The Power of Personal Branding
26th July 2023
A personal brand is a powerful tool that can set you apart from others and make you shine in your chosen field like no other. It is a strategic and deliberate way of showcasing your unique strengths, skills, expertise, and personality to the world. If you have been contemplating building your own personal brand, here is what you need to consider and implement:
Personal brand - A birds-eye view
For a moment, let us imagine the old days when we went shopping. We purchased goods of a particular brand and in return, we paid the seller the required amount. Plain and simple. But much has changed now. Now you can also be a brand of your own. Let’s have a deeper look.
Did you ever think of having a hair cut at a salon outlet of Javed Habib? Yes, the name itself is explanatory of the fact that the service quality would be simply great. And you will surely walk out with nice and cool look. At this point, we can park the opinion to you that ‘Javed Habib’ is a personal brand.
Therefore, in simple terms, a personal brand is an idea where YOU become your own brand. In other words, YOU are the brand. Empowered with your personal experience, skill sets, knowledge, creativity, latest ideas and expertise when you create your own product and services and convert them into a brand which portrays your own personality and largely the above-mentioned qualities, you develop your own brand.
Personal Branding - A fine line of difference from a personal brand
Generally, personal brand and personal branding are thought to be the same thing and are used in a synonyms manner. However, a watertight difference does not exist but still, the difference is worth taking cognizance of.
A personal brand was primarily an idea to convert Yourself into a brand. However, Personal Brading is the process by which You do the same. It is more implementation-oriented in nature.
In Personal Branding as an individual, you strategize how to influence people to use your brand. In this process, you understand the needs, desires and the psyche of an individual and then you make an attempt to decipher how you can serve them. You will also have to find the relevance of your product and how you can build an entire business model based on the relevance and the idea. In other words, personal branding, for you, will be a continuous ongoing process with changes in strategy and the dynamics of the market.
The Importance
1. Rediscover your identity - A personal brand is an extended version of your own individual identity. Therefore, in the process of building a personal brand, you will probably make an attempt to fathom your own self. This inner journey will bring out in totality what you are and what you can create with your actual potential capabilities.
2. The domain of speciality - You cannot be good at everything, but certainly you can be excellent at a few things in which you can build your brand. In the above example, Javed Habib is an expert hairstylist. By the same token, you can also be an expert in some domain be it art, design, photography, literature, public speaking etc. Therefore, you must begin the journey by building your own personal brand in the domain of your expertise.
3. No herd mentality - personal branding is all about uniqueness in your brand which should be separate from the existing crowd. It will require a deeper level of research on your part regarding the kind of product and services which your brand will offers. This analysis must be done keeping into perspective the existing brand which offers a similar product and what uniqueness you can offer to them. Therefore, shun the herd mentality.
Insights to build a brand
At the stage of inception, you must come up with some innovative ideas on which you can build a personal brand. Once you are clear with your vision you must ponder upon the idea regarding how to begin a with a small production process and the amount of investment you need.
At this point, it is important for you to make extensive use of social media. Promote your brand extensively on domains like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Youtube channels. In this regard, digital marketing will be the best source for you to promote your brand. Your brand also must ‘emotionally connect’ to people. There should be a ‘connecting factor’ between you and your customer via your brand. Regular innovation and new idea must keep your brand inline with the changing needs and aspiration of the people around you. Build a complete business model around your brand to reach new heights of success.