What’s a Personal Brand or Personal Branding?

There are a slew of marketing and branding strategies, among them personal branding truly stands out. Not only is a personal brand and personal branding extremely effective, when managed strategically, but it’s become a standalone science along with corporate branding. In fact, there are copious examples of strong personal brands across diverse sectors that have evolved over recent years resulting in significant market impact, all of which has collectively led to businesses, small and large, seeing personal branding as a vital marketing strategy. Personal branding is the strategic activity of individuals marketing themselves, their careers and what they do as brands in their own right. It’s the ongoing process of establishing, developing and managing your profile or image in the mind of your target audience as the ‘expert’ go-to-person for a particular area of interest.

Why personal branding is important?

Let’s think of it this way.  When it comes to major companies, most of them have pretty strong brands.  Sometimes all you need is see a certain color and automatically associate it with that brand. Good branding is about people recognizing who you are and what you do, with the least amount of information possible.  It’s about reputation and perception as well.  Most of the time, we don’t even realize the branding because it’s so subtle or built in.

But what about personal brands?  Should we be focusing on branding ourselves, not only our products/services?  YES!  Your personal brand is what people think of, when they think of you. It represents who you are as an individual and is a reflection of your values and beliefs.

It’s also what people associate with you and could make or break your career.  If you’re known for being responsible and on-time, for example, people are more likely to recommend you to others as a source of business.  On the other hand, if you are known for not meeting deadlines, or maybe being unprofessional, you are probably less likely to have referrals.

If you want to know what your personal brand is, ask different people this:  “If you were to describe me in 3 adjectives, what would it be?”  Be sure to ask the people that are close to you and know you well, but also be sure to diversify and ask acquaintances and people who might not know you as well too.

This gives you a good set of data so you can see what your personal brand is.  Are these adjectives you want to be associated with?  How would you want to be remembered and looked up to?  What would you want your legacy to be?  All of this ties into your personal branding, and why it’s important.If you don’t hear what you want to be known for, what you want your reputation to say about you,  you should work on improving your personal branding.

Here are some of the reasons that would convince you to invest in personal branding:

Create Impact

The part of our role in society is to serve others.  Every single person in this world has the ability to serve another person.  Your brand, your reputation is what people think of when they think of you.  Do you want to be a person who is just ‘there’ or do you want to be someone that exists for a reason?  Your impact can be on just 1 person or it can be on millions.  Either way, it matters and make it count.

Generate Opportunities

You never know who is watching, listening, or scrolling through your social media content.  You also never know who might know someone else who can benefit you.  All it takes is one blog, article, story or photo to capture someone’s attention for life.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that the same goes for losing someone’s respect for life.  But, back to the good stuff.  By having a strong, personal brand you have the ability to attract opportunities that would have never been presented if nobody knows who you are.  These opportunities may be ‘on brand’ or ‘off brand.’  However, now you are in control and get to decide what to pursue and what to graciously pass on.

Income Protection

When you create a fan base, a community of people that love you and what you’re about will always be willing to buy from you or even hire you.  It is that simple