Personal Branding: A Must For All In Today’s Digital World

All you have to do is see the logo of your favourite brand, and that inspires trust and loyalty. People see the Nike tick, and think comfort, fashion, fun, reliability, sports gear that’s worth spending money on. When people see a golden M, they immediately think of McDonalds, fast and easy food.In today’s digital age, however, branding doesn’t just refer to big companies, it refers to everyone. Thanks to technology, everybody who uses social media has a personal brand whether they wanted one or not. For most of us, a personal brand is something we’ve never consciously cultivated or thought about. Personal branding refers to the way in which we market ourselves to others.

If you want to succeed in the business world, as an individual and/or as someone who is trying to grow a business or a product, your personal brand is something you need to evaluate and continuously work on.

Here are some ways which you can ensure your personal brand matches the image you want to project and how to manage your personal brand’s perception.

Decide Who You Want To Be

Decide what you want your personal brand to be. How do you want people to perceive you? What do you want people to think when they think of you? Does your current brand match this? If you’re not sure about this think about who you are as a person. What makes you different? What additional value do you personally bring to your customers/colleagues/ etc?  What stands out about you compared to the competition? Think about your strengths and the things you are passionate about. How can you use these strengths to inspire trust and loyalty? Think about this as you start to mould your brand.

Does Your Brand Match Who You Are?

It so important that you ensure that your brand matches the image you want people to perceive. The quickest way to ensure this is correct is to ensure that your co-workers, friends and family see you the way you see yourself. If they don’t then you need to start re-working your brand.

Online Presence

One of the most important things to examine when checking to see if your brand matches what you want it to be is to examine how you come across on the internet. If you Google yourself what comes up? What’s on your social media pages? Everything you post, like, share and tweet is seen and makes up part of your image.  If the image that comes across from your current online presence doesn’t match the brand you want people to see, start changing it. Start posting about things you’re interested in and passionate about. Cut back on liking and sharing all those memes on Facebook. Make sure your LinkedIn page is current, and keep updating it. You need to make sure your online image fits with the brand you want to have.

Examples of people who have got personal branding down to a fine art are:

Siimon Reynolds – Business and advertising Guru

Michelle Bridges – Australian personal trainer, author and TV personality.

Reinventing Yourself

Have you looked at your personal brand and decided you don’t like what it says? Have you decided you need to reinvent yourself and your image? If this is the case make sure your new image still matches who you are. No brand fails quicker than a fake one and nobody will support a person they perceive as ‘fake’.

Reliability

If your brand is based on certain characteristics, for example, you pride yourself on providing excellent customer service to every client, then you must ensure you deliver this. It is imperative you live up to the reputation you have created for yourself. You must ensure people perceive you and your brand as reliable. Every time you fail to match up to client expectations because you didn’t uphold the attributes of your brand you are negatively affecting your brand. Upholding the attributes, such as providing excellent customer service every time you interact with a client inspires trust and loyalty, and will generate repeat business and referrals for you.

Personal branding is something everybody needs to look at in today’s digital world. The way in which other people perceive you is crucial to success in any field of business. Here at Outsource to Us, we can advise you on how to improve and maintain your personal branding, so you can market yourself to help improve your business. Get in touch with us, today!