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Personal Branding: Why It Matters

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When you think about somebody that you know, an idea of who they are will often come into your mind. And it’s often parts of their personality, or key characteristics that set them apart. Whether they’re funny or stylish, casual or highly strung, it’s often quite easy to picture the person and everything that makes them who they are – without really having to do anything at all. It’s just a natural way that we recall those that we know. At the same time, anyone that knows you will be able to do the same for you. And even those that don’t – it’s this that leads us to the idea of having a personal brand.

Because even when people don’t know you, they can use their perceptions of your looks, your attitude, and your actions to assume what you must be like. Sometimes, they know who you are or have heard about you, and again, come up with an idea of who you are. And these views aren’t always good. So, it’s often a great idea to work on your own personal brand to make sure that you’re able to give off the image of who you are that you want people to see. This can often be a really useful thing to do as part of your career too. So let’s see how you can make it happen.

Personal Brand

This refers to the kind of brand that you actually want to project. Many of the following points are going to come under this, but this generally sets the standard for everything else.

Who You Are

The first thing you need to do as part of this, is get to know yourself better. Because, actually, trying to define who you are as a person can be quite tough. You may also think that you’re one kind of person, when actually you’re another. If you’re really struggling to understand who you are, you’re going to want to look at the different personality types and see if they can help you to see things clearer.

What You Stand For

You also need to identify what you stand for as a person. Do you appreciate quality? Or do you care more about people? Do you like to stay out of the spotlight? Or are you someone that likes to get your hands dirty? By defining yourself as a person, you than then identify the key qualities that make you who you are.

What Is Your Brand?

You’re then going to want to think about creating your personal brand. This will be what you want to be seen as. To do this, you’re going to not only want to use your own personal traits, but consider your specialities too. Because the things that you’re good at, or your strengths, can often contribute to your branding. And you need to be able to use them to form the vision of who you are.

What Do You Want To Be Known For?

Finally, you also need to decide exactly what you want to be known for. Because you could find that the person you are right now doesn’t necessarily make up the brand image you want to have. So to start putting the right personal brand in place, you have to know what you want people to think of you, and know you for. Whether it’s a ballbreaker or a philanthropist, you need to know what you want to be, in order to create the brand behind it.

Image

Image is everything. Or so they say. So it’s essential that you’re able to project the right look for your personal brand.

Your Style

First up, you’re going to want to look at your style. Because whether you want it to or not, how you look and what you wear largely contribute to your personal brand. Think about it. When you first meet somebody, you automatically form an opinion of them based on what they look like – and others will do that to. So you have to redefine your style based on your brand.

Your Niche

But before you get ahead of yourself and change your style completely, you need to make sure that it works with your niche. Because every brand will fit into a specific niche, so you need to define yours. Whether it’s luxury or hipster, you can often use things like watches and accessories to set off your style. And it will always tie into your niche.

Matching Your Brand

But you also need to make sure that your style matches your brand. If you’re really trying to come across as a humanitarian or environmentalist and you’re dressed in designer goods, it may not work. At the same time, if you want to look high end and you’re wearing sweat and sneaker, it’s not going to work. So be sure to make your image match your brand.

Taking Pride In Your Appearance

Above all else, you have to take pride in your appearance. Because your appearance will affect your career, and you’re definitely going to want that to be for positive reasons, not negative ones. If you take care of yourself, then no matter what your brand niche is, you’ll look the part.

Attitude

Your attitude will always form part of your personal brand. You may not realize it, but this is definitely what others will decide your image upon.

The Impression You Make

Everyone makes an impression, but not everyone knows how to make the right impression! And this can be a problem. Because you only get one chance to make a good first impression, no matter what that means to you. So you have to be sure that you’re able to make an impression on others that will fit with your brand. You don’t always want to come off as a jerk, but you may not want to seem like a pushover either. So it’s essential you can get this right.

How You Treat Others

This one’s a biggie. Because how you treat others is something very essential to your personal brand. If you’re arrogant, you have to be okay with the fact that you may get a bad reputation. But if that’s an integral ingredient to your brand, then it doesn’t matter. You just need to know that how you treat people will form a huge portion of your personal brand.

Your Influence

And what about any influence that you may have? Is this important to your brand? If you want to be a leader, you need to learn how to influence people and be sure to create the right characteristics in your personality. It may seem like a lot of work, but if you want the right image, it’s going to be essential.

Your Likability

On the flip side, maybe you need people to really like you? When that’s the case, you have to focus on your likability factors. If you want to be a people person, you need to know that you’re relatable. But, again, if you don’t want to be liked, you won’t have to worry.

Actions

The things you do will also impact on your personal brand. Again, this is often how people can form an opinion of you, even if you try to project something different – so it counts!

How Hard You Work

So, we’re starting out with something essential here. Because hard work speaks for itself. And if you’re trying to make the right impression when it comes to your work, you’re going to want to work harder than you think you need to. People notice those that put the effort in. So if you’re looking to generate the right impression with the right people in your career, at lot can be said for how hard you work.

Your Commitment

This point often goes hand in hand with how hard you work, but it’s often essential for your career for you to show that you’re a committed person. Employee dedication is never underestimated. So you need to work this into your personal brand in some way. No matter if you’re the quiet kind one, or the extroverted leader, if you can show commitment, it’s always going to work in your favor.

How You Prove Yourself

Your actions will always speak for themselves. No matter what you say or what you promise, what you do will always count more. So you need to make sure that your actions prove you to be who your brand says you are – again, whether this is a negative or a positive. If you’re working hard to create a brand image, and then acting in an entirely different way, your hard work will count for nothing.

The Legacy You Leave

Finally, you need to think about the legacy you’re leaving behind you. Is it what you want? Do people see you how you want them to see you? If not, then you need to be constantly tweaking all of the above points to make them fall in line with what you want your personal brand to be.