You hear the word branding all of the time, and its usually about a company. A brand is what makes that company stand out, and the emotional connection that a person feels toward a brand. It’s the reason people pay $1,000 for a pair of Jimmy Choo’s, instead of buying a no name pair of heels, or spend some extra money at Target instead of heading to Walmart.
But what about a personal brand? Everyone has one. Even if you don’t own your own company, you still have your personality and a way that people perceive you.
This morning Kate shared tips about personal branding at a seminar. We wanted to share some of the highlights of her presentation, and talk about the importance of your brand!
When building your personal brand think about:
- How people perceive you
- Did you know that a person will judge you within the first 7 seconds of meeting you?
- When you talk to people over the phone 70% of the conversation is judged by your tone of voice
- What you look like on the internet
- Are your profiles clean and friendly?
- Google yourself!
- Define who you are
- How do you describe yourself?
- How do other people describe you?
How to define your brand:
If you want to start to figure out your personal brand, ask yourself these questions:
- What are your goals?
- What do you value?
- What are you passionate about?
- What motivates you?
- What makes you remarkable?
If you can’t think about all of the answers to these questions, then you can ask a good friend, or colleague to help you. It is always good to get opinions from other people, because it helps you see the areas of your brand that you need to work on!
Your virtual brand
A major part of your brand is seen on the internet, or through email. What you share, post, like, and who you interact with are all a part of your brand. If you are on LinkedIn, think about who you are connected with. When posted on Facebook Twitter and Instagram, keeping posts clean and personable help make your brand look professional. It is great to interact with people just like you would interact with them in person. Like, share, retweet, and comment on posts. If your posts are outdated, you don’t have a strong social brand.
When it comes to emails, you always need to think about your formatting and the content that you are sending:
- Use exclamation points sparingly. A good rule of thumb is to avoid using them two sentences in a row
- An email should convey its information in as few sentences as possible
- When reaching out to someone for a business ask, first establishing a personal connection, so it doesn’t come off as rude to jump straight into the request without
- When emailing a professional, especially a superior, follow their lead
- if they’re still signing off every email with “Sincerely,” maintain the same level of professionalism with a similar signature
- Once you’ve written an email, don’t send it
- Read it all the way through to catch any grammatical errors, you don’t want to send anything sloppy
Our final tip: Be Unique. Learn from others and gather inspiration from your mentors. But remember to stay true to who you are, it’s how you’ll separate yourself from the competition. Identify what makes you different and use those traits to attract people to you in a positive way.
We hope that these tips can help you build your own personal brand. We are always here to help you if you need any help. And remember, keep calm and brand yourself.
