In modern society, where everyone lives chronically online, and there’s more competition than ever to stand out from the crowd, branding is just as important for your professional self as it is for businesses! The purpose of a marketing brand is to sell something; in the case of most companies, this is to sell a product or a service. But when it comes to personal branding, what you’re selling is your value, and this is what makes you stand out from everyone else.

Whether you mean to or not, you have a personal brand – a way that people perceive and recognise you. So it’s becoming increasingly important that you’re aware of what your personal brand actually is and how you can consciously shape it so you portray yourself in the way you want to be seen in the world.

Personal Branding: The Definition

The Oxford Reference definition of the word Branding is “The marketing processes by which a company, product, or service acquires a distinctive identity in the minds of consumers—becoming associated with particular values, lifestyles, and meanings.”

When we use this in the context of personal branding, it means that people who come across you online and in person associate certain things with you. Your personal brand creates a narrative around you, and if you’re not consciously curating this yourself, it gets left to the assumptions of others and might not align with how you’d like to be perceived.

Core Elements Of A Personal Brand

All brands, whether personal or company, have three core elements to consider: who you are, what you stand for, and how you show up. If you can nail down these elements, then you create the foundation to define your brand.

Identity: Who Are You?

What you first need to define is what makes you you. Think about your:

• Values
• Strengths
• Skills

Perhaps you are an excellent problem solver, have strong coding skills, or your work method is founded in human-first methodologies as opposed to over-reliance on AI. Whatever your particular set of skills is, this is what sets you apart from the rest and becomes your USP (Unique Selling Point).

Message: What Do You Stand For?

The next thing to consider is the message you are trying to convey to the world. How can you translate the traits that make up your identity into something meaningful that resonates with the type of people you’re trying to reach?

With the message, it’s not about highlighting what your strengths are and what you’re good at. You’re trying to define your unique value proposition, or in other words, a clear statement of what you offer, who it benefits, and why someone should care.

Visibility: How Do You Show Up?

Once you’ve defined who you are and how you’re trying to position yourself, you need to think about how people are going to discover your personal brand. This could be:

Online

This is often where people first “meet” you. Your foundation for your online presence tends to be your website or portfolio, so you need to spend time working out how people are going to discover these touchpoints. For example, optimising your SEO to reach the kind of audience you want for your personal brand is key.

Websites and portfolios are also a great opportunity to increase your credibility through showcasing proof of previous projects, articles, and achievements, whilst helping to align your visuals, tone, and content to your message.

Social Media

Your website or portfolio is likely to be the core of your online presence, but social media channels should be extensions of this to showcase your personal brand. You can really solidify the consistency of your brand with your social media channels, but it’s also important to consider which platforms are most relevant for the industry you are in.

Social media can also allow you to create a bit more depth to your personal brand – you don’t need to keep everything strictly professional with every output if that doesn’t feel authentic to the type of brand you’re creating.

Communication Style

This is one of the most powerful elements of your personal brand, from how you speak, write, and interact with others both online and in person.

You might have a very direct and professional communication style, or more conversational and expressive; there’s no right or wrong answer. As long as it’s authentic and distinct to you and your brand, it will build trust and memorability between you and those you come across.

Why Personal Branding Matters

“Your brand is your calling card.” – Oprah Winfrey

By defining and planning your own personal brand, you’re creating your reputation yourself, rather than leaving it up to the creation of others, where you maintain little control and could potentially lead to it creating a negative perception by those who come across you.

Your reputation can help attract opportunities in your career and life that align with your goals and feel cohesive with the life you want to live.

Having a positive reputation establishes trust from others and differentiates you from your “competitors”. If you’re interviewing for a new job, your personal brand will set you apart from the other candidates, and a well-thought-out brand vs. someone who hasn’t considered theirs could be the difference between securing the position or not.

Personal brands also attract more networking opportunities. By clearly outlining your skills, values, and interests with your personal brand that is communicated through all of your online and offline interactions, people are offered multiple points of connection with you. Say you’re a social media manager with a strong focus on human-first marketing and a love for baking. This attracts not only people who want to network for your skills as a social media manager, but also because of a shared value of putting human feeling in marketing, or even a shared love of cookies!

It can also have internal benefits for your own well-being. By writing out exactly where your skills lie, you will increase self-confidence in your abilities and help decrease imposter syndrome. You may also find it easier to define your goals and consequently achieve them if you know exactly why and how they align with your values.

How To Build Your Personal Brand

If you want to start building and refining your personal brand, here are the 5 points you need to think about to get it right:

Audit yourself

Step one should be to establish where your personal brand is at this current moment – if you search your name on Google, what comes up? Take note of whether any of the information being delivered is out-of-date, false, or not reflective of who you’re trying to portray now. If you find any of this stuff, change it! Websites and social profiles you’ll likely be able to amend yourself, or you can ask others for amends to be made on information that is inaccurate on other sites.

The other exercise to do is ask your close friends, family, or colleagues to describe you in three lines. If the words they give you don’t align with how you’re trying to brand yourself, make steps to change this. It could be that you want to come across as direct and professional, but you always wear T-shirts with toothpaste down the front. Make sure your personal brand is reflective of how those closest to you see you.

Clarify your message

It’s likely that your “message” has evolved, so you must take time to pin down exactly what the message is you’re trying to get across now. Ask yourself what you’re passionate about, what you’re good at, and what that looks like when representing yourself online.

You should also be able to summarise what you offer and the impact you create that aligns with the audience you are trying to reach. If you are trying to attract potential new clients, your offering and impact message are going to be very different from the message you’re putting out if you want to network closely with peers.

The best messages should be summed up in one memorable statement. If you can do that, this will guide everything else you do

Tell your story

Your story is unique and will help differentiate you from the competition. Being honest about failures as well as successes that have led to where you are now will allow people to relate to you, and it demonstrates self-awareness and maturity when you discuss the challenges you’ve overcome and the lessons you’ve learnt.

Your experiences are also likely a foundation for your passions and motivations; they are likely the reason you’re hyper-organised, or have a creative flair in your work, so don’t shy away from sharing these as part of your brand.

Create a visual identity

This is often the only part people consider when they think about “branding”, but it’s important to take care that your visual output mirrors the message you’re trying to convey through your interactions.

Your visuals will create cohesion across your online presence, and you should ensure that your website themes match your portfolio, which then match your social media profiles and the way you interact via email. This should become a quick recognisable “signature” that instantly gets associated with your personal brand.

Engage with others

Once you’ve got a clear understanding of your personal brand, it’s time to share it with the world! Start building connections with people who share your interests or goals, and share insightful comments and deliver value to the wider community.

Make sure your brand communications are consistent and reflective of all the prep work you put in behind the scenes to establish what you want to represent.

Conclusion

It’s easy for people to neglect their personal brands when life gets so busy, but it’s just as important for you to have an established, well-considered brand as it is the companies you work with or for. A lack of awareness of your own reputation is never going to be a positive – it’s going to lead to missed opportunities and potentially unfair judgment on who you are and what you represent.