What is an easy way to define a personal brand?

Whether you know it or not, you are a brand. Whether you like it or not, it has the potential to change your life. So take control of the narrative and showcase who you are! You can do this with a personal brand.

Before the digital era, a curriculum vitae or CV was the representation of our professional self. Our achievements and history are inked on paper. Our interests and personality were displayed through interviews. We shared our ideas and opinions in person. Or maybe over phone calls. Our relationships were built using meetings, gatherings, and events. As a result, we had limitations to being discovered.

Fast forward to today. We have an overwhelming selection of channels at our disposal. These can be used to explore, express and share. Or discuss, promote, and showcase ourselves too. The possibilities are endless, despite the objectives. For instance, we are living in an age of self-run e-commerce businesses. A new celebrity YouTuber pops up every other day. And Instagram influencers are everywhere! Some have achieved the successful penetration of their brand digitally with great products and services. While others create high-quality content. But there are still a few who have stumbled into it with a long process of trial-and-error. They still find their voice and an identity that can propel them to success. That is the power of a PERSONAL BRAND.

Why develop your personal brand?

Here are a few interesting statistics from G2.com to get a taste of the implications of personal brands:

• Leads developed through employees’ social media activities convert 7x more frequently than other leads.
  
• On average, employees have 10x followers than their company’s social media accounts.
  
• Content shared by employees receives 8x engagement than content shared by brand channels.
  
• Sales reps who use social media as part of their sales techniques outsell 78% of their peers.
  
• 82% of customers trust a company when their senior management are active on social media.
  
• Employees at companies that invest in personal branding initiatives are 27% more likely to feel optimistic about their company’s future as a result.
  

There’s more to uncovering brand identity. This is discussed further in another EM blog post. You can find it here.

Bringing the personal and professional together

In our personal lives, most of us have found a voice that comments on digital content in some way or the other. We partake in the sharing, liking, and commenting game daily. But we readily do it for the things that we enjoy. We also make pleas to our friends and followers to view the content that resonates with us. How? By just hitting “Share”.

Our professional side used to have a different approach. Despite that, the aim was to put the best version of ourselves forward. We embellished achievements to pad our resumes. Some of us adopted a “fake it til you make it” approach to furthering our careers and prospects. The digital age just means we can now do the same online!

We are all unique. We have our own ways of finding balance. As a result, we have a different balance between personal and professional. Some limit the exposure of personal opinions and ideas to garner a larger focus on career achievements. This is great for those working in specialized fields such as research and development, where their brand can shine with journal features, white papers, or published research. Others have the two aligned to reflect a broader yet singular identity.

A lot of this is dependant on the goals we set. But being organized, and having SMARTER goals can provide focus. You can learn about SMARTER goal-setting here.

A short example

For now, let’s take someone working at a non-profit organization. As an example, let say they are working towards improving education in rural areas. To this person, their contributions to the cause may be beyond just their professional connection as a teacher, it could be a personal purpose for helping children in developing countries. It is the eventual overlap and meshing between the personal and professional halves of your lives, that paints a complete picture of who you are. This is your PERSONAL BRAND.

My Definition of a personal brand:

Your personal brand is an accepted impression or opinion of you based on your values, experience, skills, capabilities, core competencies, achievements, behavior and/or personality, within your community, network or industry, or even generally, in society.

The goal shouldn’t just be growing reach, increasing engagement, and more conversions. You should also aim to discover and establish your identity. You can play to your strengths by identifying your audience, as well. Then, prepare a customized marketing strategy to build and grow YOUR BRAND! It may sound overwhelming. But understanding how it could benefit you will definitely highlight its need.

Some of us are purpose-driven. Also, meaning we want to connect our personal brand to our purpose. So that we can be authentic in our efforts and how we are represented. So here’s a helpful blog post on doing just that!

Benefits of a personal brand

There are several reasons to prioritize personal branding, these are just the top few:

• Distinguish you and your offering within your industry or specialization
  
• Build awareness for your work and any projects you attach yourself to
  
• Establish your reputation for your customers and audience
  
• Increase opportunities for engagement and impact you have with your community (online/offline)
  

Personal Branding

Now that you understand what a personal brand is and why it is important, let’s look at how several experts have come across defining the term personal branding, which is the process by which you can establish your personal brand:

Personalbrand.com differentiates the term “personal branding” from “personal brand” by describing it as:

“the conscious and intentional effort to create and influence public perception of an individual by positioning them as an authority in their industry, elevating their credibility, and differentiating themselves from the competition, to ultimately advance their career, increase their circle of influence, and have a larger impact.“

Another insightful definition comes from Kheder (2014):

“the process of establishing a unique personal identity, developing an active communication approach of one’s brand identity to a specific target market and evaluating its impact on one’s image and reputation, to fulfil personal and professional objectives.”

Lastly, let’s remember another quote that sums it all up:

“Your brand is what other people say about you
when you’re not in the room.”

Jeff Bezos

The underlying commonalities of those definitions remain the same. YOU are in charge of establishing your brand. The strength of your brand identity and the clarity in communicating it will shape the perception of your personal brand. And by extension, YOU!

So the only question left to address now is:

What does YOUR PERSONAL BRAND say about you?

References:

Pope, Lauren. “90 Branding Statistics to Help You Make a Good Impression.” G2 LearnHub, Nov. 12, 2020

“Definition of a Personal Brand vs. Personal Branding.”, Personal Branding.com Feb. 22, 2021

Kheder, M. “Personal Branding Phenomenon.” International Journal of Information, Business and Management, vol. 6, no. 2, 2014, p. 33.