Let’s talk personal branding. To me, it is creating and promoting your authentic self, what you believe in and what you stand for. Your personal brand is the unique combination of skills and experiences that make you, you. In terms of the Oomple platform, personal branding comes into effect when you use the app to differentiate you from other professionals in your field.
How do you define your personal branding? Let’s take a look…
Do your research.
Good research will uncover the common themes, characteristics, words, and phrases which make up your current personal brand. This may include your business interests, hobbies, and interests, through networking events, websites, social media, blog posts and so on as well as any speaking activities and images which relate to you.
What do others think of you? Do you have colleagues or friends, who would be willing to uncover their real perceptions of you? Because the way you think you are perceived, is not necessarily how you are perceived.
This research is essential to define your current personal brand before developing your future brand.
Developing your personal brand.
It’s important to take a look at the research and beliefs that you stand by and passionate for. What are the key messages you want to get across, which will help shape your personal brand? Who are your audiences and how do you reach them?
The channels you need to reach your audiences may include developing your personal brand through social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter, networking events, community involvement or simply staying connected within your close-knit network.
Photos and imagery will be very important. Do you need new photos to help support and shape your brand and messages? Would it be effective to develop some short, punchy video clips to really get your messages across to the right audiences?
Stay consistent with your personal brand.
To manage your personal brand, you will need to monitor its effectiveness and continue to create fresh content, which re-enforces your messages and helps differentiate you from others.
Motivation to end this note…
“The world will never see another human being like you. There is no one on the face of the planet that has what you have. Your uniqueness is your gift. Never underestimate your personal brand and how it ripples outwards to affect everything and everyone around you – when you are being your full, authentic, awesome self.”