Your Personal Brand is Important- Here’s How to Build It

Who are you? It’s not easy to answer, but having a personal brand helps. Creating a personal brand can seem daunting, especially when you’re not sure what you’re trying to emphasise. However, defining and selling your professional self helps you stand out and boosts your career progression. To help you start marketing yourself, I’ve put together this introduction to building your personal brand.

What is a personal brand?

Just as companies have brands that extend beyond their products – people don’t just think of electric cars when they think of Tesla – so do you. Your brand combines your talents, experience, goals, and the principles you stand for. A great personal brand will be unique, providing genuine insight into the individual and communicating their position and aims. Having a personal brand is an enormous asset in the age of social media and helps you accelerate your personal and professional growth.

Why is building a personal brand so important?

A personal brand is a powerful tool that can deliver new opportunities and connections for you. A brand is especially crucial for people on the job hunt and even more so for freelancers constantly seeking to grow their professional network. If you play your cards right, marketing yourself as a more able and experienced individual can also net you higher earnings. Most employers will check the social media presence of new candidates, and some even monitor their employee’s presence. A personal brand will introduce you to more people and ensure you make a positive impression on new and old contacts.

Rule 1: Figure yourself out

The critical first step of building your brand is to figure out who you are. Don’t worry you don’t need to do this all at once. You can go back and make changes later if you need. Start by asking yourself about your motivation. What drives you forward? What sorts of work do you love doing? Establishing this first makes it much easier to filter through different career possibilities. You should also consider which industries and markets you find intriguing and what sort of workplace you’ll thrive in. Add in your skills and long-term career goals and you’re shaping up nicely.

During the long process of designing your personal brand, try to be as specific as possible. Carve yourself out a niche! Nobody can be everything to everyone all at once. You’ll find it much easier to shape the brand and be understood by the community if you focus your message on a specific target demographic. Focus is essential for clarity, which will help your brand stick out.

Rule 2: Open up

Once you’ve chosen a target niche, you can start selling your brand.

The first ingredients of success are being genuine and open. Believe me, people will know if you’re exaggerating your skills or copying someone else. Being honest about yourself makes managing your brand easy. If you have top-notch skills, people will recognise that value. Get out there and tell them about yourself!

Openness is crucial when trying to tell a story about yourself. Don’t be afraid to write blogs or record videos showing your aspirations and daily routine. Communicating online requires more than just a bullet-point list of your experiences. Making your story entertaining helps draw in new connections.

Rule 3: Optimise your media

Your online presence is central to your personal brand, so you must make sure it stands out. Having a personal website is a great asset. Creating one might seem daunting, but there is a wide range of free website builders available over the internet which handle the technical side. Your website should be a one-stop shop for everything you, including your background, testimonials and goals. See it as the modern-day business card.

You should also use social media to establish your personal brand. LinkedIn is an indispensable website for growing your professional network. Ensure your profile is complete and add skills catered to the image you wish to present. With your profile created, try to make regular posts that cater to your niche and engage with other influencers in the community.

Alongside LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok are crucial platforms for raising your visibility and showing others your brand (depending on industry).

Rule 4: Relax!

Even after taking these steps, you probably won’t instantly receive a flood of job offers and devoted followers. Don’t worry about that. Building a brand takes time, and you’ll learn about refining your message as you start making content and see how others receive it. Don’t be afraid about getting it wrong and try and take on board any feedback you might receive.

I’ve found it helpful to build my personal brand alongside other people in my industry: executive assistant online courses Australia offers are great ways to collaborate with like minds and push yourself forward. Particularly if you’re new to personal branding, taking a course can be a fantastic way to get started.