Whether you are seeking a promotion, considering a career move, or actively looking for a new role, you need to influence other people’s perception of yourself by clearly and concisely communicating the value you provide to your target audience. Personal branding involves creating and sharing a personal or professional identity, which enhances your professional reputation and influences how other people perceive you, so you stand out from others.

What is a personal brand?

Your personal brand is how other people perceive you. Your personal brand is your reputation – what people think, feel and say about you. This is based on information found online, what other people say about you, and how you describe yourself. Shaping your reputation, via a personal branding, increases the likelihood of other people perceiving you in the way you desire.

What is personal branding?

Personal branding is an intentional process of creating and maintaining a positive impression of yourself for your target audience. It improves your reputation and your sphere of influence by establishing a credible image, highlighting your knowledge, experience, expertise, skills, actions and achievements.

It is called personal branding, because it shares many similarities with the product marketing / branding process used to market a specific product / brand. Every successful brand differentiates itself from the competition by communicating the value it delivers (it’s USP). In the same way, personal branding enables you to communicate the value you offer to your target audience.

Why is personal branding important?

Personal branding can positively shape other people’s impression of us, rather than leaving this to chance. Everything we do or say affects other people’s perception of us. Without intentionally crafting your personal brand, people are likely to make incorrect assumptions, which are unlikely to create the impression you desire.

Most people only have limited opportunities to communicate with their target audience, so it’s important that every interaction creates a desirable impression. Many people have never considered how they come across to others and how this affects their career. Imagine two employees attending a regular meeting with a senior leader in their business area. During every meeting, the senior leader asks “how are you?” One employee talks about their family, and how tired they are. The other employee shares new ideas, insights or updates. The senior leader is likely to have a very different impression of the two employees, before considering their work performance.

Determining your unique value and promoting this by the way you live, can increase visibility, attract opportunities which align with your expertise and core-values, and connect you with people who share your interests.

How to develop your personal brand

Define your purpose

The key to successful marketing is to draw people in, by developing clear, easy to understand messages which demonstrate what makes the product/service/person unique and how this helps the audience to overcome their concerns or challenges.

The first step in developing your personal brand is to identify your values, goals and purpose. This involves understanding what makes you unique from other people, what motivates you, and what is most important to you. In other words, what makes you, you. Once you’ve identified this, ensure you consistently demonstrate these values and goals through what you do and say. This ensures your personal brand is honest, authentic and transparent, which are crucial factors in establishing a trustworthy brand.

During the coaching process I usually explore this with clients by asking them to complete a comprehensive assessment to identify their skills, experience, passions and motivations which we explore during a coaching session. Most people find this empowering, and a great way of boosting their confidence as it usually highlights hidden expertise, skills and values, as well as encouraging them to be themselves, rather than trying to meet other people’s expectations.

If you plan to undertake this step on your own, I suggest looking back over your career and identifying your core skills and your main areas of expertise. Consider the things you are passionate about, the main things which motivate you, and your core values. Many people find it difficult to recognise their own strengths, so it may be helpful to undertake this exercise with someone who can help you to recognise these. Some advocates of personal branding skip this step and focus on creating a brand based on recruiters / leaders expectations.

Establish your Unique Selling Points

The next step is to establish who your target audience are and consider how your specialist knowledge and expertise can help them to overcome specific business challenges.

If you are seeking promotion, your target audience is likely to be senior leaders within your current organisation. If you are seeking a career move, this is likely to be recruiters and hiring managers within your chosen companies.

Consider what their biggest business challenges are and focus on how you can help them to overcome these. If you are applying for roles, look at how you can help the company to resolve the challenges outlined in the job description. If you want to be considered for promotion, consider how you can help the company to overcome the specific challenges which are slowing down business growth.

Think about what you want people to know about you, how you want to define yourself, and what makes you unique. Create a sentence which clearly states who you are and the value you provide. “I’m a Sales Director with extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry who is passionate about nurturing relationships with new and existing customers”.

Marketing yourself

Once you’ve established what you can offer to your target audience, you need to develop a strategy of how you will make your audience aware of what you offer. What opportunities do you have to interact with your audience to help you achieve your goal?

Spoken Communication

Construct a narrative which is truthful, easy to understand, draw people in, and demonstrates what makes you unique. You may wish to include stories in conversation which illustrate the value you provide. Develop partnerships / network with your audience, ensuring this benefits both parties.

Your Online Presence

One of the first impressions people will have (if they haven’t met you) is from the information available about you online.

LinkedIn is usually one of the first search results, so ensure your LinkedIn profile is up-to-date and clearly conveys your desired narrative to your target audience. You may wish to use Linked In to share industry trends, news or other insights with your professional network, share your participation in conferences / events, share company blog posts you have written and ask your colleagues to endorse your skills. You may wish to read this article for further advice on writing your LinkedIn profile.

It is important to promote a consistent brand image, so it’s worth searching for your name, and updating inconsistent information, such as an outdated professional biography on your company website.

Your reputation

Your reputation is based on other people’s perception of you. There are many ways of shaping this such as working collaboratively, sharing your knowledge and focussing on how you can help others. You may consider coaching or mentoring junior colleagues, looking for opportunities to work cross-functionally or to become more visible by leading / participating in high-profile projects.

Relationships are built on honesty, integrity, trust and consistency, people need to be certain you will always deliver what you promise. Your reputation is also based on how reasonable and understanding you are, and how fairly you treat others. Demonstrate your value in everything you do.

Other ways of reaching your audience

Depending on your audience, you may communicate with them in other ways. If you are considering a career move, your main communication will be via your CV, your LinkedIn profile and your interview answers, so you may wish to read some of my other blog posts for further guidance in improving these.

It’s important to consider how you come across to others, so you portray a consistent brand across all online content and personal conversations. This may involve separating your personal and professional content on social media and professional networking sites. Plan how you will manage any aspects which may detract from your brand, such as conversation topics at the coffee machine or water cooler. It’s important to evaluate your personal brand regularly. Many people find it helpful to ask trusted colleagues and friends for feedback to ensure it accurately describes your brand and values.

Next Steps

It can be challenging to undertake the personal branding process on your own. I offer personal branding coaching either as a discounted package or as single session(s). Coaching helps you to identify your skills, experience, passions and motivations, understand your Unique Selling Points (USP), market yourself and develop your professional reputation.

You may find it helpful to read some of the articles covering Career Development, CV Writing and Interview Skills where I provide further CV writing help, as well as advice to improve your interview skills.