Marketing Yourself: How to Use Your Personal Brand to Your Advantage

By Nia Saunders

What is a brand and why is it important? In the marketing sense, companies use branding to establish and personalize their reputation and goods or services they might offer. The same strategy is implemented when one creates a personal brand for themselves. 

A personal brand is something that every person has. It includes school and work experience, skills, hobbies and more. What some people may not realize is that some of these details are already revealed online and can be accessed by potential employers. This is why it is important to take your personal brand into your own hands and create an image that extends beyond social media.

Personal branding has become imperative in order to stand out among the workforce and be noticed by employers. A simple business card with a name and number used to be the extent of one’s personal brand. However, with the expansion of networking within the workforce and development of resumes, personal branding has become the most important aspect of marketing oneself effectively.

When defining your personal brand, one must consider the job market they are pursuing. For example, a college graduate with a degree in communications may want to follow a career path in journalism. In this case, they would need to understand the likes, dislikes, values and problems faced by companies and employers in this field. The college graduate can then mold an image of themselves on their resume and during interviews that reflect how they can be an influencer in this field.

Using different platforms to advertise your personal brand is important as well. With that said, your personal brand should have a similar sentiment wherever you decide to advertise. Social media profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter should align for employers get a sense of consistency from you as a potential employee. A personal brand needs to be persistent in order to maintain its effectiveness.  Integrate your brand into your resumes, social media profiles and even the way you carry yourself and employers will be sure to remember you.

Think of personal branding as a way you can market yourself and stand out among your peers. In the modern day competitive job force it is more important than ever to take control of your personal brand to trademark your individuality.

 

Sources:

Photo on <a href=”https://foter.com/re/a6defb”>Foter.com</a&gt;

https://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2013/04/08/personal-branding-is-a-leadership-requirement-not-a-self-promotion-campaign/#49efe236226f

https://www.workitdaily.com/personal-brand/

https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-personal-branding-4056073

https://www.online.jwu.edu