What is a personal brand? How can it be built?
Personal brand is an element that is directly connected to our work, character, way of communication, temperament. Every single action taken on a daily basis is a „brick” added to building our image.
Whether you are an experienced specialist in your discipline, a manager, a director, or just beginning to gain professional experience, consciously or unconsciously – you are building your personal brand.
The most commonly quoted definition of a personal brand is the one that says “A personal brand is what people say about you when you leave the room.” This is something we create from the first day of our work, or in the case of candidates – from the moment of entering the recruitment meeting.
Personal brand and consumer choices
In business the situation is similar. A strong corporate brand determines the choice of an IT service provider since we rely on certain information and opinions obtained from other clients.
When choosing a car, in addition to technical parameters we also have our own preferences concerning its reliability or individual features closely matched by a particular brand of a car. Going to your favourite clothing store, you immediately head towards Ms. Ola who always welcomes you with a smile, is polite and willing to offer advice.
Going to Mr. Karol, an insurance broker, you always know that he will find the best deal for you
and honestly advise against other alternatives. This explains why very often our customers stay with us when we change our job.
It is the case with our personal brand, which evokes certain associations and which follows us regardless of the change of the company we work for.
A personal brand is also resistant to differences in opinion, personal sympathy or antipathy. Why? Because we may differ in our opinions, we may have different points of view, different priorities, but we cannot deny that we have certain skills, authority, we are able to manage or completely lack the ability to do so.
Social Media and exchange of experience
In order for our brand to be our calling card, it must be consistent with what we are in reality. Any inconsistency, no matter how small, in our personal identity will be detected very quickly.
Being aware of the existence of a personal brand it is worth to consciously build it, also when we have little professional experience.
Online services, where we can set up our individual profiles and describe our past experience as well as events that bring together specialists in particular industry, is a perfect solution. It gives us the opportunity to exchange experiences, network, and expand our knowledge in a certain area. Moreover, publishing the results of your work online is worthwhile.
With the knowledge of a personal brand, it is a good idea to start taking care of it now, and discover in the process how much benefit and satisfaction your own development can bring.
