Creative Ways To Do Personal Branding

A ‘brand’ is a unique name, identity, design, symbol or any other feature that differentiates a product or service from others in the market.

This differentiation is required to ensure that people understand why the brand is different, better or more beneficial than similar brands.

Additionally, a brand is how the customer perceives and “experiences” the overall engagement with the company.

It reflects the values and functions of the company and what it stands for. Moreover, a brand defines the business’s strength, quality and personality.

The growth of the internet, mainly social media, in the early 21 ^century, enabled a very individualistic narrative, where the focus and brand experience pivoted to an individual and not to any faceless organisation or institution. This colossal growth of digital and social media has led to the emergence of the ‘personal branding‘ phenomenon.

What is personal branding?

Personal branding is the process of defining and promoting what the individual represents or stands for. It is a set of skills, knowledge, values and experiences that differentiate one individual from another. In other words, it relates to ‘me’ or ‘you’ instead of ‘them’.

Why is personal branding important?

It has been established that over 90% of people trust recommendations for a product or service from their friends, family members or experts in a particular area.

Social media has helped these experts spread their reach further and has promoted a new segment of influencers, freelancers and online trainers who are not mere individuals but an authority in their own right.

However, the field of ‘experts’ is getting crowded, and they need to stand out from the competition. So, an individual operating as a business entity/service provider/consultant/subject expert needs to build a compelling and relatable personal brand to market his offerings to his target audience, attract new followers and gain more leads and sales.

Personal branding is not only restricted to social media influencers, freelancer professionals or other similar individuals. It is also valuable for regular individuals in many ways.

Additionally, it helps them develop a confident personality, opens new opportunities for their career or personal development, discover more and understand themselves much better.

How can you create a personal brand?

As an individual, you are already a personal brand because of how others relate to you, perceive you or get influenced by you. However, with the possibility of engaging with individuals online and offline, you may be perceived as a brand in multiple ways.

Here are a few points to remember before creating and shaping a personal brand:

1. Define your audience
   It is the most crucial task in a formal personal branding development process. Be clear about whom you are speaking to, what their expectations are and why they should engage with you
   
2. Set your goals
   Find answers to questions like:

• What do you wish to be known for?
• How do you want to be perceived?
• What is your ideal identity?
• What should you do to create this perfect identity?
  

3. Evaluate your existing brand
   It would help if you found out what:

• Are people saying about you
• Is what they say consistent with what you feel or think about yourself?
• What is your visibility online?
  

4. Define your strategy

• Decide how to present and protect your brand
• Identify the channels that you want to use to showcase yourself; it can be a website, video-sharing platform, blog, social media channels or a mix of all
• Set up and execute a regular schedule so that your brand is present and active on all channels

Steps to create a personal brand

1. Be focused

• Do not try to be everything to everybody
• Identify your key message, develop the proper channels to spread the message and do not deviate from what you are communicating
  

2. Be approachable and not overtly promotional
   The whole point of this is to grab your target audience’s attention so they are drawn to your brand. You may do this by responding to what the audience is searching for in your ‘branding space’.
   
   Sharing how you can solve your target audience’s problem is a far better way to build your brand than listing your achievements, talents, or skills.
   
3. Tell a story
   A story raises your brand’s narrative into something exciting and relevant that your audience can engage with or relate to. Any content promoting this story, such as videos or written material, dramatically magnifies engagement.
   
4. Give your audience a unique perspective
   Offering a different viewpoint to your audience through adequate research can be helpful in your long-term branding strategy.
   
5. Respect your individuality
   Be truthful with yourself and your target audience about your brand’s journey to create genuine and consistent connections.
   
6. Be a thought leader
   Create and publish compelling content to promote what your brand believes in or stands for to resonate with the relevant target audience and eventually attract the right prospects.
   
7. Be precise while defining your brand
   Having clarity about your mission, vision, purpose, audience and how you wish to help your target audience will result in faster and better connections.

Benefits of personal branding

• It helps people improve their reputation, particularly on online platforms
• It builds credibility by highlighting skills and knowledge
• It helps you differentiate yourself and set yourself apart from competitors in your industry
• It lets you leave a strong impression on your audience
• It facilitates a long-lasting connection with your target audience, as they align themselves to your values and what you represent or stand for

Personal branding

Today we see individuals in various industries and domains promoting themselves as a “personal brand” due to their talent, skills, expertise or knowledge of particular sectors or topics.

To give a few examples of personal branding:

1. Sachin Tendulkar: An ideal personal branding example would be the former Indian cricketing superstar, rightly considered one of the greatest players ever. As a brand, he highlights his colossal talent in cricket, his natural optimism and his resilience in the face of adversity. These attributes come through in all his interactions with the public.
2. Ratan Tata: One of the most respected business figures in India, Ratan Tata’s brand showcases his ability for hard work, firm and cheerful personality and humility despite being a successful businessman.
3. Elon Musk: The “Elon Musk” brand is a mix of multiple attributes. As one of the world’s wealthiest individuals, his brand brings out his liking for technology, his ability to look beyond routine applications, and his desire to bring about sustainable change for the better in various areas such as climate change.

Closing thoughts

Personal branding is about creating your identity and communicating it to the right audience. But, of course, you cannot appeal to everyone, so defining who your audience is crucial and how to connect with that audience is vital.

Successful personal branding highlights certain parts of your personality to your audience or network in a friendly, relatable, and helpful manner.

Personal branding helps demonstrate that you are a unique solution to their problem, helping you attract new clients and opportunities.