A guide on how to make a brand of YOU

13.09.23 02:44 PM By Keplercode Team

A guide on how to make a brand of YOU

Key Takeaways:
Your personal brand is the perception and the opinion that other people have of you. It has most to do with your experience, knowledge, professional achievements, and public image.
The primary task of personal branding is to clearly define your competitive advantages, set you apart from others in a particular industry, and outline your value in the professional world.
Firstly, identify your unique attributes and skills that will set you apart from your competitors.
After that, find your niche in the labor market and constantly improve your skills in your chosen field.
Think about the model and structure of your brand and ways to implement it.
Promote your brand also using social media and other web platforms and try to get regular feedback.
Be mindful of the 3Cs of branding: clarity, consistency, constancy.

For each of us creating a business brand and its marketing is no longer something strange or unusual. But have you ever come across the concept of " branding yourself"?

The fundamental difference between marketing a business and marketing yourself as a valuable asset is that while a business or a company can be abandoned and replaced with a new name or brand, a person's individual identity, character, and reputation are enduring and cannot be easily altered or discarded.

Thomas J. Peters, an American writer on business management practices, said,

“We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be a head marketer of a brand called You.”

In simple terms, your personal brand is the vision of you that you form in other people. Its main components are your experience, knowledge, professional achievements, as well as your public image. The primary task of personal branding is to provide others with all the information that will clearly define your competitive advantages, set you apart from others in a particular industry, and outline your value in the professional world.

Being able to make a name for yourself is one of the most important steps in your career. Regardless of whether you're seeking fresh job opportunities, working your way up in your preferred field, or even venturing into entrepreneurship, it's important to discover your niche and identify your specialized area, cultivate an authentic persona, and showcase your abilities.

Let's delve into all these a bit deeper.

Step 1: Identify your personality and unique characteristics

The work on creating a personal brand should start with self-reflection and finding your inner authentic self. This serves as a great starting point for determining your strengths and best attributes, which include all of your natural talents and abilities as well as acquired skills. In addition, think carefully about your values, passions, and core goals. Try not to take someone else's model as an example or create a picture-perfect image. Instead, strive to present yourself as naturally as possible. Find the aspects of your personality that will definitely make you stand out from the crowd and draw attention to you.

Step 2: Become an expert in your chosen niche

To determine the right niche for you, research the range of areas in the labor market that interest you and which may provide you with the potential for self-realization, and then choose a specific direction in this field. Make sure that the activity you opt for is niche and specialized enough, but at the same time covers a sufficient range of services to deliver to the target audience in order to generate the necessary income.

However, the degree of your expertise in the selected niche, i.e. how knowledgeable you are in your sphere and how well you do your job, is extremely important for a good reputation. Try to stay on top of the latest developments in your industry. Regular updating of your knowledge and skills, and even better, validating them with relevant certifications, are essential to maintaining a high level of your personal brand.

Step 3: Clarify your brand vision by defining your core mission

Model in your mind how you can cleverly connect the components of your brand, namely your trump cards, with your chosen niche, and then outline its structure for its successful and simpler implementation.

In the modeling process, also consider your mission - the main goal of your brand. When doing so, clearly delineate what you plan to attain, what will drive your actions, and what timeframe you can set. By taking into account each of these time checkpoints, you can build a kind of roadmap from your initial position to the eventual outcome.

Step 4: Be active in networking

Social media is currently at its peak, which makes them a powerful tool for promoting your brand. Create your accounts on popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., or even work on your own website or blog. Fill them with information about your skills and accomplishments and explain your key services, specialties, and what makes you or your brand unique. Also, update your pages regularly with interesting and informative content that is relevant to your audience and aligns with your brand's philosophy and ideas.

In addition to engaging your target audience, social media also allows you to connect with other experts in your field and expand your overall industry awareness.

Step 5: Collect feedback

To maintain your brand's status high, you need to stay on the ball and permanently keep yourself updated on what others think about it.
Ask your friends and industry contacts for feedback on your branding. For example, find out how attractive your accounts look, whether your goods seem valuable, and how qualitative your services appear. You can then use this feedback to change your marketing strategies and hone in on any flaws in your brand.

When creating your personal brand, you should also consider the general rule of the 3Cs of branding:

Clarity - it is important to remember what your brand represents and what it does not;
Consistency - the focus of your brand should remain fixed, which implies maintaining a coherent and unified brand image;
Constancy - the brand should be on the ear and attract attention all the time.

Slowly but surely, as you move toward your goal, you will be able to create your personal brand that accurately reflects your uniqueness, value, and skills. Don't be disheartened by initial failures as these are the challenges that turn out to become learning experiences. It's also important to be prepared to invest enough time and effort to build a strong reputation and make a desired professional name for yourself.