Help your team develop their Personal Brand with our guide and workshop

As Marketing Manager of Global Courseware, Zack Myers constantly seeks new opportunities to improve and showcase our training products. He joins our blog today with his guest post on his tips on personal branding.

Personal Branding is more important than ever in our fast-changing world and increased use of technology. Information can spread widely and quickly, so it is crucial that you invest in the personal brand of yourself and your team. Below are some tips on developing your personal brand so you can be a positive representation for yourself and your organization.

Assessing your Current Personal Brand: Start with a SWOT Analysis

To build and improve on your personal brand, you must develop a strong understanding of what you have to offer. Strategically assessing your current personal brand will help you find what tactics you can use to improve it.

One way to do this is through a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis is a four-quadrant system that allows you to assess your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This provides a strong baseline understanding of your personal brand.

Determining your strengths will help you understand what skills you excel at, whether they come naturally or through experience. This will help you understand what makes you stand out which you can highlight in your personal brand.

Being self-aware when it comes to your weaknesses is a crucial first step to improving them, making the weaknesses quadrant of the SWOT analysis very important. This is an opportunity to take stock of areas where your education, traits, or negative habits could be worked on.

Opportunities are positive external factors that could give you an advantage in your personal brand and professional development. Understanding your opportunities will help you be more mindful of the chances you will get to grow in your organization, role, and industry.

Finally, examining threats to your personal brand can allow you to be ready to overcome obstacles that stand in the way of your professional goals. Like opportunities, this means being mindful of the growth rate of your organization, position, and industry.

Defining Yourself: If you don’t, they will

Choosing to take control of your personal brand will give you the opportunity to better define yourself. When establishing your personal brand, it is essential that you understand your mission, purpose, and how other perceive you. When you take the time to define yourself and present this definition to the public, your will reap the benefits that come with taking control of your personal branding.

It is easy to underestimate the importance of personal branding and avoid actively participating in your brand. The truth, however, is that branding occurs whether you participate in it or not. If you do not take the time to brand yourself, the market will brand you, and it may not do it favorably. Customers can bring negative attention to a company or individual, and attention can easily escalate to the court of public opinion. Without personal branding and active intervention, the damage to the brand name could have been beyond repair. Taking control of personal branding is necessary to manage your public reputation.

Brand Mantras: The Essence of your Personal Brand

Brand mantras are short, but they are powerful. This short phrase or statement may only be three to five words, but these words define your brand. A mantra must explore the brand’s points of difference or how the brand is unique along with what the company represents. In order to create a brand mantra, you must first identify what sets your personal brand apart and list your points of difference. Once the points of difference are identified, you must create a mantra that is simple, clearly communicated, and inspiring.

When creating a mantra, you should begin with brainstorming words that reflect your purpose, values, and mission. Below are some examples of strong corporate brand mantras:

Nike: Authentic Athletic Performance
Disney: Fun Family Entertainment
BMW: Ultimate Driving Machine

Taking the time to brainstorm and analyze your brand through a SWOT analysis and listing your points of difference will allow you to create a strong brand mantra.

Social Media Matters: Managing Your Online Reputation

With the surge of social media in the last decade or so, managing your online reputation is a vital part of maintaining and promoting your personal brand. If you are active online, your personal brand is online, and it is your responsibility to take control of it. This is why keeping tabs on how you are perceived online is crucial.

To get started on your online personal branding, take some time to plan out what your brand vision is. Determine the tone, voice, and image of your personal brand, and ensure it is consistent throughout all of your social media platforms. This will allow you to be recognizable to your publics.

Keeping your social media content timely will show that you take an active interest in your industry and your work. This means posting consistent, relevant content to your followers. You can also increase the credibility of your personal brand by being responsive to your followers with questions, comments, and any engagement that will help you build relationships and your network.

If you are new to establishing your personal brand, LinkedIn can be a great platform to start on. They have over 500 million users looking to build their network and share their personal brand with one another.

Be Real: Showing your Authenticity

People are drawn to genuine people. The key to personal branding is to have authenticity. Communicating dry facts will not impress most people. Your brand must have personality. Showing your true persona will attract people. Share ideas, implement humor, and make connections with people online and in person.

When you are developing your persona, remember to be real and consistent with your messaging. You are under no obligation to share personal details about yourself, but everything that you share should be genuine. Never make up facts, statistics, or tell lies. Fact checking has become easier than ever, and lies will do nothing to improve your brand’s reputation.

Conclusion

Everyone can benefit from investing in their own Personal Branding to accelerate their professional development. Taking the time to analyze where you stand with how you are professionally perceived and taking steps to improve your image will help you build stronger relationships and boost your credibility. Personal Branding Training will ensure your employees all take the time to develop and maintain their personal brands, which will reflect positively on your organization as a whole. Get started on training your employees with our Personal Branding Workshop, or get started with a free course kit!

Posted by Zachary Myers on February 4, 2021