You’ve likely heard of branding in the context of corporations and companies, but are you familiar with the idea of personal branding? Personal branding is the combination of your skills, personality, and image that you put forward across all platforms.
Nowadays, it’s crucial to be building your personal brand. With such a competitive landscape, it’s essential to set yourself apart from the competition with personal branding. Keep reading for 4 of my top tips to successfully brand yourself.
1. Figure out your target audience
When you are looking to brand yourself, one of the first steps you should take is to figure out your target audience. Whether you are a human resources professional or a budding financial analyst, try creating a few buyer personas to help you understand your market.
Once you’ve created buyer personas, you can spend time brainstorming what they do, things they like, and how best to reach them. This allows you to gain concrete insight into how you can segment your audience to reach them effectively.
2. Level up your social media
Many people think putting their social media accounts on private is enough to fend off recruiters. However, this is no longer the case. With 70% of recruiters reporting to using social media to vet a candidate, it’s clear that cleaning up (and capitalizing on) your socials is key to succeed in today’s workplace.
You can augment your social media to benefit your brand by creating custom imagery, logos, and themes across all platforms. Additionally, try creating a personal and professional account so you can stay up to date with industry trends and have a separate space for browsing off-the-clock,
- Create content
In today’s day and age, creating content surrounding your profession is nearly a given. From posting relevant articles on LinkedIn to starting a podcast, it’s essential to always be learning about your industry to better place yourself as a thought leader in the field.
Additionally, this can provide resources for potential employers to look at when reviewing your application, giving you an edge against the competition. It’s crucial to understand that this content is different from the rest of your social media efforts. While social media is mainly for interacting and building your network, the content you create is a form of outbound marketing that helps put you on the map in the eyes of hiring managers.
4. Focus on networking
With so many jobs not even being posted on job boards anymore, it’s becoming apparent that networking is the best way to advance your career and build your brand. From networking with thought leaders to finding a mentor, networking is crucial to success and essential to building your brand.
However, it’s important to be sincere with your networking efforts. Nowadays, many people try to focus on the quantity-over-quality approach, which easily shows to the receiving end. You want to focus on building real, personal relationships with professionals in your field — not building as many connections as possible with as little work as possible.
Overall, it’s clear that with the emphasis placed on the internet in today’s society, personal branding is here to stay. To get ahead of your competitors, you should work to increase your online presence, hone your people skills, and create an integrated brand across all platforms.
For a complete list of ways to build your personal brand, check out the infographic from Resume Now here.
