Personal Branding
Creating a personal brand can be a challenging task. Where do you begin? What is my brand? Why do I even need a brand?
In the ever-changing world and competitive job market, it’s both helpful and critical that you stand out from the hundreds and thousands of others fighting to prove they are the right choice for a job. Here’s the cool thing, virtually anyone and everyone can have a personal brand pretty easily. Here are 5 rules for creating an engaging and unique personal brand.
Be authentic
The best approach to building your brand is to be YOU. Simply look around at your workplace or the countless Instagram accounts of people pretending to have a life and persona that is not their own. The most successful people are those who understand who they are at their core, including values and strengths and weaknesses. Most people and most employers can see right through a dishonest act. Being authentic you will also make things easier. Only you know you best. Create the content that you like. Express the ideas and thoughts that make you happy and excited. That passion will begin to show through, influencing others to engage with someone they respect and admire.
Tell stories
It’s easy to tell people facts, sell them ideas, and be straightforward but if your personal brand isn’t hooking people in with your unique story, you’ve already lost them. And it’s hard to get them back. One of most effective methods of capturing anyone or any audience’ attention is to tell a story. If you learn to craft a friendly narrative around your brand that explains who you are, what drives you, and the value you can offer, then audiences will be much more inclined to engage with you. In 2020, storytelling is easier than ever. One of the most effective ways to tell your story is through written content through platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. You can even tell stories through photos, video, or graphics. Be creative!
Consistency Matters
When you think of major brands like Coca Cola or Apple, what do you think of first? I think of consistency. Consistency in product quality, customer service, messaging, and visuals. That is branding! The best brands in the world know this and practice consistency from top to bottom. Being consistent in your brand is your brand promise to others. If, for example, you post about sports on LinkedIn every day for six months than all of sudden you shift gears and start talking about food, it might be a little odd to the audience. The key is to develop a consistent model of content to share your voice, both online and offline, whereby people come to expect a certain standard of quality and consistency. After all, that is why they are interested in you and are engaged. Use a visual cue, copy, or graphic elements to show consistency.
Look to others for inspiration
We all have someone we admire or a business or brand that makes us happy. Perhaps it's the quality of the product. The people you interact with or you like how something is designed and packaged. The critical aspect is that we all gather information from those around us. It's okay to look to mentors for inspiration or companies you want to work for to guide your brand. Successful personal brands are often a combination of our passions. If you're going to be the most celebrated chef in the world, start simple and google "best chef in the world." Often starting at the highest level and digging deeper will lead you to amazing places that best help craft your brand.
Fail often but keep going
The famous quote from Thomas Edison says “"I haven't failed — I've just found 10,000 that won't work." Failure is a natural and inevitable part of life. We generally avoid it at all costs but it will happen. In order for your personal brand to rise up above others you will need to accept and embrace failure. Personal branding forces you to be vulnerable and open to criticism. When discussing the possibility of choosing one career path over another, a retired executive once told me, “what’s the worst thing that could happen?” Remember, you can always try again or do something else.
A personal brand serves as an ever-changing and adaptable space to explore ideas. Branding yourself is lifelong project because we are always learning, growing, and evolving. All great brands understand they need to adapt and change with time, so too should you.