When competing for a job or building your career, being able to communicate your achievements and worth can make all the difference. There are many ways you can go about this. You might work on your CV so it better reflects what you bring to a new role or you could talk about you achievements during your appraisals. However, the best way to communicate your value is to build a personal brand.
What is a personal brand?
A personal brand is a representation of you. It details your professional skills, achievements, attitude and values. It establishes your authority in your field and communicates who you are to others even before you’ve met them. If you’ve ever heard the expression, ‘your reputation precedes you’ you’ll understand the power of a personal brand.
How do you build a personal brand?
Building a personal brand is nothing new. It doesn’t belong to the digital age, but digital media has presented more ways in which to build one. Traditionally, networking events, training events and seminars were the usual spaces in which a professional could self promote. The idea being that by creating and nurturing a professional persona and promoting personal achievements, the rest would be taken care of through word of mouth.
Today, in person networking is still important, but its the digital platforms that provide the reach.
Social media
Platforms such as LinkedIn have been a game changer for online networking. LinkedIn presents an opportunity to self promote with an online CV. You can establish your value through professional endorsement of your skills and experience. But the most important facility LinkedIn offers is to find and connect with others who might help you professionally. In short, LinkedIn provides you with an opportunity to communicate something of your value to people you might never have had the opportunity to come in to contact with and before meeting people in person.
Other platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and even TikTok will play a part in building your personal brand. When it comes to social media its worth bearing in mind that today employers will often check your profiles when considering you for a vacancy. So if the message you communicate about yourself online matters to you, it’s not one to overlook.
Website/blog
Having a website or blog is a way to illustrate your authority in a subject. A link to the site could be posted on your social media profile and added to any CV you send when applying for a vacancy. Words on CVs are empty if you don’t have the evidence to back them up. If you would like to illustrate your knowledge on a subject that isn’t so easily evidenced by your work experience, a blog would be a great place to start.
Networking
Networking online has already been mentioned, but traditional, in person networking is possibly more important. Take the opportunity to network at seminars, training, exhibitions or any other event. Even the works night out can provide an opportunity to network. The secret is to be in charge and have a plan. Know who you want to meet, what you want to say and how you plan to conduct yourself while at the event. Done correctly, this is a powerful way to build your brand.
Why it matters?
Many vacancies and promotional opportunities may be filled on the basis of reputation and sometimes recommendation. Being referred by a person in your industry, respected by the recruiter, is quite the reference.
Head hunters work on the basis of reputation and recommendation. The opinion of both industry figures and clients carry weight. At minimum, a strong and well crafted personal brand might get you a job interview, at best it may assist you in climbing the career ladder right to the top.
Manage your personal brand
This might seem obvious but you need to be conscious of the fact that anything related to you can affect your personal brand. For instance if you have a private Twitter or TikTok account in which you express your personal views, whether political, social or religious, your personal brand may be affected. Any photos online that might not compliment the image you are trying to convey may be found by others.
If you don’t update your social media profile on LinkedIn or build your following or respond to Twitter and Facebook communications, it may affect your personal brand. In short, social media is an important tool in building a personal brand but you need to be active in your use of it.
And finally…
Becoming recognised for your achievements and skills in a professional field is what all career hungry people should aspire to. In fact, building your personal band is as important today for ambitious professionals as it has ever been. More importantly, there has never been more tools at your disposal to make it happen.