Let’s be honest; personal success is rather cherished over corporate success and personal branding is THE medium to that end.
Branding is an age-old marketing strategy that makes it easier for people to know what they are looking for and precisely identify the product or service they want to buy. Similarly, to create a specific identity for oneself and present to an audience is personal branding. In an age when it’s common to end up being part of the rat race to outfox coworkers and climb the career ladder, it becomes even more crucial to make the right people notice YOU.
Visibility
Personal branding promotes visibility which in turn leads to opportunities. The more you market yourself in terms of your approach, expertise, and flair with people and technology, the more you get noticed. Your competencies may surpass everyone’s in the team, but how is the concerned person supposed to know that? You have to get out there and showcase your expertise in the best possible manner to stand apart from the rest. Your progress depends on your ability to prove your uniqueness. Personal branding helps you do just that. So every time a contingency or opportunity comes up, you don’t need to chase anyone, instead, your brand will make you the first person that strikes them as best suited for the job. Your brand will speak for you!
Peter Thiel, a boss to Reid Hoffman (co-founder of LinkedIn) at PayPal had one thing to say about his star ex-employee, “Hoffman was the firefighter-in-chief at PayPal. Though that diminishes his role because there were many, many fires”
Digital Self
Nowadays, the context of personality is not limited to the traits and attitude of a person but extends to one’s social media presence and related factors. So what you put out on social media and how you present yourself is available to view 24/7/365. Owing to this, you are always under the radar, and employers these days make sure to check employee social media presence and activities. It also adds value to your visibility quotient and opens up a whole new arena of opportunities and prospects to be explored. A true personal branding example is Oprah Winfrey; creating a personal website or network is a very significant form of personal branding.
Corporate Benefit
Many corporates have benefitted from employees whose personal brand has outshone the corporate brand. Very comparable to situations where parents are best known because of their child’s accomplishments. Sometimes, a star employees’ personal brand may outdo the overall company brand put together. So in such scenarios what do the corporates do? Instead of falling back in fear of losing that employee, they invest in the brand development of the employee and leverage benefits through that avenue. With a stalwart personal brand, rest assured your career will grow in leaps and bounds and your employers will ensure it does!
Trust
Above everything, what personal branding accomplishes easily that many other strategies don’t is gain trust. Conventionally, employee-furnished information gets more credibility over any other source. It is human nature to easily trust people you like rather than relying on company brands and their products. After all, it is people and their convictions you trust that prompts you to blindly buy products they endorse!
Irrelevant of position or seniority, the concept of personal branding should be embraced by all. As mentioned, there is no “offline” concept in personal branding. You are out there for the eyes, ears, and minds of anyone who would like to know you for WHO YOU ARE and WHAT YOU DO. So you cannot be fake, your brand should essentially project and market your true self i.e. your personality alongside your expertise and accomplishments. Remember, what you endorse is a certificate of your achievements, skills, and singularity exclusive to you and will precede you wherever you go opening doors that otherwise would have remained closed. You build a brand to project your strengths which eventually gives you the confidence and sense of self-worth which is so important in your professional as well as personal life. Think Gary Vee!
The most important aspect of personal branding is the question you need to ask yourself – What is it that differentiates you from others? What more do you have to offer? Why choose you? If you have the answers to the above questions, your brand is definitely a hit!
