Is personal branding even relevant for me? Yes, it is for everyone!
What even is personal branding? Is that relevant for me if I’m not the CEO, a PR spokesperson, or another public speaking personality? The truth is that building your personal brand is relevant for everyone today. You either want to increase your credibility and expertise in a certain area or you want to support selling your product with you as the face of the business.
Employers and employees both look up potential business partners, clients and customers online. Therefore, the way you present yourself online can influence your professional goals. You are always branding yourself when you present yourself online and this makes personal branding important for everyone. If you do it effectively, people will think about you when they think about a certain topic or industry. You can establish your own brand and create credibility and be someone trustworthy people want to turn to when they are looking for advice or expertise on a topic.
What is personal branding?
In short, personal branding means the branding of your own person and there are different channels and tools on how to do that. You want to create content that you want to be known for and that you want to share with your network and if successful, also broaden your network this way. Do you want to be known for topics related to sustainability, being self-employed, improving sales, or career advice? There is an audience for every niche, you just need to think about what you are passionate about and what you want to talk about.
By posting relevant content online on a weekly basis you are making yourself visible and recognizable to different people. It is important to keep in mind that even though creating content should be the main part, commenting on and sharing other people’s content that is relevant to you is important as well. Remember to give back and support other creators’ content by sharing and engaging. Empowering each other and sharing not only your ideas but also others, shows that you care about these topics.
But don’t forget about the offline world, in Career Club DK you can find women that are experts in different kinds of fields, including branding, career advice, tech, PR, etc. Joining some of the many events that Career Club DK is hosting (e.g. Thursday Bars every second Thursday of the month), can help you too, to build your personal brand and to broaden your network. By talking to others and making new connections, you can share your insights and people will soon come to you for the advice!
Leveraging LinkedIn
Of course, you cannot attend face-to-face all the time and your online presence counts a lot today. Depending on who you are communicating with, you need to think about which social media channel is most suitable. Where does your target audience spend their time? In a professional setting, LinkedIn as the biggest professional network can be a good channel to create content. LinkedIn even has its own metrics, the Social Selling Index score, to measure how successful you are. The Social Selling Index score measures four different metrics and one of them is how effectively you establish your personal brand. The other ones are how effective you are in finding the right connections, how you engage with your insights, and how you build relationships. You can also see how you compare against others in your field and industry.
So how to get started on LinkedIn? It is for example possible to become an “influencer” on LinkedIn by choosing the creator modus. You can choose people to follow you instead of them sending you a connection request. When you then create content you need to think about who you want to address and what kind of content they are interested in. If you are for example a marketing professional, you could share your tips about copywriting or social media posts. Additionally, you could share marketing reports that showcase the latest marketing trends, so something that is not your own content, but relevant for you and your audience. Last, you should also comment on other marketers’ content and maybe reshare some of their content that you really like.
Tips on how to build your personal brand
- First impression counts – update your picture
Your picture will be the first impression that people will get from you, so have an up-to-date picture and a LinkedIn banner.
- Identifying your niche
What do you want to be known for? Think about what for example your colleagues or friends and family come to you for advice. Are you great at Photoshop? Share your editing tips. Are you a great negotiator? How can you improve your negotiation skills?
- Relevant content
What is it that you want to be known for and showcase in your profile?
What is relevant in your industry or business right now? Research and read the latest news to keep your followers informed about what is going on. Your content should be a mix of your own content, others’ content, and your business’s content if you have your own business. You can also post content about the company you work for, but then you need to keep your company’s social media policies in mind. Also, you need to think about if you want to separate your own branding and your company’s or if you want to connect them.
- Weekly postings
Depending on which social media channels you are using, it is recommended to post several times a day (e.g. on Twitter) or several times a week (e.g. on LinkedIn). There are different opinions about the frequency of the postings as well as the day and timing of the day, but that is also up to the individual person, how much time and effort you want to invest in your personal branding through social media channels. But posting regularly is key, you need to stay on people’s feeds, so people will remember you, that means posting at least once a week, preferably several times a week. Have content prepared for a couple of weeks, so if you don’t have the time to create new content, you can use some of the already prepared posts.
- Engaging with others’ content
Engage with your followers, but also with other peoples’ and creators’ content. You can comment and share content that you find interesting and that you want to support.
- Make connections
Part of building your personal brand is connecting and engaging with others. Having discussions with people from your industry and other industries to exchange ideas is important to stay on top of what is going on in the business world. In Career Club DK there are women from different industries and backgrounds that you can connect with, this can help you in building your personal brand and broadening your professional network.
- Be you!
This is not about creating a perfect version of yourself for the public. It’s about showcasing who you are, your talents, and what you stand for. Go make us proud!
What has helped you in building your personal brand? Let us Know!
Author
Annika Puutio
Career Club DK Advisory Board Member
Digital Marketing Manager
Connect with Annika on LinkedIn!
