Personal Branding: Why It’s Important, And How To Master It

 

Whether you’ve cultivated it for yourself or not, you likely have at least the framework of a brand online. You can make the decision to manage it or choose to let someone else define it for you. Either way, perception of who you are typically starts online. Leveraging your online presence and shoring up your personal brand can have a critical role in your success. Communicating who you are, your values and your goals can be an effective way of establishing reputation for yourself in a broad and saturated marketplace

Like any solid strategy, attention and effort can go a long way in assuring your personal brand’s success. Here’s how and why:

Your Brand Is Only As Credible As Its CEO

People want to know exactly what they’re buying because they want to know what they’re aligning themselves with. That extends to brand executives. Understanding the identity of a brand’s highest leaders can give consumers insight into what they’re purchasing, and where their money is going. There’s a reason why the companies like Apple, Facebook, and IMB put their CEOs on display – and why American Apparel sacked Dov Charney after he became known for scandal. They serve as human embodiments of what their brand excels at, stands for and has to offer – whether they mean to or not.

Target The Influencers

What do you want others to think about when they see your name? Most brands want to be perceived as their industry’s leader, a trusted advisor and an innovator – possibly all at once. As CEO of your brand, you should work to formulate your personal brand to be complimentary to your company. A key part of this will require identifying what audiences will find you the most engaging.

No marketing strategy is complete without a target audience. The best brand marketers invest in identifying key audiences and providing solutions to their needs. Behind every one of their marketing plans is a strategy posed to engage target audiences and build brand loyalty. When you develop your personal brand, it’s important that you target your brand’s key audience – and those core decision makers within that key audience. If your brand sells infant clothing, for example, your brand advertising would target moms – but your personal brand should target those moms who are influencers over their market – mommy bloggers especially. Find the trendsetters in your target industry, and start talking.

Provide A Face That Customers Want To Talk To

Not only are you your brand’s leader, you’re its spokesperson, pitchman, and trademark. Your identity will be the crux of how others perceive you so making it authentic is key. Authenticity, after all, is what makes a personal brand so personal in the first place. As such, you should work to put your experience, interests, and values center stage.

Start by conveying a strong and empathetic narrative. Everyone has a story that can motivate others in some form of another. Contemplate the stories behind today’s biggest personal brands. Their starts, interests, and narratives have all become a unified part of their own brand’s stories. Examine the parts of your own story that others might want to hear and share them.

Keep Tabs On Your Online Presence

Having an understanding of your brand’s personal status is crucial. To mold perception of your brand, you have to start by getting an understanding of what you’re working with. A huge part of cultivating a favorable personal brand requires awareness of when it is mentioned and including yourself in the conversation when needed. Protect and shape your online identity by setting up a Google alert on your name. That means that if you haven’t Googled, yourself in a while, now’s the time.

Link Your Name to Other Strong Brands

Hitching your name to the right connections can be a source of strength or weakness for your brand. Leverage brands that can help you boost the perception of it, but also take into account who you’re aligning yourself with.

Consider Michael Jordan’s association with Nike. His long-running sponsorship with the athletic company launched in his first year of playing for the NBA. Nike was looking for a fresh young face with lots of potential to help them rebuild after a loss, and Jordan was perfect. The relationship was symbiotic, with Jordan not only securing a hefty profit for years to come, but also increasing his celebrity past just basketball fans. Anyone who appreciated sneakers and fashion now knew who Michael Jordan was – which consistently opened doors for him throughout his career. Making connections with the right people can be the boost your personal brand needs to bolster it to the top. Start by reaching out to already-made connections such as your college, company and friends.

Your personal brand is not just important to you, it’s important to the success of your company as a whole. When your customers are choosing which brand to invest in – whether it’s a few dollars for a small retail item or thousands for a B2B service – they’ll look to you, personally, to get an idea of what your brand is. Are you an soft spoken innovative powerhouse, like Bill Gates and Microsoft? A sharply intellectual, discerning leader, like Steve Jobs and Apple? Or are you a lost soul still entertaining high school pettiness, like Mike Jeffries and Abercrombie & Fitch? If you neglect your personal brand, you abandon your company’s brand.