Business Knowledge

Archive for the ‘Personal Brand’ Category

Personal branding is how you portray yourself to the world. It is how others actually see you, not necessarily how you may want to come across. One can create a positive brand image as a successful entrepreneur, but one can also come across as a criminal—a negative brand image. To make sure your personal branding reflects what you desire, see the following five top tips on using personal branding to succeed in your Internet marketing efforts.

Focus Your Personal Branding Efforts

Everyone is an expert on something. Put another way, no one is an expert on everything. Personal branding starts with finding those certain areas of knowledge and experience that you have accumulated that are significantly greater than the Average Joe. Find those one, two, or three things to focus on for personal branding, and write and work on those. Establishing your area of expertise is the first step in personal branding.

Find Your Voice

With personal branding, you are not an everyman – by definition, personal branding means that you are a unique being with a completely fresh perspective on things. Make sure you sound like one in your blog posts and articles and on your site. Your personal branding should be compelling and strong. To define your brand, ask yourself these questions: What is it that makes me special? Why should anyone care? Why should my customers give me some of their precious time?

Personal branding has been a hot topic of discussion lately, and with good reason. It’s gained mainstream acceptance to the point that most professionals are at least aware of the basics. However, there still seems to be a misconception out there that personal branding is important for executives, business owners and celebrities—but not for everybody else. This couldn’t be further from the truth! Personal branding is an essential tool for all of us—entry-level employees all the way to CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Effective personal branding will enhance your value to your employer, can increase your chances of promotion, and will position you as an expert in your line of work. And personal branding doesn’t have to be difficult—in fact, the tactics we’ll cover today can be done without walking away from your computer.

Think about your current job—when do you expect to be offered a promotion or a new opportunity? What is HR or management waiting for? In many cases, they’re waiting until they feel you have the necessary experience, or until you’ve developed sufficient expertise, or until you’ve shown the proper level of dedication to your job and your company. Now, strong personal branding won’t by itself accomplish any of these goals—but used effectively, your personal brand can showcase your talents, your knowledge, and your dedication to the outside world.

There are many ways to build (or tear down) your personal brand. We’ve covered many of them in depth, so today we’re going to focus on less obvious opportunities to build your personal brand. Remember that every interaction you have either build your brand or weakens it—so ignore these opportunities and your own peril!

1) Your email signature. How many emails do you send each day? 10? 30? 100? Though writing emails has become a mundane part of the day for many of us, each email sent represents an opportunity to build your personal brand. That’s because your email signature is an incredibly valuable branding opportunity. Along with your name and contact information, your email signature is a great place to insert a quote or word of wisdom. With just the slightest bit of technical savvy you can insert a picture of yourself or a logo. And you can advertise your social media presence by providing a link to your Twitter profile, Facebook page or LinkedIn profile. But the best part of a branded email signature is the repetition. If you can create a signature that truly conveys your personal brand, it will be broadcast countless times every single day. Clients that you correspond with regularly will see it often enough that it will sink and create, in their minds, the perception of you that you want them to have. It doesn’t get any better than that from a branding standpoint!

Personal branding is a topic that is becoming more popular these days but there are misconceptions or myths that surround your brand identity which are good to discuss here.

This is an important concept to grasp but it’s important to understand what it isn’t.

Myth #1: If you have a logo, you have a brand. Having a logo can become a representation of you, your products or services but it isn’t your personal brand.