Nowadays, for many career paths, it is crucial to develop a personal brand. This personal brand is how your bosses, potential clients and the rest of the world see you, so it is important to cultivate a personal brand that you are happy with.
Someone with a strong personal brand will have a huge advantage against those who do not, because they already a reputation that they can build on. For those wanting to develop a personal brand in order to further their career, we are going to go through some of the best tips for building this brand.
Discovery
Before starting to build your personal brand, you must make sure to know what you are trying to represent. Allow for a period of brainstorming and discovering yourself, and properly envisage what your personal brand will be like.
If your personal brand is clear to you, then it will be clear to everyone else but if is muddled then it will reflect very badly on you. If you do not know what your personal brand is going to be, then no one else does either.
Honesty
It is imperative that you build a personal brand that paints an honest picture of yourself. It is no good to have a brilliant personal brand that attracts a lot of the attention if you can not deliver on the promises that you are making.
On the other hand, do not undersell yourself. Your personal brand should be a truthful portrait of yourself that is attractive but does not promise things that you can not provide. Finding that balance will greatly benefit your career.
Online Presence
In the 21st century, a check of your online presence is not just common, it should be expected. Although this can be risky, it can also be a great strength if you prepare properly.
Go through your social medias and clean them up so that they are client and employer friendly. This depends on what kind of industry you are looking into, but for example if you would like to become a teacher, then it would be wise to take down pictures of you drinking at a party.
You may still want to use social media for fun though. If that is the case, then create a private account under a nickname or a different name that will not come up if someone does a background check on you, and only connect with people you know.
Self Marketing
There is no point in building a personal brand if you do not market yourself. Be active on social media, especially on platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn. Twitter can be a great place to impress people with interesting tweets, and to have an entertaining persona to remind people that you are a human being, big brands like the drinks company Coco-Cola, clothing brand Nike and betting company Findbettingsites are among many that use their Twitter marketing to improve their brand’s image. LinkedIn is more professional, but it can be a great tool to network that you should definitely take advantage of.
Maintain
Once your personal brand has been created and communicated, you need to remember to maintain and refine your image. As you grow and your career grows, you need to develop your personal brand, as a brand that applied to you at the beginning of your career might be outdated five years later.
Make sure you stay on top of your online presence and your brand. You can do this by setting alerts for Google so that you are notified when something is written about you, but there are various other techniques that you should use as well as this. Remember that your image will evolve as you do, but you need cultivate it.
