The Secret to Being Successful at: Building a Personal Brand

By March 23, 2018For Talent

In any industry, prospective employers want to know what you can bring to a workplace. They want to understand who you are and how you can personally impact a role.  By building your brand, you can show them who you are and what you stand for.

A good personal brand conveys your skills, personality and values- all wrapped up neatly in one aesthetically pleasing package, either preferably online. It’s what makes you stand out in a pile of resumes or the job interview of your dreams

Need to boost your personal brand? Take a look at these tips to get started.

Identify your strengths

What do you do best? Do you have a witty sense of humour, or a selfless passion for altruism? To represent yourself accurately and attract others, you need to decide what it is you want your brand to highlight.

Define your audience and appeal

Why are you cultivating your brand? If you want members of an industry to take notice, you must decide how to appeal emotionally. Figure out what ways you are relatable and what makes you different. Once you’ve decided upon your target audience, constructing your social media pages and CV will be much easier.

Find the right platforms

Social media sites provide obvious foundations for a personal brand to be established and perfected. Deciding which one suits best is a necessary task. LinkedIn is the most obvious choice for corporate careers, whilst Instagram and Twitter are great tools for accelerating careers in other industries. Facebook groups are a handy way of linking up with people too, for example ‘UK coders’ and ‘Irish journalism and media jobs’ are popular ones for making connections and staying informed.

Craft your message

Identify your values and decide how best to express them. These can be prioritised in all of the content you create in future. Whoever follows you will presumably support or share an interest with this personal ethos. Express your message through your profile picture, domain name and bio too.

Be yourself

Hone your uniqueness. Express yourself rather than putting forward another persona. People can tell when someone is being disingenuous. When it comes to getting employed, individuality is hugely important.

Join groups

Groups and societies are great content for your CV, and are also a way to meet like minded people. Socialising with others in your field of work will lead to several opportunities that you would not have come across otherwise.

Collaborate

Find brands similar to yours and connect with them. Discuss topics of interest and share their content, this will boost your engagements and encourage others to take interest in yours. You don’t even need to know the people in real life before reaching out online!

Exposure

Attaining widespread exposure is the ultimate end goal of any brand. Don’t forget that networking is a great way to gather interest from people you admire. Online endorsement from ‘influencers’ with large followings could be exactly the exposure that your personal brand needs. Employers will acknowledge your adequacy in self assertion and appreciate how seriously you’re taking your career.

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Author Jack Maguire

Jack Maguire is a recent English Studies graduate, content writer for the Jobbio blog, freelance journalist and podcast creator.

More posts by Jack Maguire

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