Things You should know about Personal Branding

Personal Branding

Personal branding is simply a practice of individuals marketing themselves, who they are and their careers or skills as brands. It is an ongoing process of building a prescribed impression or image in people's mind about a person mostly, a group also, or an organization.

According to Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, your brand is what people have to say about you when you’re not there. About a decade ago, “branding” used to be reserved for companies or businesses, but with the rise of social sites and the gig economy as it is now, personal branding has become essentially fundamental. A personal brand made up of the unique combination of one's experiences and skills that make you who you are and capable of doing what you can. It is how you present yourself and showcase your talents to the world. Effective personal branding distinguishes you from the competition and allows you to build trust with prospective employers and clients quickly.

Evolution of Personal Branding
The evolution of personal branding starts with its first introduction which was in 1937 in the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Personal branding and self-positioning were related to in the book as a means whereby great fortunes started in the form of compensation for individual services or the sale of ideas. In later years, others also emphasized this same sale of ideas and making use of positioning strategy to further advance your career.

However, branding has attained a new level of imperative since the rise of the Internet. The positive growth of the virtual world has necessitated the management of online identities. Even though its expressly virtual, online identity and social media has the ability and it does affect the real world. It, however, isn't denying the fact that there are individuals who tend to portray themselves and maintain a particular image of who they are not.
Notwithstanding, there is much emphasis placed on personal branding, most notably in the online world. There are lots of employers and clients who use social media tools to a large extent to vet applicants before inviting them for interviews. These approaches range from browsing through Facebook or Twitter feed, conducting background checks on the applicants, also making use of search engines and other online tools as well.

Personal Branding Strategies of 2019
There are some branding strategies you can implement to have a strong personal brand when people start checking you out on Google. These do not exhaust the list of appropriate strategies to employ but are rather fundamental and straightforward.

a. Set Your LinkedIn Profile to give the right impression: When people search your name on a search engine, the first result is usually your LinkedIn profile, and the same happens when you search a lot of other people's names as well. When someone gets to your LinkedIn profile, do they get the right image/impression of who you truly are? If not, now is the perfect time to set it right.

b. Complete Your Other Social Media Profiles: Ensure that your Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ profiles are rather compelling since they also show up in the search results even sometimes as the top results if you have similar names with some others.

c. Visuals Are really important: There have been different studies that proved that website visitors judge websites they visit in just 50 milliseconds. Never underestimate the power of professional and robust design or even a professional image of yourself when creating cover photos for each of your social network.

d. Get Recommendations On Your LinkedIn Account: This gives you third-party credibility which in turn gives you a significant edge with your prospects, especially when the profiles of the third party giving you these recommendations are. Also, you can try showcasing testimonials on your website or social media.

Why it’s more important than ever?
It doesn't matter if you're an entrepreneur or employee; building a personal brand has become more than any other time in history. One solid reason is the fact of how it is accessible now for recruiters to make use of social media for interview purposes. From a 2018 Career Builder survey, it was stated that 70% of employers utilize the social media to analyze candidates during the recruitment process, and even about 43% of employers check on current employees by their social media profiles and presence. There are various benefits of personal branding; for example, it makes self-managing one's life and career possible without depending on others. A person's brand is a core part of a person's career. In addition to all that, personal branding is both beneficial to the employees as well as the employer because a company with strong individual brands as staffs is perfect for business and brings much exposure. It builds confidence in customers while gaining their trust, giving them authenticity and credibility.