Since 2018, I have been discussing personal branding, addressing audiences ranging from secondary school students to company executives. With all of them, I share 3 key things they should think about in order to determine what they want their personal brand to be.
But, before we get to that stage, I present a very simple definition that highlights why everyone has a personal brand. This is because many people think personal branding is only something you need to worry about if you want to be a thought leader, influencer or celebrity. But that’s not the case.
To me, the ultimate definition of a personal brand is “What people say about you when you’re not in the room”. Essentially, it’s your reputation.
The point I’m trying to make here is twofold.
Firstly, everyone has a personal brand because it’s ultimately what other people think about you.
The second point I like to make is that you don’t get to choose what your personal brand is. But you can try and influence it.
Crafting a personal brand
As mentioned before, your personal brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. So, unless you’re going to go around paying off everyone you know to say exactly what you want them to, they’ll say what they like.
That’s why I say you don’t get to choose your personal brand.
So, how do you influence it?
Simply, through what you say and what you do.
But to know what to say and what to do, you need to determine what you want your personal brand to be.
For this, we first recommend looking at three different things:
Your passions (what you do in your spare time)
Your knowledge (what you know more about than the average person)
Your ambitions (what you want to be known for)
The key to a strong personal brand is standing out from the crowd.
Scott Adams, an American author and cartoonist, says "You make yourself rare by combining two or more "pretty goods" until no one else has your mix”.
The likelihood is, that if you pick just one of those three areas to focus on, someone else will already be doing it. So, by combining a few things you make yourself different and more memorable.
For example, you might be passionate about the city of Hull, have a decent understanding of content marketing and want to build an agency known for helping SMEs come up with new ideas. That would give you a relatively unique angle to approach things from.
Once you have this nailed, there are two other key things to think about.
Personality traits
Communication methods
A lot of your personal brand will revolve around your soft skills so making sure you identify two or three characteristics you want to be known for will also be key. This part of your personal brand should be fully conveyed through actions. Nobody wants you coming up to them and saying, “By the way, I’m really funny”.
On the communication front, this links back to the three factors we looked at before. Think about how you like to communicate and what you’re strong at. Is it going to be videos on Instagram, written posts on LinkedIn or will you rely on face-to-face encounters with people? You decide.
For more insight into personal branding, check out our previous blog which reveals six simple tips to help you grow your personal brand.
Wrapping Up
This was very much a whistle-stop tour of personal branding but, hopefully, it has given you some food for thought.
Remember, everyone has a personal brand, you just can’t choose what it is. In order to influence it, you need to have a clear idea of what you want it to be and then get to work bringing it to life. And the more unique you are with it, the more chance there is of people latching onto it.
Until next time, thanks for reading.
Yorumlar