With the advent of the digital age and, in particular, social media, many people have become prone to believing in people they feel close to, even if those are behind brands they don’t give much credit to Artists, athletes, activists , entrepreneurs and other men and women with a regular presence in the media, tend to attract a legion of followers, often becoming ambassadors of causes, and confusing the brand they represent with their own image. But how is this possible? Personal branding may be the answer to this phenomenon.
Personal branding refers to the process of creating and managing reputation and a recognized personal image, so that your audience clearly understands who a particular person is and what they have to offer. It’s a combination of how someone presents themselves in various media and how customers remember them after offering a service. These two capacities establish specific characteristics for professionals and for their image in the market. Furthermore, this process involves creating and developing a brand statement, whether personal or corporate, as well as other forms of self-presentation and digital marketing.
Both offline and online means are important for the personal branding . Offline is a surefire way to get and keep customers. Online is suitable for anyone who wants to reach a global level. If a professional wants to be considered as a person of influence, he will need a strong personal brand, which will help him to stand out from other competitors The personal branding can also be used to demonstrate knowledge and skills about your areas of expertise.
In short, the personal branding means establishing and maintaining a personal brand. The focus of the brand, therefore, is not a product or a service, but a person. For this, the professional must have an image of self-confidence and mastery of skills in their area of expertise .
PERSONAL BRANDING FOR EMPLOYEES
In principle, a personal branding strategy can work for both self-employed and employed people. . Anyone who has built a clear personal brand as an employee can be offered more jobs, be perceived differently by their superiors, and thus make a faster and better career.
PERSONAL BRANDING FOR ENTREPRENEURS
For entrepreneurs, personal branding depends on two factors . Firstly, the size of the company, and secondly the type of services it provides. Large companies with strong product brands tend to be less dependent on the founder’s or director ‘s personal brand . For them, it may make more sense to invest in marketing their product than to place the CEO as a person at the center of its marketing. On the other hand, small businesses, and especially freelancers, benefit to a greater extent from personal branding. Here, the entrepreneur is often the brand itself. Small businesses usually sustain themselves in the name of the founder and many entrepreneurs even provide their services personally.
SKILLS AND PERSONALITY IN PERSONAL BRANDING
Generally, in their marketing, entrepreneurs and other professionals rely almost exclusively on their skills and knowledge. However, skills are not the only important thing. Personal branding also means showing personality. Questions like: “Who am I?” “What differential do I bring in the market?” “What is the story behind who I am?” belong to the fundamentals of personal branding. This means that your personality also includes your values. What beliefs do you have? What are your goals? What do you stand for outside the context of your business? All this makes a person and, therefore, can be an important factor in building your personal branding .
PERSONAL BRANDING AND POSITIONING
Positioning lays the groundwork for building your personal branding . Before you start making your personal brand known through social media, you should have defined your positioning in a clear and focused way. Especially when your clients work with you as a person, it’s important that the personalities match. That’s why it’s so important to stay authentic when building your personal brand. One of the great benefits of personal branding is that it helps attract the right customers who share the same values.
NETWORKING AS A REPUTATION INDICATOR
A big key factor when it comes to personal branding is your online presence.. What, as a professional, do you present about yourself on social media? Can you build an online reputation? What can be found about you and your company on the internet? Which social networks do you use and what content do you share on them? Are you regularly publishing articles and giving valuable tips? All of these contribute to your online reputation. The personal branding is now a digital issue.l. With that in mind, you could explore ideas like having a personal blog, a podcast where you can regularly talk about your topic, and maybe even answer questions related to your service; having your own YouTube channel can also be helpful for personal branding. On the one hand, they are great channels to present your competence and experience, on the other hand, they offer a good opportunity to show your personality and thus strengthen your personal brand.
WHAT TO DO BEFORE BUILDING A PERSONAL BRAND?
Before dealing with strategies for building your personal brand, it’s important to develop a clear positioning for yourself. What benefit does this bring to customers or service users? What space do you want to occupy in the minds of your target audience? If a professional initiates the other steps of the personalization process branding before clearly defining your positioning, you run the risk of not sending a clear message with your brand and thus not creating a robust image in the minds of your target audience.
HOW TO BUILD YOUR PERSONAL BRAND?
It is important not only to talk about your product or service, but also to offer a “ making-off ” view that allows you to see the backstage environment and thus create curiosity among your audience, while offering some insights into how certain processes are performed.
Discovering what makes your message unique is also crucial, while positioning yourself clearly on social media, contributing with your voice and vision in discussions related to your area of expertise , always with self-confidence and knowledge.
The construction of the personal brandingis an ongoing job and requires constant testing and improvement. You need to carefully prepare your positioning to reach the right people with your personal brand and deliver the right message. It is also important to bear in mind that the results of your personal branding work may take a few months or years to produce the desired effects. Therefore, relevance and patience are the key. It is necessary to create a long-term vision and goals when thinking about developing your personal brand.
Looking to work on creating an emotional bond with their customers, using storytelling to find an impactful and convincing narrative, an entrepreneur can better achieve an emotional connection with their brand and also tell a story about themselves as a person.
