First and foremost, let’s establish what a personal brand is. My definition of a personal brand is simple- it’s how someone perceives you. That’s it. Simple right? Guess again. There are an infinite number of factors that combine to create your personal brand. The good news is that you can control most of those factors. So, my next question to you… Are you actively working on defining your personal brand? If not, you’re leaving perception of you up to chance.
Every single thing you do in your daily life, every post you publish on social media, every conversation you have, and every person or organization you associate yourself with generates an impression of you, even before someone has met you.
Over the last two decades, technology has transformed the world in ways that would have seemed unimaginable in the 2005. This year, it is projected that the number of smartphone users will hit 3.5 billion people, which is just over 45% of the world’s population.
This astonishing level of connectivity that the internet provides has unlocked a range of opportunities for us all to establish ourselves as exactly who we want to be in this world, or in some scenarios, ruin the chance of ever having that dream life. Today, we’re going to dive into defining personal brands online. It’s easy, cheap, and incredibly impactful.
Every day over one billion names are Googled, and 86% of young Americans state that they will use a search engine to find information on other people. Let’s be honest, chances are we’ve all searched for a colleague, friend, or a potential date at least once.
Personal branding has powerful professional impact as well. In fact, 80% of employers search job applicants on Google before extending an interview. Even before you get a chance to sit down face-to-face, the interviewer has probably already developed a perception of you based on your personal brand. What does your online presence say about you?
Hopefully, this makes you want to prioritize defining your personal brand and not leave it up to chance.
Take Ownership of Your Personal Branding
There’s never a better time to start defining your branding than right now. Let’s get started.
1) Audit
Before you can begin to take control of your personal brand and strongly portray the person that you wish other’s to see, it’s important to establish what image you currently convey to the world. As previously mentioned, let’s focus our attention to our digital personal brand. Begin with conducting a full audit of your digital presence. There are several websites you can utilize to take inventory of your digital presence, but let’s start with the simplest- Google yourself. Now you know what your first impression to interviewers is, step one complete.
Now, thoroughly check your existing social media profiles, including posts you’ve published, tagged posts, all photos, likes you’ve made on others’ posts, as well as comments you’ve made on posts. This can be a time-consuming process, but it is one of the important steps to make. If you’re anything like me, as you are going through the posts made when you were 16 years old are quite cringe worthy. If they make you cringe, imagine what your potential employers or customers are thinking!
This process should include editing and deleting potentially off-brand messages, creating a consistent tone across each platform, and optimizing images to ensure you are giving viewers the very best version of yourself as possible.
2) Define
Once you’ve conduct this preliminary audit, begin to outline the person you wish to portray. Begin by asking yourself a few key questions:
What are you good at? What are your passions? Who makes you different from others?
What is your dream job? What are your career aspirations?
What makes you feel alive? What makes you smile?
What does your perfect daily life look like? Who are your future evenings spent with and what do you do during that time? Who are your weekends spent with and what do you want to spend your weekends doing?
Do you want to start a business/ do you already have a business? If so, what are your dreams for the business? Who is your ideal client?
If some of these questions are difficult to answer, start with the basics.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time? What type of people do you enjoy being around? What aspects of your current job do you enjoy?
Equally as important is often defining what you don’t want your personal brand to be.
What are the parts of your job you despise? What types of people do you not enjoy being around? What do you not want to spend your free time doing?
If you’re starting to get a better feel for who you are, what makes you happy, and what you want your future to look like, we’re on the right track. When you’re ready, let’s talk about narrowing down our focus.
3) Refine
When you have built that profile of the personal brand you want to portray, you’ll then be able to focus on making it a reality. Again, let’s focus on manifesting this personal brand via your digital presence. This can be achieved through simple changes, such as choosing the right title and profile image on your LinkedIn page, using the same aesthetics and filters across your Instagram images, and being consistent in your tone.
You should also look to tailor the usernames you use to make yourself easily findable online. If you can’t be found easily, you’re leaving your personal brand to chance. Not having a presence online can be seen as secretive, like you may be hiding something. Unfortunately, this is the reality of being a young professional in today’s world.
Another area to focus on is your bio. It might seem like just another text box, but it’s often the first thing someone will read about you, before they even look at your posts. It is also one of the most challenging aspects of your branding, though, as succinctly summarizing who you are and what you do in under twenty words is quite the challenge. Be deliberate with every word. You have already defined the image you wish to portray in words above, use those as your guidance.
4) Take Action
Famous lecturer, salesman, and author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie, once said, “you can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people, than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.”
If you want people to see who you are, become interested in what you have to say, or become interested in you as an individual, you also have to be interested in your audience more times than not. Even if you think you do not want to have this type of attention, believe me, you do. Whether you’re interested in a job or running your own business, you need other’s to be interested in you to achieve those dreams. Developing connections leads to having a team on your side when you go for that job or need referrals.
In this social media centric society, we can do this by actively seeking out networking-type opportunities by joining in online discussions, engaging with followers, and establishing yourself as a leader in your chosen field. Doing this will only build relationships and open new doors for you. You may even meet a few lifelong friends through social media.
So, be present online. Show up as exactly the person you want to become. It’s never too late to become that person and build the life of your dreams. Each and every day, keep those dreams and aspirations in mind. Your actions will manifest that reality with enough perseverance, intentionality, and hard work.
Final Thoughts
There is no denying our world is changing, monumentally and rapidly. Every person has a platform and a personal brand. (To reiterate, not having one is still having one.) The post-coronavirus society we will find ourselves in (someday) is going to be very different from the world we left back in 2019. However, despite the awful nature of the pandemic, it is presenting each of us the perfect opportunity to transform your personal and professional life, establish your personal brand, and ensure you stand out from the crowd for all of the specific reasons you want.
Whether you realize it or not, you’re already putting your personal branding out there to the world, so use this opportunity to take control of that and show potential employers, customers, friends, or dates just how great you are!
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