According to Joseph Lui, Personal branding is a way of establishing and consistently reinforcing who you are and what you stand for in your career and life. Everything you do either strengthens or dilutes the personal brand you’re trying to create.
Developing a personal brand might sound challenging, but there are incremental steps you can take to build credibility in your field. Here are six tips to help you create an authentic personal brand—and amplify your career in the process.
1) Define your personal brand
If you want to build a personal brand that accurately reflects your professional identity, you first need to figure out who you are. Ask yourself introspective questions like: which areas of work do I excel in? What drives me? What do I want people to say about me when I’m not there? Once you have defined your personal brand, you’ll be able to pinpoint your unique selling point and what you want to be known for amongst your professional community.
2) Define your area of specialisation and USP
After getting clear on who you are, you must define your area of specialisation and strongest selling points. Take a step back and ask yourself, what skills, experiences, and knowledge fields stand out? Your USP (unique selling proposition) is about considering what unique quality sets you apart from others in your industry or specialization.
3) Identify your attributes
The next step is to identify the attributes you want associated with your personal brand. There are no right or wrong answers when it comes to attributes – your attributes could include strategic, results-driven or empowering. You’re simply identifying where you stand now and how you want to develop your personal brand.
4) Find out what current perceptions exist about you
It’s good to get an idea of who you are from others because most of the time these might differ from your own assessments. Ask people what their perceptions of you are. Ask them about what they think your values and best traits are.
5) Close the gap
Once you’ve determined how you’re perceived by others, take a moment to uncover whether it aligns with how you’d like to see yourself. Analyse the gaps between how you are perceived and want to be perceived and develop a plan to close that gap.
6) Actively market your brand
Personal reputation management comprises of a variety of different digital marketing efforts that you would use every day to build your personal online reputation. If you fill the search results on the search engines with positive information about you, you can ultimately build a barrier between your personal profile and any negative criticism.