Quick tips to improve
your personal brand
Personal brands are becoming more important in our careers. This article will cover the basics of personal branding, and some quick tips you can use today to improve your own.
Personal Brand
What is a personal brand?
Why do I need a personal brand?
Your personal brand can help accelerate your career enormously. That said, it takes time to build, and your whole career to maintain. Eventually, you’ll find that opportunities come to you rather than you having to seek them out, including networking, promotions, new jobs or new clients.
Defining your brand
The first thing you need to do to begin defining your personal brand is to ask yourself three important questions: What are your passions? What makes you unique? Where can you add value to the conversation? It’s totally normal for these answers to evolve as your career progresses, but it’s the best place to start to build an image of yourself. If you’re not sure where to start, ask your colleagues, friends and family.
Tips for defining your personal brand
1. Get in the mindset
Once you’ve defined your personal brand, you need to consider how you can project it in everything you do. Find the balance between being confident and knowledgeable, without showing off. Look for places where you can add value and showcase your expertise. Remember, it’s okay to not be an expert in everything, not every occasion will be the right fit for you.
2. Seek growth opportunities
Although you now have a defined brand, you should always look to grow and improve yourself. This might be through networking opportunities, attending webinars, reading relevant articles, or upskilling yourself. Not only will this add value to your brand by helping your personal growth, but it creates a positive impression on others. As your career lengthens, you may find the opportunities change to hosting these events and identifying areas to grow business.
3. Share your expertise at work
The best place to start is right where you are. Project your personal brand at work, and people’s perception of you will adapt to fit it. Become the person that people see as the expert in your field, and they will begin to come to you with questions and opportunities. Once they rely upon you, trust you, and see you in the way you want them to, it will influence the way they talk about you to others.
4. Share yourself online
Nowadays, having a strong online presence can be just as important, if not more so, than a good CV and references. It creates a backlog of evidence of your skills, and is a great way to showcase your expertise wider than the people you immediately work with. It’s also the perfect place to show where you can add value to relevant conversations by sharing your opinion. The most popular career-focused platform is LinkedIn, but you can also create a website, blog or online portfolio, or a career-focused Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok.
5. Be positive and embrace your personality
There are lots of people who are training to be experts in the exact same field as you, but what makes you stand out is your personality. Don’t be afraid to be unique and have fun with your career, maintaining a positive outlook that people enjoy being around and working with. You don’t have to be the loudest person in the room, but when you do talk, be yourself completely. Try to add something different to conversations, suggesting things that other people may not have considered that challenges them to think.
6. Learn from aspirational people
We follow influencers for home, life, food, fashion and beauty inspiration, so why not follow some for career inspiration, too? They can be people who have your dream job, advise you on how to handle different situations, or help you improve your personal brand. You can also learn from aspirational people in your daily life, whether it’s a friend or family member, your colleague, or your manager.
7. Look the part
Whilst it seems a little shallow, people form a first impression of you in seconds of meeting you. The way you appear is a huge part of that. It’s not about looking perfect every time you go to work, but making the effort to appear more professional can go a long way. Invest in clothing, accessory and equipment staples for your job type, but remember they should still match your personality.
I hope these quick tips give you a good start to building or improving your personal brand. Good luck in your career!
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