If you feel you're being overlooked, with colleagues getting more attention than you are, or with your best achievements and contributions to your company not garnering you much in the way of advancement, perhaps it's time to pay attention to your personal brand. Branding yourself, much in the way that a marketing company might design a product brand, is one of the best ways to create attention that gives you a personal platform.
Assess Yourself
Begin your efforts to create a personal brand by assessing where you've been, who you are now and where you want to go. Look for the intersection between your passions and your skills. Think about the personal networks you already have in place and how you might leverage your personal and professional relationships to establish your brand. Consider how you are perceived within your industry, how you want to be perceived and the best steps to take to close any gap.
Choose and Design Your Brand
Consider what you want people in your field to think about when they encounter your personal brand. What particular niche of your industry do you want to stake out as your own? How do you want to change your industry or your own position in it? Give due consideration to your sector of the market and your own target market, then put together words, images and stories that can accurately convey your message. Begin to create a game plan for your personal brand, including all aspects of your verbal, non-verbal and online communication. Design a logo, and create marketing materials to advertise your products and services.
Take Advantage of Social Media Platforms
When you build a personal brand, you put on display your own personal expertise and achievements in order to attract customers to what you have to offer. Building a website and taking advantage of social media platforms are key elements to making your personal brand known to the world. Your logo must be front and center on your website, and you should keep the website updated on a frequent and regular basis. Consider writing a book, which you can self-publish or e-publish to get your name out to folks in your industry. Establish a presence for your brand on Facebook and LinkedIn, and create a Twitter following. Make sure you respond to your followers regularly to help spread your personal brand.
As you begin to spread your personal brand, don't be surprised to see it start to pick up steam and grow on its own. Stay involved with customers and clients who interact with your personal brand, and step eagerly into the new opportunities that are likely to present themselves to you. Be prepared to let your personal brand evolve and change as it grows and as the marketplace changes.
Photo courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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