Information for this blog post was obtained from HubSpot Blog, Harvard Business Review, and SproutSocial.
Have you ever thought about ways to show employers who you are? Creating a strong personal brand for yourself is a great way to get yourself out in the world for future employers to see. You can market yourself to potential employers in several ways so they can better understand why they should hire you.
Building Your Personal Brand
Recently, I was introduced to making a website that summarized information about me that I could show future employers. This is a great way to put all your information in one place. On this website, I included information about myself, my resume, projects I have completed in school, and future projects to come. I also included a blog post and plan to upload more blog posts to help optimize the blog post section more. Not only is this a great way to put yourself out there, but it helps you stand out from others who may not have a personal website.
I also have a LinkedIn profile that I did my best to fully optimize to connect with other peers, professors, companies, and possibly future employers. Being active on LinkedIn and having a fully optimized profile can benefit your future career in ways that you couldn't if you did not have a profile. Between LinkedIn and a website, you can optimize yourself to stand out from the crowd and competitors.
Why Should You Do It?
The HubSpot Blog post, “Personal Branding: What is it, Why to Do it, & How I’m Building Mine,” states that you should personal brand yourself to help differentiate from your competitors, set yourself up for success for when you need to promote your own business, and you are able to sell more because of the authenticity of your personal brand. When personal branding, it is important to include all the important information about yourself so that future employers can really get to know you through the way you have presented yourself. It is a great way to give them something that they may not receive very often because of how rare it is to fully optimize your personal brand and making sure everything stays up-to-date.
The HubSpot Blog post also touches on the topic of trying to post regularly. This is something that I have struggled with because of how busy life gets; I don’t get around to posting as often as I should. That is something that I still need to work on to fully optimize my profiles. By being active and posting regularly, you are able to post life updates in your professional life to keep employers informed. Also, by staying active, you never know what opportunities may come your way because of how optimized your profiles are and how active you are on those profiles.
Key Pieces to Personal Branding
The Sprout Social blog post, “The Complete Guide to Personal Branding,” gives key pieces on what you should include and be doing while creating your personal brand. The blog post states that it is not just about marketing yourself but about your voice and values, content, creativity, personality, and authenticity. These key pieces will help make your content relevant to you and reflect your personality. The voice and value of your personal brand should be about your beliefs and who you are. Your content should reflect what is going to attract your audience and entertain them. The creative key piece does not mean you have you be overly creative, but having some creativity to help you stand out will help your personal brand. Your personality is exactly what you make it and who you are; there is no right or wrong way to make your personality within your personal brand. Authenticity, to me, is one of the most important. You want your personal brand to be who you are and not made up. When your brand is authentic, you do not have to worry about who you need to be, instead be who you are and show the accomplishments you have made.
The Sprout Social blog post, “The Complete Guide to Personal Branding,” also adds that creating a personal brand helps you make stronger connections within your community. With how diverse our communities are and with the power of social media, you can make connections with people all around the world in just a few seconds. When your profile is authentic, you can make trusting and meaningful connections, according to the blog post.
Communicating Your Brand
The website “Harvard Business Law Review” touches on how to communicate your brand. They first start off with sharing your story. When creating your personal brand, you want it to be about you, and sharing your story helps readers to get a look into who you really are. Not only can you share your story on a blog post or website, but you can create a LinkedIn profile and start posting on there as well and sharing the work you have completed. Faith Little’s blog post, “How to Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn: 3 Tips to Effectively Market Yourself,” has more information and tips on how to use LinkedIn to successfully market yourself and optimize your profile.
Advice for Optimization
When starting to market yourself and create your personal brand, it can be overwhelming. There are many different ways to do so, and many different steps go into them. When I was creating my personal brand, I started with one platform and tried to optimize it the best I could; for me, that was LinkedIn. When creating my LinkedIn profile, I made sure to fill out each information space with all the information I could to get the most out of my profile.
After LinkedIn, I went on to create my website. On my website, I included any and all information I could. It includes information about me and my personal life, my resume, a report of projects I have completed in school and future projects that I will complete, a blog post about one of my travels with a club on campus, and information about the degree I am completing at Fort Hays State University. I also included my email and LinkedIn profile so that visitors to my website can connect with me. When creating my website, I wanted it to be a spot for all my optimized information that I can go in and update regularly, and then I know what other sources and information need to be updated. This way, it keeps me organized, and I have a fully optimized website that will help me stand apart from future competitors.
However you choose to create your personal brand, just make sure to be authentic and fully optimize your profiles. The more information about you and your accomplishments, the better your profile will be, and the more you will stand out. Personal branding is something that not many people talk about, but should be done to help you and your future.
Resources
Barnhart, B. (2024, January 25). The Complete Guide to Personal Branding. Sprout Social. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/personal-branding/
Fuchs, J. (2024, August 14). Personal branding: What it is, why to do it, & how I’m building mine. HubSpot Blog. https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/the-ultimate-guide-to-personal-branding
How to define, develop, and communicate your personal brand. Harvard Business Review. (2023, September 14). https://hbr.org/2023/09/how-to-define-develop-and-communicate-your-personal-brand
Little, F. (2023, September 21). How to build your personal brand on LinkedIn: 3 tips to effectively market yourself. The SMMU. https://www.thesmmu.com/post/how-to-build-your-personal-brand-on-linkedin-3-tips-to-effectively-market-yourself
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