- 6 February 2024
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Radosław Głyda
Do you run your own company, work for someone or are you a freelancer? Regardless of whether you are self-employed or work for someone in a company. Your image and personal brand matter. We advise you what to focus on when building your personal brand.
Interest in the topic of personal branding has increased in recent years, which is confirmed by Google Trends data. It is clearly visible that since 2004, the number of entering the term “personal branding” into the Google search engine has been constantly increasing.
Worldwide interest in the term “personal branding” according to Google Trends.
Interest in the term “personal branding” in Poland according to Google Trends.
However, the concept of “personal branding” itself is not new, and the first mentions date back to the 1940s. However, Tom Peters is considered the creator of its modern version, who in 1997 in an article entitled “The Brand Called You,” published in Fast Company monthly, highlighted the importance of personal brand image. And although more than 27 years have passed since the article was published, his words are still valid.
“Regardless of age, position, industry, we all need to understand the importance of branding. We are presidents of our own companies: Ja S.A. Currently, in business, our most important task is to be a marketer of the brand: Me” Peters Emphasized.
Words, gestures, actions of personal branding
Everything we say, comment on, how we behave and what actions we take, as well as what others say about us — constitutes our own image — our personal brand. A personal brand is, on the one hand, our own opinion about ourselves, but also the opinion of others about us.
In short, your personal brand is you, dear reader. Whether you like it or not, each of us has an image and personal brand. Regardless of whether it takes years to build or you don’t work on your image at all. You are a brand. Just specify which one.
Personal brand: authentic, credible, true
Personal branding means translating your own image into all aspects of your professional life. However, it should not be identified with a certain type of acting and a role from which one “leaves” after the performance is over. Personal branding is based on authentic features, values and attitudes, because this in turn translates into recipients’ trust.
A strong personal brand is authentic. At the same time, it is a promise of contact with someone special, interesting, who is good — an expert or an enthusiast — in his field. At the same time, a strong personal brand is characterized by the belief that it can be trusted and predictability, because we know what to expect from it.
There is no surprise effect here. If a personal brand is based on the image of an expert and declares knowledge in a given field, it has it. The expert relies on his real strengths. At the same time, he can admit that he does not have knowledge or skills in other areas. A strong personal brand is not an expert in everything.
Personal branding – where to start?
Building a personal brand takes time and an analytical and strategic approach. The phases of creating a personal brand are closely related and result, in the first stage, from the analysis of oneself. Personal branding is primarily about identifying all the features and assets that make a given person (brand) unique.
So start working on your personal brand with analysis. This is where one of the basic and simplest tools that every marketing strategy contains comes in handy — SWOT analyses. It allows you to determine the strengths and weaknesses of a given brand. In this case, the personal brand and the opportunities and threats that have or may have an impact on the brand in the future.
However, identifying your strengths is half the battle, because the other half is thoughtful and attractive communication about your personal brand. Getting to know your weaknesses and emphasizing your strengths in broad and well-planned communication, which include, among others: knowledge, skills, values, passion, and experience allow you to stand out from your competitors and win in the fight for customer trust, work, professional success, etc.
When building a personal brand, you cannot ignore the recipients, because it is for them that the features of the personal brand are to be convincing and meet their needs. They are also supposed to be convinced by the way you communicate and present your personal brand. Therefore, we need to get to know them well, define who they are and from this group select those whom we want to reach with our message — with our personal brand. Our personal brand is supposed to delight them.
What tools do we have to effectively build a personal brand?
The process of building a personal brand does not end there. The next stage is the selection of tools that the brand will use to communicate with its recipients. We have many options here, blog, social media — from Facebook, Instagram, to more industry-specific ones such as LinkedIn. You can also try showing yourself on YouTube or Snapchat. Social media significantly helps build a personal brand.
You should also build your personal brand offline. Try to show yourself wherever your potential “customers” may find themselves. All kinds of conferences, chats, interview, and business meetings can be a good place to show your personal brand. Remember that once a personal branding strategy has been created, it should be improved and updated, thanks to which we will be noticed and remembered by the recipients.
A strong personal brand – it pays off on the labor market and in business
Personal branding is nothing more than developing a position in relation to the competition on the market. It’s about making yourself stand out from the crowd. When building your brand, remember that it must be a reflection of yourself, not the characteristics of other people we model ourselves after. These are all our strengths, the values we profess and the features that characterize us and create our image as an expert in a given field.
It is worth remembering that we create our personal brand constantly every day, but we can do it more or less consciously. The outfit we wear to work, the newspaper we read in a public place, or a comment on social media are also elements of our personal branding. If we take care of even such small details, the probability of creating a truly imitable brand is very high. By acting consistently and cohesively, you have a great chance of creating a brand that everyone will strive for.
It is no longer you who will try to reach employers, clients or contractors, it will be them who will try to cooperate with you. Personal branding and building a personal brand pays off.
