How a personal brand can help you build a career

Contents: 

• Personal Brand. What is it?
• What is it for?
• Who should develop a personal brand?
• How to create it?
• Life hacks for those who want to build a personal brand on social networks

Personal brand. What is it?

A personal brand is a person's public image. What strangers associate their name with. It consists of a person's appearance and self-presentation, the ideas they spread, and their perception in society. A personal brand includes a reputation in a professional environment.

The concept of a personal brand is not new. Even in ancient times, philosophers, military leaders, and politicians worked on their image, promoting ideas and values ​​through public speeches and treatises. In the Middle Ages, wealthy people used heraldry. Banners, coats of arms, and flags allowed them to indicate their belonging to a noble family and gain additional points when concluding political and trade alliances.

The idea of ​​a personal brand in the usual sense was formed during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, Immanuel Kant, Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, Thomas Edison, Martin Luther—all these people are known not only for their significant contributions to science and culture, but also because they actively cultivated their own image. They used all available means and channels of communication to spread their ideas.

Yet, in the past, public figures acted intuitively. The concept of personal branding first appeared in 1937. It was used by Napoleon Hill, the creator of the self-help genre, in his bestseller, Think and Grow Rich. The concept of personal branding was fully described in 1981 by marketers Al Wright and Jack Trout in their book, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. This idea was picked up and popularized by the influential American writer and business guru Tom Peters in the late 1990s.

Why do you need a personal brand?

The concept of "personal brand" has taken on new colors with the development of social networks. The Internet has made it possible to find like-minded people, talk about yourself and your ideas, and create social connections with people hundreds and thousands of kilometers away.

However, there is still a widespread myth that personal branding is the preserve of politicians, athletes, and show business stars, people in the public eye and wealthy. In practice, it's quite the opposite. Economist Robert Kiyosaki, psychologist Paul Ekman, entrepreneur Richard Branson, and marketer Gary Vaynerchuk... Publicity is not required for such professions. But it was precisely working on a public image, regular speaking engagements, and spreading their ideas through the publication of their own essays or blogs that helped people become famous and successful, which directly impacted their financial situation.

However, it is also important for public figures to develop a personal brand. A prime example is Cristiano Ronaldo. At the end of his career, he was able to secure a contract with an annual salary of 200 million euros, becoming the highest-paid player in history. And this is thanks to a strong personal brand.

Dozens of trophies won, both team and individual, helped in developing a public image, but were not decisive. While exorbitant salaries are the norm in football, young players who can bring victories and trophies to their clubs right now can't expect to earn even half or even a tenth of Cristiano Ronaldo's salary.

Ronaldo has built his own brand. He created the image of a person who shows sincere emotions, helps others, participates in all kinds of charity events and communicates with the audience through social networks. Such an image not only increases the prestige of the club, it attracts the attention of millions of fans, and at the same time, billions in advertising contracts.

If you want to develop as a professional, advance in your career, and work on useful and interesting projects, you need to understand that as soon as you fill out and send your resume, you enter the labor market. And the same marketing laws apply here as in the regular market.

Even if you're not a brand, you're still one of many. Even if you do your job better than others, you can't expect a higher salary than everyone else. But once you become a person, talked about by colleagues and experts, you can dictate your terms. Employers will be interested in you personally. Companies are willing to pay for your name, even if you're just a teacher with a signature method that everyone is talking about. You can demand individual conditions for yourself and will earn more with the same effort.

Who should develop a personal brand

A personal brand today, when anyone can create an account on social networks in a few clicks or start a personal blog on Telegram, is important for everyone. Including people of seemingly ordinary professions. Teachers, builders, apartment repair and finishing specialists, programmers or landscape designers. A personal brand helps attract clients and helps present yourself in the best light to potential customers and employers.

Personal branding is especially important for:

• Entrepreneurs. With the help of a personal brand, they attract partners and investors, tell new clients about themselves and increase their target audience.
• Freelancers. Attract customers who will be interested in their services.
• Coaches, consultants, experts, marketers.Close objections from potential clients and increase their value in the expert community.
• Bloggers. A personal brand allows them to find new advertisers, like-minded people, and make connections.
• IT specialists. Increase their value as professionals among employers and customers.

However, it's worth considering that a personal brand isn't a one-size-fits-all solution, but just one tool that can help in business relationships and your personal life. It requires effort, time, and consistency. Therefore, it's best to avoid developing it if you:

• React emotionally and negatively to hate on social media.
• You are not ready to spend a lot of time to constantly maintain your image, regularly publish posts and respond to comments.
• You love to argue and do not choose your words carefully, do not know how to diplomatically answer tricky questions and can say too much.

