Business

Branding is a marketing activity that is not only applicable for products, businesses, and materials. In the professional industry, branding is used by people to ensure that they are memorable and relevant. Though the importance of business cards in the digital age is still evident, personal branding is more than what your card says about you. More so, personal branding goes beyond the usual introductions during business gatherings and corporate events. It has rampantly become a way to develop one’s visibility and presence in a particular field of professional works and/or interests.

In competitive business areas, personal branding helps people market themselves. Hence, you need to make sure that your personal brand, may it be seen online or offline can provide the correct and appropriate perception, impression and presentation of who you are. Aside from tips to impress potential employers, clients, or colleagues; you also need to be aware of the basic guides on how you can present yourself accordingly. Listed below are eight essential elements that should always be considered when creating your personal brand.

Realistic Self-Presentation

When creating a brand for yourself, you always need to consider the authenticity of what you will present. A realistic presentation of who you are can make it easier for you to provide an honest and genuine interaction with your target audience.

Be reminded within the entire process of making and developing your personal brand that marketing yourself is not just about selling what you can provide to others. It is basically a way for you ensure that your market can notice your availability through the usage of different marketing styles and activities. With this, being realistic can help a lot as your brand is already a testament of who you are both as a professional and a private individual. Your end goal is not just to be known, but also to be trustworthy.

Clarity of Value Proposition

If you are aware of a few content marketing examples, you must’ve already be knowledgeable of the idea that the content of your brand will be defined according to its nature, depth and delivery of your proposition. This is the reason why you need to identify the purpose on why you would like to develop your brand. An essential factor that can affect the success of your personal branding is your ability to be clear and direct with what you would like to achieve. Some of the things that you may ponder on with regards this matter are as follows:

• The brand that can showcase who you are as a person, either as a whole or within a particular field
• The kind of person that you would like to present may it be to your peers, business partners or clients
• The structure of the entire branding process that you would like to follow
• The timeline that you need to incorporate to your personal brand creation
• The impression that you want to leave to all the people who will know your brand

Personality

Your personality is what makes you unique when compared to other people. Being real with who you are and who you would like to be can greatly be affected by your personality. When creating your personal brand, make sure to consider the following:

• The personal character that you present in varying circumstances and situations
• The values that have been inculcated in your system
• The beliefs that has affected the way you see and react on things
• The personal stand that you have about specific matters of discussion
• The advocacy that you would like to champion

The way that you provide access to people when it comes to your personality and how you show it can affect how they will look at you as a brand.

Package Consistency

Being consistent with how you package yourself is very important when making your personal brand. Some of the reasons why package consistency in personal branding is essential are as follows:

• Your target audience needs to be aware of your brand, and that is only the initial part of the transaction. Every encounter that you have with them can affect how they would believe the branding that you have put yourself with.
• There will always be a comparison of varying circumstances where your stance and performance are shown. The similarity of how you do things can make you trustworthy in the eyes of your audience.
• The cohesion of the platforms that you use in delivering the message of your brand can speak a lot with regards your ability to stay consistent either with what you believe in or how you would like to be perceived by people.

Compelling Background Story

A personal brand can be more interesting when you have key messages to share. You need to be identified not only by who you currently are but also on who you were and how it has affected you. This may be a good take when dealing with personal matters. However, businesses also like to see the background of your professional successes. Hence, your story is actually a big part of your branding even in the corporate industries.

Actual Expertise and Deliverable

Apart from your character and other personal traits, people will remember you through your actual expertise. Especially in the business world, who you are as a professional proposal and how you can affect the operations of a company truly matter. Your deliverable is mostly composed of the following:

• Your strengths in people and work management and organization
• Your technical, communication and social skills
• Your abilities, competencies, interests and talents
• Your accomplishments through the years that you have been immersed in the industry
• Your professional and work experiences that can be used as references by a business

Social Connections

To fulfill your aspirations in strengthening your personal brand, you need to be surrounded by people who can help you add value to who you are. The way that you are influenced by social connections can create a big difference on how you see your brand as an individual. Some ways on how you can maintain social connections are as follows:

• Identification of the correct work engagements
• Development of social circles and professional niche
• Market penetration through marketing activities
• Improvement of online presence through social media and other online pages

Brand Visibility

Your connections and following successful branding tips can truly help you a lot in giving your brand the exposure that it needs. However, your brand visibility will still depend mostly on your actions, interactions, and significant activities. You need to make sure that you will properly define, identify and reach your audience. More so, you must be careful when presenting your brand in various platforms and mediums.

Just like the executive summary of a marketing plan, your brand is also a reflection of who you are. Associate yourself with things and people that can help you maintain your presence in a manner that you would like to be known and remembered for. In the end, what is important is for you to start cultivating the personal brand that you would like to present before it is done by others for you.