Katie Roberts Career Consulting

Branding has long been synonymous with large companies like Apple, Microsoft, Google, IBM, Nike, Coca Cola, Amazon and McDonalds – they’re valuable brands whose logos and image are recognised globally. These companies, and others, are all experts at ensuring their prospective customers recognise the value they hold in providing a solution to a problem or in addressing a particular need.

It’s thought that personal branding was first defined when Tom Peters (a leading American writer on business management practices, best known for co-authoring the book titled ‘In Search of Excellence’) wrote an article called “The Brand Called You” in 1997. In this article, he talked about how everyone is a brand with a chance to stand out. Tom Peters is quoted as saying “Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.”

Since then, the concept has increased in popularity and in recent years has become even more prominent as the economy has tightened and competition for jobs intensified. A personal brand can be more simply defined as how other people see you – their perspective on what you offer in your field of expertise or what you’re best known for.

Personal branding relies on you having an in depth understanding of your strengths, skills, passions, and values, then using that information to stand out from your competitors. To develop yourself as a brand isn’t easy, especially if you’re not a natural marketer. Start by working out what makes you unique. To build a strong personal brand, you need to get your story straight in terms of what you offer. Think about achievements you have made and the things you do that make you stand out. Do you have any special skills that set you apart? What would your clients, superiors and colleagues think were your key strengths? Put it all together into a comprehensive statement about you – your brand positioning. Then, just like large companies make significant efforts to maintain consistency with their brand messaging across all avenues of communication, you need to do the same.

Here are some tips to help you build your personal brand:

• Use LinkedIn – create a high quality professional profile and keep it updated. Optimise your content for search engines, change your URL to represent the best combination of your first and last name (search on vanity URL for instructions to do this), get as many recommendations and endorsements as you can to build credibility, join groups, participate in discussions, answer questions, interact with your clients and colleagues, post updates and links that position yourself as an expert in your field.

• Network – build and maintain contacts inside and outside of your current company so your brand achieves optimum visibility.

• Start a Blog – it provides a great way to share information as well as initiating two way conversations with your target audience. Write regular, short articles on your area of expertise and promote them through your website and/or social media. Blog articles help people better understand your value – what you’re good at and what you’ve achieved for others and when people like what they read, they usually share it with their own networks.

• Participate in Online Forums – seek out relevant online forums and participate regularly by answering and posting questions. A great way to find forums that are relevant to you is to do an online search for questions you often get asked in your line of work.

• Use Social Media Wisely – especially your personal pages – think about your brand every time you post. Don’t post anything that you wouldn’t be comfortable seeing in your Resume or on your personal LinkedIn page.

• Be Consistent – make sure your written Resume, Cover Letter and any online content is all consistent with your personal brand.

• Use Twitter – to position yourself as an expert, comment, post, and link to interesting articles or announcements that relate to projects or other aspects of your work, to demonstrate the value your brand offers.

• Keep Up To Date – stay abreast of the latest news in your field and maintain all your social media sites so they are consistent and up to date with all your achievements and current activities.

In today’s competitive job market, you need to start thinking of yourself as a brand and ensure that brand shines through all your communications – including your Resume, your social media and any other online content.

Would you would like help from a Career Coach to identify your unique value and create a professional Resume or online presence? If so, please see our Resume Writing Services, LinkedIn Profile Writing Services and Career Counselling services.