Branding Yourself For Success

Branding Yourself

Here’s a personal branding forecast sure to keep you on your toes in the coming years.

Whether you are a CEO, a seasoned corporate business leader or just starting out in your career; your target audience and people from the company you work for search for you on Google and on social media. The question is how are you showing up?

You must take control of branding yourself in your industry

The self-proclaimed “gurus” will need to keep up with the rate of change, they will need to not only be credible but be aware of the ways that their expertise is being replaced and, if they are lucky, augmented. Without this, they will be unfortunately left without a speciality or a career despite all the efforts they have put into personal branding, creating their niche and taking care of their reputation management.

“I have been saying for many years that we are using the word ‘guru’ only because ‘charlatan’ is too long to fit into a headline.”

The Famous American Management Consultant Peter F. Drucker

Online reputation is everything

So what does this mean for personal branding in the 21st century? With social media being such a part of our daily lives and visibility and privacy being non-existent, we will have to really take control of our online presence to shape our careers for the future. More and more people will become adept at these skills, but who are they?

We must as experts take into account the classical methods of branding, retain clear strategic direction and embrace our authenticity. Showing your weaknesses as well as your strengths enables people to understand that you are like them and not on a pedestal.

Personal branding delivers massive results for businesses

According to Entrepreneur.com, a personal brand for business delivers:

• 561% increase in reach when employees are sharing messaging
• Content is shared 24 times more frequently than before
• There is 8 X more engagement from employees VS brand

– Online branding has become more complex with technology, the internet and changing consumer trends. In order to be successful on social media, you will need a calculated profile.

Control your online presence

When your name is searched, your brand should have been included in the search results. Without an online presence or worse, a bad presence, people will likely have to make an incorrect first impression. Your aim is to fill in and control as many positive Google results as possible and manage your online reputation at all costs.

Branding yourself effectively means you become the media

Branding yourself effectively means you become the media. Personal branding is not a transaction, but an experience that can be continually experienced through and reinforced in your career. Personal branding is an ongoing process and goes beyond just hiring a public relations agency or tweeting on Twitter or posting on Facebook or LinkedIn. Over the coming years, more people will attempt to position themselves and fail through a lack of ability and knowledge.

Building a professional reputation takes consistency

Before you begin to tell your story, it is a good idea to create a brand blueprint. Your personal brand blueprint saves a lot of time when creating a CV, Resume or LinkedIn profile. It saves a lot of time deciding what to write about yourself on your website and social media profiles.

A personal brand blueprint takes all the guesswork out of writing a resume or building your website. More and more people will attempt to build personal brands and find it tough without remaining authentic.

A brand blueprint is like a paint palette, only you use it to create words that reflect the image you want to convey. Putting time and effort into a brand blueprint will save you time later. If this is more than your schedule allows, that’s alright, make a short statement about your personal brand in the meantime.

Create a clear picture of who you are and what you offer!

Creating a clear picture of who you are, what you offer and who your offering is aimed at is crucial to success with your career, and actually, you can become a source of leads for the marketing department for the business that you work for.

To Summarise: Personal branding allows you to take control of your career and your life. Personal branding can improve your chances of getting a job or advancing in your current position, as well as making you happier in the workplace. Personal branding is about visibility: it helps you be seen for who you are, what you stand for and how to articulate it effectively is key. The real winners are the ones who will be able to keep up with the rate of change in their careers, become their own media producers and engage authentically with their audiences and share massive value.

If you would like to dig deeper into this topic you can check out the infographic here.