What Is Personal Branding and Why Is It Important?

Introduction to Personal Branding 

Every contemporary entrepreneur, company CEO, entrepreneur, and go-getter must grasp the purpose of personal branding. It influences how your targeted market, rivals, and others in your sector perceive you. 

Personal branding can have a long-term influence on how people perceive your firm, what image they have of your organization, and much more. Personal branding is critical for the success of all of your professional journey, especially in today’s world, when our personal and professional lives are so intertwined. 

These stats signify the importance of personal branding: 

• 82% of people feel reliable towards a business with social media-savvy senior executives.  
• 77% of consumers prefer buying from a brand with a CEO active on social media. 

This article will explain “what is personal branding and why is it important?” and where to leverage it properly. 

What Is Personal Branding?  

Personal branding is the process of developing a plan to impact a person’s public impression. It entails developing an identity that distinguishes people from their competition, making them more identifiable and relevant to their target audience. A person’s brand should present preliminary who they are, what they strive for, and what they intend to be remembered for. It must be realistic, and most importantly, it should deliver an exemplary message. 

Why Does A Brand/Individual Need Personal Branding?  

Why does one need personal branding? Let us point out some benefits of building a personal brand. You need it for the following reasons: 

• To Boost Your Visibility
  If your customers do not see you regularly, they will forget about you. People require answers to their problems, which you offer. However, if you are not noticeable, your audience will not remember you. This does not imply that you must be present on every social media network; you must be present where your prospective customers are. 
• To Be at the Forefront
  This is closely related to your visibility. This is why firms spend billions of dollars on advertisements to stay at the top of people’s minds. However, you do not have to spend a lot on advertising. A powerful and deliberate brand will get you there. 
• To Grow Your Authority
  Being noticed is vital but not sufficient. People select you over another individual who provides the same services because of your authority. A personal brand defines your authority in your industry, and authority sets you apart from the competition. Having authority provides you greater leverage, not simply in terms of bringing in more money but also in demanding premium prices. 
• To Expand Your Audience
  The number of your audience does not determine your earnings. You may have a small market yet earn more money. You can also be the total opposite, with a great following but little revenue. You need a market, whether it is small or large. When you grow your brand, you offer yourself the solution to their challenges. 
• To Strengthen Your Relevance
  Being seen and being relevant is not the same thing. It doesn’t matter if you’re on every social media network if your client doesn’t connect with your message.A strong personal brand can assist you in being relevant and engaging. These are critical elements in building the knowing, love, and acceptance aspect.  

Few Examples Of Outstanding Personal Branding  

Here are some of the best examples of personal branding: 

Elon Musk 

Musk’s brand is one of the most powerful and well-known in the world.  

Key terms that describe Musk’s brand include: 

• Innovative 
• Eco-friendly 
• Driven 
• SpaceX 
• Tesla 

Musk has a big personal brand, which includes both positive and bad aspects. Over the years, he has developed a strong personal brand. He is the voice of cutting-edge firms, including Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and more. Musk firms define branding as the importance and how a brand can increase a company’s worth. 

Alice Thorpe 

Alice Thorpe is a freelance graphic designer that creates content for her company and other designers on YouTube. As a graphic designer, she has nailed the informal, playful, yet appealing design approach that can now be seen all over the Internet. 

Her brand is also embodied by a concept comparable to that of well-known firms such as Apple and Progressive. This tone and concept indicate to her intended audience that she is knowledgeable yet approachable without being frightening.  

Bill Nye 

After recognizing a niche in the entertainment and educational industries, Nye established a personal brand: studying science was just not enjoyable for many children. Nye overcame this by creating a personal brand and character for his famous educative show. 

At first look, the brand paradigm examples above could not be more different. They do, however, have many characteristic features, including: 

• Consistency: These companies maintain a constant tone, offering, and authenticity. 
• Positivity: A negative personal brand cannot be effective. 
• Helpful: The last thing these personal brands have in common is a friendly attitude. Every company has something to offer potential readers, users, buyers, and consumers. 

