Just like a company’s values define what the company stands for, its character, and brand, your personal values define who you are. Just like the market giants, who have grown through the years with their efficient marketing and branding strategies, we all have ways of branding ourselves, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
Branding is an essential component of the existence of many brands and it only grows proportionally with time. Imagine taking a girl out for a date, would you like to take her in a low-end car or a Tesla? For those of you who answered Tesla or even considered it once, you have come to the right article. This article is going to be your ultimate guide to personal branding, how to show the world your skills, personality, and experience, and how to let the world know of your existence.
With the evolution of the world’s market and a huge bump in the value of branding over the years, it is really important to stand out from the crowd when it comes to applying for a job or maybe starting your own firm. Here are five rules that are sure to help you brand yourself in a systematic way.
Have a brand vision:
Before going on to any actionable tasks, you need to figure out what your brand vision is. Brand vision means your goals in the long run, how people are going to see you, and what kind of a character you would make in the eyes of the public. It also means what kind of an image you would want to portray. You don’t have to be everything to everyone, but rather stick to a key message you want the world to know.
Keeping your content focused makes it easier for you to build a brand up around it and for others to define you as well. After all, the best personal brands are very specific.
ALIGN YOUR BRAND VISION WITH PERSONAL VALUES:
Probably one of the most important and easiest aspects of building your personal brand, be genuine at all times. Never try to portray yourself as someone you really aren’t, people tend to catch on to acts like that very quickly. We develop values as we grow in life, our core values are right in our hearts and many people don’t realize it, but our values are what define us and influence many of our life decisions as well.
Many people don’t have an idea of what their core values are, and that becomes a very big hurdle in their personal branding. Try determining some values which you think are very important to you, and build your brand around them. Moreover, if you are exceptionally skilled in your field, your reputation will build your brand around it.
DETERMINE YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE:
Before determining your target audience you need to make sure about your niche, what you offer to the people. Note that it can’t be some skill that people just don’t care about, even if you are really good at giving people movie suggestions, there is no one who would give you money for this knowledge. Sometimes your niche might feel that it is a bit too general, and the competition might seem too overwhelming, that is when you need to understand the need of narrowing your focus, to a specific audience that is not too small to be unable to warrant your skills either.
Moreover, be consistent. If you constantly create content and work your brand around it, it will be easier for the audience to recognize you and help you brand your voice around the content that you post.
LET YOUR BRAND TELL ITS STORY:
If your brand doesn’t tell its (or your) story, then you have already potentially lost half of your audience. Rather than going along with a speech about your brand and your services for hours, which no one likes to listen to, create a story that your audience can easily relate to and engage with. Your brand has to seem friendly to the audience, not a collection of random thoughts that absolutely no one relates to.
Try engaging with your audience as much as you can, as it helps improve your personal brand value, and interactions like these will be your guiding force towards building a strong, reputed brand.
CREATE YOUR STRATEGY:
One of the easiest ways to build a brand is by blogging and being active on social media platforms. It is not as easy as it sounds but if you keep making quality content and promote it on the internet actively, you will surely build your brand and your reputation as well. Every member of your audience might have a different taste and it will be ideal to change things up from time to time and try various kinds of content that your target audience might preferably like.
You also need to spread a consistent message NOT on all social media platforms but you have to choose some platforms where you spread your message to your targeted audiences with an effective social media marketing strategy in an interactive and engaging way.
A personal brand is like a lifelong task that changes from time to time. Experts believe there is no hard rule that tells you how personal branding works, but these points can be your guides at taking the first steps towards building your own brand. Creating the ideal personal brand might not only help you be famous in your field and always get that best contract, but it will also determine the difference between “Sorry we have no vacancy” and ‘Would you like to work for us?”
