Personal branding is a concept that has been around for a while now! What was once considered to be a person’s reputation is now, according to this article, your personal brand. According to Personalbrandinguk.com, “Personal branding is a way of communicating what makes you different and special – and using those qualities to guide your career or business”. Personal branding is all about proactive reputation management. It’s not about creating a new image for yourself, but more about making sure you get recognition for who you are and what you are good at.
With the ever-increasing prevalence of online social networking tools; information about you is only a click away. It is now more important than ever to think about the image or brand that you would like to project, both online and in the real world. You probably already have an online presence, so your first step could be to tidy up your existing digital identity. I think this infographic from marketing agency KBSD offers some great tips and techniques.
Before you start creating your personal brand, you have to think about who you really are and what you really want. What have you accomplished so far? What are you passionate about? What are your goals? Self-reflection is hard, so ask your friends or family to describe your best qualities. The best brands are truthful so be authentic about yourself. University of Warwick careers share 9 steps to build you personal brand.
Finally just as a company needs marketing materials, you need to think of the tools you are going to use to build and promote your personal brand. These tools may include CV's, cover letters but is also worth harnessing social media tools. Developing and managing an online presence should be an important part of your personal branding strategy. If you want to see what others will find out about you then you should Google your own name from time to time.
This week we are going to blog on how you can use social media tools to kick-start your job hunt and manage your career. Tomorrow we will write about whether you should get LinkedIn or not.
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