What is Personal Branding?
What is Personal Branding?
Personal branding is the creation and management of your business reputation, style, look, attitude and skill set. The idea is to develop a set of associations, in your follower's mind regarding your name, your face, your business much in the same way corporations like Pepsi, Microsoft or Apple do.
Every time you see Pepsi, Microsoft or Apple ads, you always see the same logos and pictures which identify each company along with a catchy slogan for their signature product. So if you if you want to brand yourself the right way, you will need to follow the same strategy.
This means you will need to include your name, your contact information, a short description about you and your photo in every single medium you use to advertise in.
How Does Personal Branding Take Place?
Personal branding is not a process you can put together in an hour or two in and be done with it. This process is a 24/7 effort which requires a lot of attention to detail in order to do it right. Fortunately, once you create the habit of branding yourself, the process becomes automatic.
Unfortunately, there is no “one-size fits” all tool to help you brand yourself. However, within this post you will find many valuable tips to help you to deal with one-on-one conversation with your prospects and clients.
When Should You Start Branding Yourself?
The best time to begin branding yourself is today. Whether you realize it or not, you already have the basics of a personal brand. If you are on Facebook, you have 1 of the 6 most used tools for branding yourself. Other tools you can use are Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Google+ and Instagram.
Why Do You Need a Personal Brand?
There are many reasons you should want to develop a personal brand. Building a positive reputation as someone who offers value can increase the rate of your visitors, prospects, leads and customers. When your reputation spreads from one visitor to another, causing your business to grow exponentially, you position yourself as a leader in your chosen field.
The Self-Branding Process
The process of developing your own brand is a bit different from the process of developing a company or corporation brand. You'll want to start out by identifying the following basic elements.
- Who is your target audience?
- How do you want your target audience to perceive you?
- What type of value will you be providing to your audience?
Once you have determined these elements, your next step will be to decide how will reach your audience. Will you use social media, a blog, a website, email? Knowing this will help you determine which skill set you'll need to learn and use on a daily basis.
Your Skill Set
No matter how great your branding is, at some point you will need to have a set of skills. In fact, a big part of building your brand depends on how well you acquire and develop the skills necessary to succeed.
A skill set is a group of related skills which add up to a marketable package when put together. For example, a website designer who focuses on creating capture pages will need to acquire and master a skill set that includes familiarity with the entire website design, knowledge of html, understanding the finer points of creating killer copy, commitment to constant learning, development of business skills, master the art of great listening among other skills.