Your Guide to Building a Successful Personal Brand

Promoting a company is a very common concept. But have you ever heard about personal branding? No matter what organization you are working for, you have to sell yourself as a brand to the employers as well. Whether it is a promotion that you are aiming for or a job that you want to get, personal branding is essential. And if you ever had a chance to work under a Branding Design Agency, you already have an idea how important branding can be for making a product stand out in the market.

Here’s how you can build a successful personal brand:

Prioritize Your Values and Passions

Everyone has a set of values. If you are confused about the term, then values are the things that you consider are essential in the way you live or work. These values determine your priorities. They are at the core of you. Values play a crucial part when you are searching for jobs or are starting your own business. Because if an individual’s values match that of a candidate or the owner, the chances of success are high.

Some of the many examples of values include friends, community, family, ambition, and honesty. Passion, on the other hand, is how you relish spending your time. For me, it would be making full use of WOW Internet installation and working from home even when I can’t go to the office. My work is my passion which is not the case for everyone. 

Passions are different from values but at times the two overlap. You can have both personal and professional passions. The example of the former would be kayaking and golfing. While professional passions include technology and design. 

Define Your Key Traits

You will be the best person to decide what is it that makes you stand out. The elements that make you different are the same ones that are your unique traits as well. These traits shape your personality to bring out the best in you. The Big Five Personality traits include:

• Openness to experience
• Agreeableness
• Conscientiousness
• Neuroticism
• Extraversion

Each of the above-mentioned traits gets measured on a scale. The number that you fall on is your unique trait. You can take the personality test online and see what your personality trait is. However, remember that these results are not permanent. Once you get the results, you can always work on changing the traits that you do not like. 

Develop a Personal Image

It is essential that you have a personal and unique image. This can only happen once you know your personality traits and are sure about your values and passions. Some of the steps that you can take to create your personal image include:

• Updating your LinkedIn profile with professional headshots taken
• Creating an email signature unique to you
• Building credibility with content
• Dress the part 

All of these things will speak volumes about who you are as a person. It will also help to convey if you are what you promote yourself. Therefore, carry yourself the same way as people see you in pictures or judge you from your writing. 

Define Target Audience

Not everyone is going to like you. And it is impossible to please everyone, honestly. Therefore, you should be clear in your mind as to who it is that you want to please. In short, define your target audience. In case this sounds a bit weird to you, here are examples of who are your potential target audiences:

• The person who will pay you
• The person who influences the person who is going to pay you
• Your supporters

No one else other than the people mentioned above should matter to you. Because their view about you does not hold any importance. So why waste your time on people who do not matter in the first place. 

Build an Online Presence

Your personal brand is incomplete without you getting your voice out there. From Twitter to podcasts to blogs, let the people around you hear you. But for that to happen, you must secure your URLs first. Not only this but checking if a social name that you decided for yourself is available or not is also essential. If you are a job hunter, then LinkedIn is the best platform for you to start. However, you should not overlook other platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 

Start a Blog

The best way to build a business or to market yourself is through a blog. You can adopt any of the following famous strategies to gain followers:

• Write about influencers
• Use social media sharing button
• Join the right online communities
• Syndicate content
• Repurpose your content

Once you have decided upon your audience, you can start posting. Do not wait for anyone to tell you that you are capable of doing so. 

After you are done with all these steps, make sure that you are constantly connected to the world as well. Because all these efforts will make no difference if people cannot get back to you. That is also the reason I have my WOW customer service number on speed dial. Being an IT professional who travels frequently, I can’t afford to go dark on my team for too long!