What’s up with Personal Branding, and why you should consider it
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Most of our readers own their own business, or at least run the marketing department. And for the most part, they know that the concept of branding has a much farther reach than just their company. But maybe you’re not the CEO of your own business… yet… do you really need to be thinking about issues like branding?
In recent years, the concept of personal branding has been getting more and more attention. The basic premise of this is that over the course of your career, you would benefit from creating “Brand You” as a way to differentiate yourself from other jobseekers, business developers, vendors, and people in general.
Thomas Harrison sums it up nicely: “Your personal brand — your reputation — is a capital asset, and should be treated that way. If you invest in equipment, you have to take care of it, maintain it. Your brand is like your personal equipment, your hardware. You need to upgrade it every so often based not only on what you need it to do now but also on what you’re going to need it to do in the next three to five years…Your personal brand is a salesman on your behalf — often when you don’t even realize it.” [from Instinct: Tapping your entrepreneurial DNA to achive your business goals]
The modern workforce is rapidly becoming less a stiff hierarchical structure, and more a complex and ever-changing network of free agents. On average, people currently between 18-40 will change careers at least three times in their lives, and change jobs approximately every six years. And that doesn’t take into account the chances for advancement within one’s current position or working team. Companies utilize the benefits of branding to further their reputations and success as a matter of rule… it’s the law of the corporate jungle. Brand or be forgotten. What many people don’t consider is that the same rules can be applied to their individual endeavours, with comparable results.
Defining a brand for yourself is not much different than the process companies go through in branding their products and businesses. Follow a few key steps and you’ve got it…
What makes you different?
Start by identifying the qualities or characteristics that make you distinctive from your competitors, or your colleagues. What have you done lately to make yourself stand out? What would your colleagues or your customers say is your greatest and clearest strength? Your most noteworthy (as in, worthy of note) personal trait? Forget your job title and description… instead focus on what you do that adds remarkable, measurable, distinguished, distinctive value. Focus on what you’re most proud of.
Market yourself
Don’t sell the drink, sell the refreshment. It’s a principle that all successful brands are familiar with… no matter how fantastic your brand is, you still need to market the heck out of it in order to get ahead. Now, you’re not going to take out a bus ad with your smiling mug on the side (though you could… who am I to stop you). How can you market YOU? The same way the companies do… but different. Embark on a visibility campaign that takes advantage of your personal strengths.
- Sign up for extra projects in order to network with new people
- Take on freelance projects to expand your portfolio and word-of-mouth marketing potential
- Teach a class at a community college, adult education program or your own company to establish yourself as an expert
- Contribute a column or opinion piece to a local newspaper to improve your exposure
- Make a presentation at a workshop or get yourself on a panel discussion at a conference
The most important thing to remember about your personal visibility campaign is that it all makes a difference.
Looking ahead
Careers no longer follow predictable linear pathways… you could go in any direction at any time. And personally, I think that’s fantastic. You’re only limited by your capabilities and your motivation… not some stodgy old attitude of A must proceed B. So you should always be thinking about where you want to be, and how you can get there.
A final tip… when marketing yourself, make sure you’re marketing YOU and not necessarily the company you happen to work for (unless you ARE your company, in which case you need to market BOTH equally). When you’re giving a presentation, freelancing or teaching a class, make sure the business cards you hand out are for “brand you”. Have some designed especially for your personal branding efforts, with YOU as the primary brand… the last thing you want to do is hand out one of your standard issue employee cards, where the focus is on your employer, and your name appears in template spot X… and is all too easily forgotten.
Whats up with Personal Branding and why you should consider it - To learn more about this author, visit Chanie Pritchard's Website.
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