It can be difficult to make yourself stand out in a world where everyone is on social media, everyone is competing for jobs, and everyone is trying to figure out where they fit into the world. You might find yourself being pulled in different directions and offered a lot of conflicting advice about how to present yourself professionally. This can be incredibly overwhelming, but it is important today to have a personal brand that you can use to promote yourself as a professional so you can reach your career goals. So what is a “personal brand”? Basically, it is what you are known for i.e. your reputation. You are probably already known for certain things among your friends, and relatives. But you may or may not already have a professional reputation. The key is to create your “personal brand” before one is created for you.
If you aren’t sure where to start when it comes to creating a personal brand, here are a few simple steps to get you started.
1. What Are You Trying to Say?
The first thing you need to figure out when developing a personal brand is what are you trying to say? Think about your passions as an individual, and how has this shaped your life. What has led you to pursue this particular career path? It might be worth taking the time to sit down and create a mind-map or list of things that you think represent you and have inspired you throughout your lifetime, as these can all be used as a base for your brand.
2. Research
Once you have an idea of what you’re trying to say with your brand, the next step is to figure out how to make yourself stand out from the crowd. There will be a lot of people out there who have the same goals as you, the same passions, and similar experiences. These will be your competitors in the field; therefore, you need to look into some profiles of other professionals and see what works and what doesn’t. How can you make yourself be the candidate that catches people’s eyes?
3. Create a Professional Website
Using social media to promote yourself is great, but creating a professional website can help to take your brand one step further. Consider it to be an online portfolio, where you can share samples of your talents and previous work. On your website, include a blog that you regularly update with relevant content that gives further insight into who you are, as well as your knowledge of the industry you work in. Some media personalities sell branded merchandise on their website to make additional revenue and push their brand at the same time. Anthem Branding specializes in this type of merchandise. If you’re not in a position to sell the branded merchandise you might still get some for yourself to help enhance your personal brand. After all, if you have personal branded merchandise you must be important, right? Just be sure that the product projects the image you are trying to create.
4. Engage
Finally, if you want to make your brand successful, you need to engage with others. This doesn’t just mean retweeting or commenting on people’s posts on social media, but attending networking events and trying to get involved in other industry conventions to showcase your talents. The more you engage with other professionals and your followers, the more your brand will grow.
If you want to try and develop a personal brand to get ahead in your career, consider these steps and see if they can help you get started.