When creating a compelling personal brand for yourself, do remember the importance of branding. 

How Do You Achieve Effective Personal Branding?  

Here are the five steps you need to achieve effective personal branding:  

1. Determine Your Identity 

It may appear bizarre to try to figure out who you are. But how well do you understand yourself? Unfortunately, in today’s fast-paced world, many of us neglect to contemplate and concentrate on ourselves. Some reflection is required to create a strong personal brand. 

Here’s a short activity to help you get started. Take a piece of paper and jot down the answers to the following questions: 

• What am I having trouble with? 
• What motivates me? 
• What kind of jobs sap my energy? 
• What do others say about me? 

As difficult as it may seem, honesty and thorough contemplation are essential in this situation. If you’re having trouble answering these questions, get advice from family and acquaintances.  

2. Think About How You Want to Be Acknowledged 

After you’ve determined who you are today, you can start thinking about who you want to be ahead of. Try not to concentrate overly on the things you desire in life but rather on the practices necessary to be the person who acquires them. 

To begin, evaluate the sector you want to enter: what knowledge, reputation, and skills are necessary to flourish there? Think big, but simplify bigger ambitions down into smaller, manageable stages. That way, you’ll be able to track your real progress more easily afterward. 

3. Identify Your Market Niche 

Your goal with your brand should never be to delight everyone. It’s a waste of your time and efforts. Instead, concentrate your efforts on identifying your specialty and striving to attract a demographic. 

Companies, professionals, clients, and recruiters are more inclined to approach someone who specializes in a certain topic than someone who professes to be able to handle a little bit of everything. Of course, you should continue to work on broadening your expertise, but a well-defined specialization can help you concentrate on dominating a segment of the market. 

4. Boost Your Social Presence 

Once you have narrowed down your target audience, find out where they can be reached and what they are looking for. After you’ve addressed those questions, you can start building your online presence to appeal to them. 

Remember that consistency is essential wherever you advertise and engage online. Make sure the overall tone and impression you offer online are consistent across channels. 

5. Extensive Networking 

The goal of networking is not to build a following. Even if you have thousands of followers, having them will not help you if no one engages with you. Your true goal is to make connections and promote conversation. 

Pointers to Consider While Making a Personal Branding Strategy  

Following are some pointers to consider while making a personal branding strategy: 

• Networking and social activity will assist in the growth of your brand. Build your network by networking at conferences, organizing meetups, and posting on social media. As you interact with others, your network expands. 
• Utilize your knowledge to help establish your brand. Personal branding can be built by providing knowledge to your customers and educating them. Post good, relevant, and entertaining content that is informative. 
• When it comes to self-branding, authenticity is crucial. Be genuine and be yourself. People will be more likely to recognize and trust honest people. Your uniqueness is what sets you apart and helps you build an audience. 
• The simplest method to grow a reputation is to be consistent. To develop a personal brand, you must be consistent across all platforms and social media channels. To be consistent, stick to your niche.  

Advantages Of Personal Branding  

• It is easier to create opportunities for yourself or your small business if prospective collaborators can quickly tell who you are. That is one of the main benefits of successful personal branding: It shows off your uniqueness, all about your brand and strengths, in a way that makes working with you seem beneficial to prospective clients. 
• Developing a personal brand can assist in the building of your digital reputation. You can change the necessary facts people learn about you by generating and distributing information that portrays you clearly and attractively. 
• As your network expands, more people will recognize your brand before you meet them. Your influence will rise and you will be in a position of authority. 
• Your brand reveals why you do what you do – what propels and motivates you. This helps others feel more at ease interacting with you. Your motives are genuine and unmistakable.  

Conclusion  

While Building a personal brand takes time and effort, the reward is huge when done effectively. Personal brands enable you to create a network of experts who recognize your value and consider you first when opportunities emerge. 

Start by understanding branding, its purpose, and why branding is important. This will help you to take your brand to the next level. UNext Jigsaw’s Executive Program in Strategic Sales Management can help you achieve professional-grade awareness about branding, do check it out!