Brands have traditionally been associated with large corporations, but with the proliferation of social media, most people now have their own personal brand, whether they know it or not. Your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media profiles have shaped your online personality, in effect creating your own personal brand.
Once you start thinking about your digital footprint as your own personal brand, you can start shaping it to reflect the persona you want clients, colleagues, and potential employers to see. Here are 4 steps you can take to create and shape your personal brand:
Determine your unique selling point
In order to differentiate themselves from the competition, brands consistently highlight their unique selling point (USP) in their marketing and advertisements. A USP can be any perceived benefit that sets you apart, like friendly service or convenience. For example, Prada sells luxury, while Old Navy sells bargain pricing. They both sell clothes, but each has their own USP that caters to different audiences.
The first step in cultivating your personal brand is to determine your USP. What makes you stand out from other sales or marketing professionals? What unique skills do you have that set you apart from others in your field? Your USP should tell potential employers or prospective clients what benefit they will gain from working with you. Once you determine your USP, you can start crafting your message around it.
Build Your Online Presence
Just like any corporate brand, your personal brand needs to have a strong online presence. The cornerstone of your online strategy should be a personal website where you can tell people about yourself and what makes you an expert in your industry. Use your website to post blogs and other useful content, link to your social media profiles, and encourage visitors to contact you. In order for your website to gain a high ranking in a Google search, continually post relevant content to your site and disseminate it across your social media channels.
Speaking of social media, take some time to audit your social media pages. Do your social profiles project the brand image you wish to cultivate? Be sure that your social media pages reflect your USP.
Professional Development
In order to maintain a strong personal brand, you need to be seen as an authority in your space. To establish yourself as the go-to expert for your industry, it’s imperative that you keep your skills sharp and constantly increase your trade knowledge. That means proactively keeping up with industry trends and learning new techniques. Professional development will help you stay relevant and keep your brand strong.
Spread Your Knowledge
As you determine your USP and continually develop your skills, you need to share your knowledge with potential employers and clients. Consistently creating useful content and sharing it on your blog and social media with help to establish you and your brand as a thought leader in your industry. To increase your audience, contact similar blogs in your space and offer to write a guest blog post. This is also a useful strategy to build inbound links to your site, helping your SEO efforts.
Speaking engagements are another way for you to spread your knowledge and increase your authority in your space. This is your opportunity to be heard by a brand new audience. It will take time to break into the world of public speaking, but as you increasingly speak to bigger audiences, you will drive more traffic to your website and build the strength of your personal brand.
It’s clear that brands are no longer relegated to the corporate world. For sales, marketing and advertising professionals, a simple resume and/or portfolio is no longer sufficient. You need to create a personal brand to help sell yourself to potential clients and employers. To begin creating your brand, follow these four steps.
After you cultivate your personal brand
Once your personal brand is ready for prime time, contact the Sales, Marketing and Advertising recruiters at Morgan Hunter. We have multiple career opportunities in the Kansas City area for professionals like you. Get more information about our staffing and recruiting solutions or contact us today!