Today, in the conditions of active use of social platforms, each of us is in plain sight. An employer or client can judge you as a professional based on your social media page. Even if it's just a regular profile where you post photos from your vacation or holidays. Therefore, it's worth considering what to post and how to respond to other people's comments to avoid embarrassment during an interview or when communicating with a client.

How to Create a Personal Brand

To become an inspiring personality, or at least to create the right public image for career development, it's not enough to just post on social media occasionally. Personal branding is at the intersection of traditional branding, marketing, PR, sociology, psychology, and the art of communication. Therefore, developing a personal brand requires a strategy and a comprehensive approach.

Explore Yourself

Conduct deep self-analysis. A strong personal brand can be built if you have a holistic image. So think about:

• The values ​​and ideas you intend to promote.
• About how to present a personal story. Storytelling is a powerful marketing tool. And instead of providing dry facts about yourself, present it in the form of a story with lively emotions, where you share problems, desires, and tell how you came to your goals.
• About how you are different from others, what you are better at, and what benefit you can bring to people.
• About external image. This concerns not only hairstyle and clothes, but also behavior and communication style.

Study the audience and set a goal

There is no universal personal brand. You must understand in advance who your target audience is and what goals you want to achieve. If you plan to advance your career or get a higher-paying job, then your task is to present yourself to employers as a professional in a specific field.

If you are a freelancer in any field, then you need to demonstrate your expertise to clients. If you are developing a business, then you should focus on the product. Or you can create an image of an innovator and offer ideas that help others make their lives better.

Develop a strategy and stick to it

You have done your research, identified your audience, and set a goal - now you need to formalize everything in the form of a strategy. You need a detailed plan that outlines your promotional strategies, the methods you'll use, the ideas you'll promote, and how often and actively you'll communicate with your audience. Calculate your budget in advance and consider whether you're willing to hire outside specialists like copywriters, designers, and marketers. This will greatly speed up the process.

Where to promote

The Internet has almost completely replaced such communication channels as radio, television or newspapers. And it is available to everyone. When choosing online platforms, the Skillbox.by editorial team recommends taking care of a content strategy and a unified visual design style. The following platforms can be considered for brand promotion:

• Social networks.A simple and effective way to create social connections. You can use several services. These may include: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and professional communities.
• Messenger apps.Many public figures create Telegram channels to interact with their audience.
• Website. This is an online business card that you can use to tell people about yourself and your projects.
• Blog platforms. Like Reddit, Telegra.ph, or Medium. For promotion, you can use online media that allow third-party authors to publish materials. Even if you don’t write a regular column, publishing on major platforms is a good way to maintain a reputation as an expert in your field.
• Email newsletters. Help maintain and develop audience interest.
• Video hosting.People are most influenced by visual images. The same blog on YouTube will help you build a strong personal brand and attract your target audience.

Life hacks for those who want to build a personal brand on social networks

A personal brand is a public image that is created purposefully and systematically. It is a tool that will help in career development and launching a successful business. Therefore, we have collected for you a couple of life hacks and useful resources that will help you in developing your personal brand.

Life hacks:

• Be genuine and never deceive.Honest stories resonate best. Don't create a virtual persona. Share genuine experiences and values ​​that you share in real life.
• Stick to a consistent style. Keep your brand consistent across all platforms. If you position yourself as a personal growth coach on Twitter, then stick to that image on other social media as well.
• Demonstrate expertise.Here I want to go back to Cristiano Ronaldo again. He was able to achieve success as a professional player, and used this circumstance as a basis for further developing his personal brand by communicating with the audience. Show people what you are best at, but don’t forget about sincerity.
• Be useful. Think about the benefits you could bring to people, and do it.

Literature:

• Igor Mann "Number 1. How to become the best in what you do."
• Tom Peters, "Turn Yourself into a Brand: 50 Surefire Ways to Break Out of Mediocrity."
• Al Ries and Jack Trout, "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind."
• Robert M. Donely and Todd Rhoad. “Personal Brand Planning for Life.”
• Molly Bloom “The Big Game.” 

Blogs:

• Forbes.com — Here they regularly publish success stories of famous businessmen, actors, musicians and a lot of advice on self-development.
• Maxim Ilyakhov's Blog — on the site you can find advice on editing, copywriting, marketing, and communicating with the audience.
• www.socialmediatoday.com — an English-language blog about marketing and promotion in social networks.

Films for inspiration:

• "Coco before Chanel"— a biographical film about the legendary figure — designer Coco Chanel.

• "Bohemian Rhapsody" — a biographical drama about the life and work of Freddie Mercury and the band Queen.

• "Jobs: Empire of Seduction"is a film about the success story of Steve Jobs - how he turned from a wayward hippie into a co-founder of one of the most progressive companies in the world.
• "The Monthly Game"is a biographical film about the "princess of poker" Molly Bloom, who lost everything, but managed to keep the main thing - her name and reputation.