1. What is your Personal Brand?
Your personal brand is your reputation. It is how people see you and describe you. Your personal brand is defined by your set of values and characteristics that describe who you are in both work spaces and your personal life. The ability to be fully aware and in control of your personal brand is a crucial component to effectively packaging yourself to future employers and building a successful career.
A clear personal brand can help to define your value to an organization and will allow employers to easily understand who you are, determine why you are a great asset, and discern how you will best fit into their team. A solid personal branding strategy can help you build credibility, showcase your unique skills, connect with your target audience and leave a long-lasting impression on your networks that can open doors to new opportunities.
In developing your personal brand it is important to assess your strengths and weaknesses as well as spend some time reflecting on your values. A good understanding of your personal strengths and weaknesses enables you to best market yourself to future employers and allows you to asses which positions are a good fit for you. Additionally, your values can point your decision making in the right direction so you can spend your time in areas that are best suited for you. There’s nothing more powerful than aligning who you are with what you do and spending your time on pursuits that have meaning to you.
By far the most important thing in developing your personal brand is to remain authentic. Most of the time people – not just employers – can quickly determine when someone is trying to be someone that they are not. This can be a major turn-off and can in fact dismantle the credibility of your personal brand. For this reason, it is important to always strive to be the best possible version of yourself, but do not try to be someone you’re not. Authenticity is key!
2. What roles do your online behavior and social media play in developing your personal brand?
Your online behavior and how you present yourself on social media and other online platforms can have both negative and positive effects on your personal brand. Online behavior includes things like email exchanges, comments in news article threads, and activity on social media websites. All of this behavior helps to create the public perception of who you are. This perception then becomes a part of your personal brand.
Social media is a perfect—and free—platform for positively promoting your brand. You can share articles, blog posts and work-related achievements. You might also follow people in your industry and jump into relevant conversations by using trending hashtags or those that are most popular in your industry. Once you understand how you would like your personal brand to be perceived you can begin to be very strategic in the manner in which you approach topics on the internet and you can ensure that everything you post online is a good representation of your personal brand.
Now more than ever is it important to be purposeful in what you share online as many employers have made social media checks a standard part of the talent acquisition process. A recent 2015 Harris poll revealed that 52% percent of employers use social networking sites to screen job candidates during the hiring process. These social media checks have become almost as common as reference checks and criminal background checks. It is also important to note that many hiring managers and human resources professionals are checking for other than job-specific information when doing social network checks. They are searching for things like inappropriate pictures, bad comments about previous bosses, and racist or inflammatory remarks.
Along with good social media practices, a good way to build your personal brand is be associating yourself with other strong brands. Your personal brand can be strengthened or weakened by your connection to other brands. It may be worthwhile to spend some time finding and leveraging strong brands which can tap into to elevate your own personal brand. One way to do this is to start with the three C’s: company, college, colleagues. Which school did you attend? Are there groups you can join? An alumni newsletter you can contribute to? What hidden opportunities are available within your company which you have yet to tap? Consider submitting a guest post to the company blog or look at other digital assets you can connect to your brand. All of these are good ways to begin associating yourself with other strong brands that you can easily connect with and continue to build credibility to your personal brand.
3. Is it possible to rebrand or reinvent yourself?
Absolutely! In fact, your personal brand should be ever-evolving and changing as you grow and your values and interests change. Rebranding takes time and patience but the key things you should focus on when trying to rebrand yourself are: Who do you want to be? What personality do you want to convey? and What type of behavior will you engage in?
Once you have been able to settle on how you would like to be rebranded the only thing left to do is be consistent and start carrying out the values of your new brand in all aspects of your life.