If you don’t have a powerful and visible personal brand, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage in almost every aspect of your professional, business and personal life. Personal branding has become a requirement for anyone looking to grow their business, get a better job, get noticed by the press, take their career to the next level or meet new, high quality friends.
Personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands — the ongoing process of establishing a prescribed image or impression in the mind of others about an individual. Everyone has a unique personal brand, whether they know it or not. But what we should all be striving for is a powerful, attractive and visible personal brand. I define that as an online and in-person authentic display of the engaging aspects of your professional and personal activities and interests.
Here are the reasons why you must have a top-notch personal brand if you want to be successful today:
Opportunity finds you.
When your personal brand is attractive, customers, clients, vendors, press and even companies looking to hire, will find you and reach out to you.R
Online networking power.
When you have a compelling personal brand, people find you interesting and desirable, so they are willing to connect with you. 3
Build your business.
Customers, clients and vendors are more likely to do businesses with a company when the leader has a killer personal brand. Good examples are Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Mark Cuban, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Fred Smith, Warren Buffet and even Donald Trump — whose personal brand may be bigger than his business. Where would their companies be without their personal brands shining on their company brands?
Get hired.
According to SHRM, 84 percent of hiring managers use social media to hire — 96 percent use Linkedin, and 53 percent use Twitter. Many companies post jobs on Twitter before anywhere else. But the most revealing statistic is that 66 percent of hiring managers use Facebook to hire. They are doing that because they are trying to find out more about you than just what’s on your resume. They want to know you as a person and understand whether you are going to fit into their corporate culture.
It’s a logical approach for selecting the best candidates. Candidate A has an impressive resume. Candidate B has a similarly impressive resume, but their strong personal brand shows that they have a blog with articles on topics relevant to the company’s business. They tweet about news and ideas from the industry. They do yoga, run half-marathons, and they volunteer for charity. Who do you think is getting the interview and the job?M
Serendipitous success.
When you are out there with your powerful and attractive personal brand good things happen — sometimes just by luck.
Confidence.
Developing your personal brand requires you to find your authentic voice. The process of creating one develops who you are — the unique you — the Me, Inc. When you find your voice, and your audiences start to react positively, that builds self-confidence and self-esteem and allows you to find yourself in a meaningful way.
Whether you are trying to build your business, find a job, get noticed by the press, impress vendors, attract influential contacts or simply make new successful friends, a powerful, attractive and visible brand is the key. And it’s also key to building your reputation, credibility and most importantly, being successful in your professional and personal life.
And finally, never forget the golden rule of building a successful personal brand — authenticity rules.
Article credit: https://www.entrepreneur.com/