog. You can even buy a domain of your name for a foolproof first impression.

4. Engage and network with others

It is not enough to be on a platform, and it’s time to make your presence known. One way to do that is by engaging and communicating with others. This is useful to gain followers and learn information about the field that would otherwise be out of your reach. In turn, you can share content or information to make people feel benefited by networking with you. Leave comments, share content to and fro, etc., to build trust, visibility, and value in your brand. Professional people can engage on digital platforms like LinkedIn to do effective self-branding.

5. Observe and incorporate feedback

No one can get it right on the first try, so always be open to improvement. One way to do this is by having some trusted people by your side. Colleagues, friends, family, or even professionals that you have networked with. Observe their reactions to your content or your brand. Ask them to frankly tell you what your brand lacks or what your strengths are. More importantly, ask them what your branding is all about. Keep improving your brand until you get the right answers. Make your branding clear and precise so that no one is confused about what you’re communicating.

6. Generate brand awareness through networking

You should connect with other professionals and businesses in your niche and optimize your presence. When you do networking, you become known in your industry. With the help of networking with people in your target niche, you will be able to do personal branding.

7. Remember the 3 Cs of branding

To brand yourself, paying attention to clarity, character, and consistency is very important. It will let you express your brand by sharing true business values and identity. You should where you want to present and accordingly you should be visible to your target market.

8. Create a positive impact

Positivity is one of the most important characteristics that help anyone to establish an instant and long-lasting connection. After developing your personal brand over a period of time, you must create a positive and constructive impact in the hearts and minds of your audiences.

9. Live your brand

When you live your brand, you establish your personal branding with absolute honesty. You should never separate your brand from your personality as duality would never let you succeed as a brand. It will empower you to have a sustainable presence in the world around you.

10. Follow a successful example

For self-branding, it would be beneficial if you start optimizing your presence like the celebrities and influential people do. You should study trends and popular individuals on different social media platforms and online platforms, and then try to take inspiration from their way of personal branding.

11. Let other people tell your story

One of the most effective and professional ways of self-branding is word-of-mouth marketing. A successful entrepreneur, CEO, founder, etc use generally enjoy great word-of-mouth marketing, as people tell their stories and do their branding in the most natural way possible. Even PR agencies do reputation management of celebrities by using different platforms where different people tell the stories of that celebrity and optimize their presence.

Wrap Up!

To brand yourself, it is important that you also leave a legacy. After establishing yourself as a brand, you need to maintain the reputation and community behind that personality.

In the words of Blake Jamieson, artist at Blake Jamieson LLC-

Building a personal brand is much bigger than building a business. The only exit strategy is legacy.

Now, it is your turn to describe what do you understand from self-branding?

What strategies would you prefer to use to brand yourself? Share with us in the comment section below.