Personal Branding

In the modern world of social media, most of the users are concerned about being a famous personality using different strategies or enjoy/look at the way how such personalities live by following them. Some are interested in the number of followers they have on each social media platform and it is like an indicator of your popularity in the society as an influencer.

So, today I would like to talk about personal branding as I am really curious about this hot topic. In early 1900s some of the great companies were built from a strong personality who stayed behind the scene. This is simply buying a face as a product endorsement. With time, the consumers realized that these spokespersons are endorsing the products for a paycheck, and they have been tricked indirectly.

For example, Britney Spears did not make Pepsi as she is a singer. Modern consumers actually want to hear the story behind the founders of a certain product as they want to relate to the people that they are buying from. Consumers love to hear about the failures, struggles and success stories of a particular product. As a result, a revival of consumers can be seen who buy products based on quality and business owners also have changed their mindset to focus on happiness, sustainability compared to big budget marketing campaigns.

Nowadays, your particular product is much more about who you are and about your story than your logo or your fan base. There should be a positive impact on the society where your product should depict it effortlessly.

So, why do we need personal branding in life?

In simple terms, personal branding is the intentional and conscious effort to influence/create public perception/impression of an individual based on their expertise knowledge, personality, experience or skills. I believe it basically differentiates yourself from the people who do similar kind of work and helps you to create awareness of information that is important to your field of work. It also gives lot of opportunities to put your best version forward and build your reputation. Personal branding paves the way for the like-minded people/professionals to find you easily. While building your brand, you need to ensure that your internal values should be matched with your external professional image. Sometimes personal branding can help you to spend time to figure out what is important to you in moving forward as a professional. ?As an academic, I look in a different perspective as a gift delivery method. Because some are gifted with certain talents like singing, dancing, cooking, talking, drawing, writing etc. and building a brand provides an efficient method to deliver that specific talent to the entire community with intentions to promote, motivate and inspire other people as well.

In a nutshell, personal branding is about how you promote yourself. In this case, you do not have to follow the crowd. In fact, you need to focus more on your uniqueness. Personal branding is a way of showing that you are not just better than others, you are the solution to a specific question. Some good examples of personal branding that comes to my mind right now are Richard Branson, Simon Sinek, Tony Robbins, Micelle Obama etc.

Basically, humans perceive brands first as a name which can be associated with a logo. Then they tend to create associations that go with those elements of the brand such as the voice, its story, and its background. Everyone you meet can form opinions about you. If you do not actively shape your brand, then you leave those opinions to the drain. Unfortunately, many people consider personal branding as a form of self-promotion. The truth is personal branding is all about taking control of your reputation not your vanity. Here taking control means that you need to ensure that you are the best version/ representation of you all the time. Even it is not about selling or marketing yourself. Personal branding can be viewed as the best way to make sure that society around you perceive yourself as the real person you want to be.

For example, if everybody knows that you are the life of the trip/party/gathering, then that is part of your brand. If you are the person who takes control in the toughest situations, then that is part of your brand too.

Just like your professional brand, your personal brand is a result of many choices. So, you need to be genuine, consistent, have a focus to tell a story by creating a positive impact in the society. Even you can follow successful examples in personal branding. Most important thing is you need to love and live in your brand while being prepared to fail in life with a strong mentality. Allow other people to tell your story too. Then only you will be a living legacy among many humans with successful personal branding.

(This article originally appeared in Probe- August issue of 2021.)

Click here to read the full magazine.

https://online.1stflip.com/dufc/3g05/