Building a Personal Brand

Having a personal brand sets you apart from the rest of your peers and gives you an advantage when it comes to looking for opportunities. Your name is a brand itself!

It’s never too late or too early to do what you wish to, but when it comes to personal branding, the earlier, the better. And what could be better than to start working on your brand in college itself! Your name is a brand itself!

Now you may ask why should I even think about building my own brand.

Well, the answer is simple and it’s that investing time in creating?a personal brand is one of the best investments you can make.

Having a personal brand distinguishes you from your peers and provides you a leg up on the competition when it comes to job hunting. It establishes what you refer to as credibility. Your personal brand reflects your personality, communication abilities, and self-assurance. When you start establishing your own brand, you'll be able to reach out to a large number of individuals all over the world, which will help you stand out.

Think of it as your brand is your story and you would want to write a good one, isn’t it?

Now that you are familiar with why personal branding, let’s move on to the how.

While there are numerous sites from which to begin your branding journey, LinkedIn is one of the most effective. To put it another way, social media is a big ocean, whereas LinkedIn is a hidden gem. It offers a lot of untapped potentials, which should be enough of a motivation to carve out a niche for yourself on the platform.

The organic reach on LinkedIn is really good and if you create quality content regularly, then you can build a great audience for your content along with your personal brand. I always say that people value your content and not your age!

But before you start with your journey on LinkedIn, there are?some things you should take care of

To begin, make sure your entire profile is complete. Your profile is the first thing people see, and how effectively you curate it determines whether or not they want to engage with you. Begin developing a good network by connecting with relevant people at the same time. Making connections is a lifelong activity that will never be completed. After that, start providing material on themes that interest you, and your network will gradually grow, as will your brand value.

It's also a good idea to interact with other people's stuff by leaving thoughtful comments on it. This raises your profile and allows your ideas to reach a larger audience.

Because I stressed the need of developing a strong network, your next question is likely to be about how to make significant connections. Connecting with your college classmates and alumni is a smart place to start. That would give you a leg up on the competition.

One more way to build a strong network is by observing the content being put out by different creators. If you are scrolling through LinkedIn and you come across a piece of content that catches your eye, then connect with the person who has written it. This way you build a quality network of like-minded people.

To top it all off, an amazing advantage of LinkedIn is that the entire corporate world is present here, meaning you can connect with CEOs of companies, hiring managers, and many other influential people. Why not connect with them and have meaningful conversations!

My last piece of advice would be on what not to do on LinkedIn or rather the mistakes to avoid.

First and foremost, don't be afraid to create content simply because you believe no one will read it or that you lack the necessary skills to speak on a topic. You'll always have certain skills or experiences that are unique to you, and you can build content around them.

In the process of creating content, initially, you may not get a high engagement on your posts and that is completely all right.

Don’t let this stop you from creating because you must remember that building a brand is not a one-day process, but a gradual one.