How to build a personal brand and look after it on the web?

The personal brand is the basis for self-promotion. The informed building of your own image is an investment for many years. Depending on the objective you want to reach, you can gain a better position at your current work, get a new job of your dreams, become recognizable in your target group or sector or win numerous good relations with your customers. Provided that your personal brand is vivid, credible and coherent. See how to achieve that.

WHO ARE YOU?

Start by getting to know yourself. You can use a SWOT analysis for it. Identify your strengths and weaknesses. What are your strong and weak points, passions, talents, skills and experience? What do people value you for and what makes them want to talk, work and spend time with you? Try looking at yourself with other people’s eyes. Define your strengths and specify the values you identify with. You cannot be a specialist in everything – focus at what you’re best at. If you are authentic, success will be yours. It is important for the values you follow to be reflected in your actions. Thus, you can build trust. Evaluate your resources realistically. If you are already known on the market, check how you are perceived – use your media audit.

STAND OUT

Every brand, even your personal one, needs a strategy. Think about yourself as a product – what is your target group, what is the purpose of your actions, what tools you are going to use to reach it and what is your plan of action? Monitor your competitors and listen to what they say. Try to determine with whom you can be compared and what builds your advantage. Think which of your features makes you exceptional and bet on it! Create a vision of yourself and what you want to do.

BE AN EXPERT

Day after day, consistently work for your authority. Everything you do will make up the value of your personal brand. Systematize your competencies and look after your professional image. Remember that it is also built by impressions and associations, feelings and perceptions. Collect experiences and give recommendations and do not be afraid to ask for them either. You should show that you are a valuable conversation partner. Build relations with other specialists. Use storytelling and create your elevator pitch. Prove that you are knowledgeable – others will appreciate it. However, do not expect immediate effects – work on personal branding often requires time, consistency and persistence. Monitor the effects of your activities on an ongoing basis and measure them. You can use media analyses to do that.

TELL OTHERS ABOUT IT

No brand can be successful without communicating with its audience. Make an effort to network and build relations. Get your customers used to regular information from you – best develop your posting schedule. First of all, use your own media, i.e. your website, blog and social media profiles. At further stages, you can consider press or even book publications. Look for thematic groups you could join. Monitor the web activities of people well-known and appreciated in the sector. Order media monitoring to be able to track the most important developments, key topics and entities in the sector. Actively take part in sector events – at the beginning as an observer, with time as a participant in the debate or a speaker. Report all your professional activities on an ongoing basis – say where you are and what you are doing. Report events and share valuable content. Thus, you will attract the attention of people who are genuinely interested in the given topic. If necessary, use paid forms of getting your information to your audience – promote your web content and be increasingly recognizable.

YOUR BRAND ON THE WEB

Social media largely determines our image on the web. What we post on our Facebook profile has an impact on how we are perceived by our customers, counterparties, employers or recruiters. Are your social media profiles ready to be shown to others? It is worth focusing especially on your account on LinkedIn, a platform for professionals. There, you can find people whom you can help as well as a lot of interesting content you can share and guidelines and inspirations for further development. Think about what valuable content you can share. Google search engine can also say a lot about us – check what results come up with your name on page one.

YOU ARE A BRAND

A good personal brand does not emerge out of the blue. It is an outcome of many planned, consistent and prudent activities. At the moment, they are largely carried out in the web which provides virtually unlimited possibilities of reaching your audience. The customers are willing to pay more and recommend specialists who were able to create a strong personal brand. A strong, positively associated personal brand works as a synonym of quality and the price criterion moves to the background. Reach for those business benefits!