Personal branding is certainly something that you should start taking into consideration if you’re interested in growing your career. Many people don’t realise the huge impact it can have on your career once you start branding yourself, and there are times when personal branding is all you really need to make a huge impact on the industry you’ve chosen.
But what exactly is personal branding and how can you use it to start looking for more career opportunities?
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Personal branding is about advertising yourself and not your brand
If you work for a company then almost everything you do benefits the brand that you’re working under. Very rarely will a company credit work to an employee or someone working with the business. In most cases, anything you do for the company will end up under the same name. This means that individual employees are rarely showcased for the work they produce and it’s hard to differentiate the talented workers.
Personal branding aims to try and overcome this by actually focusing on your personal brand instead of the company itself. It’s all about putting your name out there and instead of branding more attention for your brand, you focus on attaching your name to your work. The idea is to have a live showcase of your work in many different areas so that people can see what you’re capable of, then they’ll be interested in contacting you and working with you.
Tips for standing out so that you can start branding yourself
So how do you start branding yourself when there are so many different considerations to keep in mind? Here are some tips to help you out.
- Get on social media and start establishing a presence. There’s no way for people to see you unless you start establishing a presence and the best way to do this is to get on social media and start engaging with others and showcasing your work to a wider audience.
- Become an expert and don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Be a voice in the industry or field that you specialise in. Think about people like the ShamWow Guy who have built an entire career from their advertising and sales expertise.
- Be consistent with your branding. Remember to keep pushing your brand and don’t leave gaps where you do nothing. Be consistent, maintain the quality of your personal branding, and you’ll notice more and more people take notice of you.
- Don’t forget to listen to feedback. Whether it’s from colleagues, friends, family members, or even total strangers, don’t forget to listen to feedback from the people around you. Listen to their thoughts about your personal branding and help them decide what qualities you want to highlight.
Personal branding is heavily focused on trying to get yourself out there so that more people can see what you’re capable of. It requires you to engage others and you might find it uncomfortable at first, but there are plenty of ways to take this slow and steady if you’re willing to slowly work on your personal brand.