12 Steps to Empowering The Brand YOU !

Your personal brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room – remember that. And more importantly, let’s discover why!

Personal Branding is a voice or theme that pronounces what makes you different or exclusive. Your brand helps to express your unique values to the external environment, and differentiates your skills, experiences, and abilities from your competition. A successful brand should be unique, credible, consistent, and relevant. Personal branding is an important part of today’s business world, building a personal brand means providing so much value in one (or multiple) niche(s) that people begin to associate your name with the idea of what it means to be successful in the industry. It also improves your probability of finding a good fit within an environment and gives you increased self-confidence. Following are the simple tips for creating a personal brand in today’s environment.

Building Your Digital Footprints: Share your valuable knowledge and points of view online. Look past your professional expertise and offer views on topics that speak to your values and interests. Publish on LinkedIn or a company/personal blog. Engage in social arenas. Comment on stories that interest you. All of these efforts leave a digital footprint that offers evidence of who you are and what you represent.

Be True to Your Self: Done right, a personal brand will stick for the long pull, so get real with yourself first! Ask some hard questions and be true to not only who you are today, but who you are committed to being down the road. Your personal brand must be authentic in order to truly resound with others.

Be Honest: Share what you do, what you think and what you like. Individuals feel connected to the people they follow when they are transparent or honest, not worrying if what they post will be likable or create controversy. People will always criticize something, but they will still follow you if you share authentic content.

Don’t Compare Yourself to Established Entities: If you’re just starting out, there’s some bad news not a lot of people are listening. That’s also hold the opportunity. This means just get started and learn as you go don’t be scared by established entities who have fully polished personal brands. Just put time on your calendar and work on it religiously.

Grow Your Social Media: Having a large and engaged following on social media comes with multiple benefits. It grows your brand awareness, builds your credibility as an expert in your field, and can track the attention and desire of other individual and brands looking for beneficial partnerships.

Continuously Building Your Credibility: It is of utmost importance to have consistent, insightful and original input on social media channels. Double and triple check what you write prior to hitting "submit." Once you lose credibility, it will be hard to regain the momentum and voice you had previously created. Strive to be a pioneer in your respective field. Learning and thinking is a fluid process. Stay one step ahead of everyone! for count being the best.

Be Proactive: Personal brands are built on platforms like LinkedIn, blogs etc. Before posting content to a platform, see what has worked already on the platform and make it better.

Understand What You Stand For: Understand who you are includes identifying your strengths and weaknesses, and being familiar with your character gaps and special skills. This includes key values such as honesty, integrity and transparency. Once you know yourself and what you stand for, you will be able to effectively communicate with nearly anyone.

Create Differentiation: There is only one you, and you must find what it takes to differentiate yourself from the crowd. This can be done by appearance, niche, brand or even your speaking or writing style. Whatever it is, you must become memorable to people. Don't wait to be recognized as the thought leader or authority in your space; plant your flag and challenge anyone who questions it.

Be the Best in Your Domain: Stop trying to be a celebrity and just do the best work. When you consistently deliver work that is unparalleled, creative, inspirational and unique in the marketplace, the delivery of that work becomes your brand. But no matter how innovative your thought leadership or how good your social presence is, if you don't have real, honest credibility in your work, your "brand" is a hollow shell. 

Find the Right Content Mix & Frequency: Building a personal brand is even more important now. The most effective executives, are approachable and true to themselves. Blending personal perspective, industry thought leadership and company highlights can be effective in building your personal brand. Publish consistently with a regular frequency with this mix and you are well on your way.

Your Presence Is Consistent Across Platform: A consistent voice builds a memorable name and a recognizable face. Multi-faceted communication platforms are here to stay. Be bold, be consistent and don't shy away from who you really are. There are enough talking heads out there. Be yourself and grow your fan base authentically. 

LIFE ISN’T ABOUT FINDING YOURSELF LIFE IS ABOUT CREATING YOURSELF – GEORGE BERNHARD SHAW

BE THE BRAND!

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Stay connected and passionate about Life.

M. Farhan - [email protected]

Thank you Imtiaz for this article - https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/syed-imtiaz-ahmed-usama-397b7340/