Create Your Personal Brand
What is a brand? A brand represents a company’s products and services. When we see a familiar logo, it arouses feelings and associations—good, bad, or indifferent. A successful brand is one we identify with and feel good about.
- Like a good product brand, a personal brand is a tool to help you stand out from the crowd.
- A personal brand says clearly, “This is who I am and what I do.” It displays your unique talents and experiences.
The Changing World of Employment
If you are job hunting right now, you’ve noticed that things have changed over the past few decades.
- Today, job postings, applications, and resumes are posted online. But you can’t just post your resume and wait for responses.
- Conveying your personal brand in your resume can help you sell your talents and skills.
- All generations are competing in a tight job market. If you can clearly show what sets you apart, you’ll have an edge.
- Recruiters and interviewers—many of whom are younger than you—may not be impressed by how long you’ve worked. They want to know how you can be valuable to the employer.
Elements of Your Personal Brand
Perhaps you’re thinking: “Why do I need a brand? My experience should speak for itself.” Not so. Valuable as it is, experience should not be your only selling point.
The purpose of a personal brand is to add the “wow” factor.
Here are some of the elements that go into your brand:
- Your skills and qualifications. What are you good at? What are your key talents?
- Your achievements. How have you made an impact?
- Your passions. What do you love doing? How does your passion infuse your work?
- Your value. Do you offer what the employer is looking for?
Using Your Brand in Your Job Search
A personal brand can be incorporated into all phases of your job search.
Networking. Networking is more important than ever. A personal brand can help you feel more self-assured as you network.
- Introduce yourself using elements of your brand. For Example: “I’m Jane Murdoch, and I turn conflict into agreement. As the owner of Better Communications Inc., I teach people how to resolve conflicts and manage change.”
- Use social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. The connections you make online could open up job leads.
- Get business cards printed, and leave them with your contacts.
Resumes and cover letters. Liven up your resume and cover letter by pointing to your unique achievements, skills, and work values.
- Focus on measurable achievements which are much more compelling than job titles and responsibilities. For Example: “increased sales by 40 percent,” “expanded program from one county to four.”
- Near the top of the resume, include a career objective or skills summary. Show that your expertise matches the requirements of this particular job. Learn more about writing objectives from Monster.com.
- Create a fresh cover letter using the elements of your personal brand.
Interviews. A major component of your brand is how you present yourself in public.
- Show a positive attitude—be alert, interested, and confident.
- Be aware of your body language and maintain eye contact.
- Pay attention to your appearance—be up-to-date, professional and energetic.
Your Brand—Not Brand X
You might not be in the habit of “tooting your own horn.” But unless you can market your skills, you’ll find it hard to get the attention you deserve. By creating your own personal brand, you’ll have a valuable tool that will help you succeed in your job search.
KeyTake Away: Make your first impression clear and concise – in marketing this is called USP: your Unique Selling Point – it is a major part of branding. In a nutshell: what do you offer that few others can offer? The fewer competitors you have the better when you are competing in today’s job market.
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More on Branding: Sailing the Seven Cs
The First C: Competent
You aren’t going to get very far if you’re not qualified for the job. The basis of all brands is the rational attribute of competence. It may not be sexy. It may not be exciting. But it’s essential. All strong brands possess the right combination of experience, education and proven results.
Competence is the foundation you need to get in the game. If you’re looking for a new position, you aren’t even going to be considered if you can’t meet the minimum competency requirements. When you look at the world’s strongest brands, like Tiger Woods, Richard Branson and Jack Welch, you can see that they are, at a minimum, competent.
What should you do? Build a plan to keep your skills current and yourself competent. Look for the next big trend and acquire the skills needed for that new role.
The Second C: Clear
Strong brands are clear about who they are and who they’re not. They don’t waver. They don’t waffle. They understand their unique promise of value and demonstrate it in everything they do. This promise sets them apart from their competitors.
Being clear about who you are and what you uniquely have to offer enables you to attract and build loyalty among those people who can support your rise to the top.
Volvo, for example, is clear about their commitment to safety and security. They’re not about speedy sports cars, or about small economy cars, or about luxury cars. They build cars for families ”cars that are safe.” And they clearly focus their communication activities on this differentiation.
Lesson?
Be clear about what distinguishes you from your peers.
The Third C: Consistent
In addition to being clear about who they are, strong brands are also consistent. They’re always who they say they are.
Volvo is always about safety. They don’t change their focus from model to model. When new cars roll off the assembly line each year, they are at least as safe as they were the previous year.
Madonna is consistent about change. She’s the chameleon brand of entertainment, reinventing herself with each CD that she produces. She didn’t change for her first five CDs and then stay the same for the next two. She consistently changes. And the one thing we can be sure of with regard to her upcoming CD is that it will be nothing like any of the others she has done before. Madonna’s ability to change consistently throughout her career separates her from other entertainers, thereby strengthening her brand.
To have a strong brand, consistently demonstrate your unique promise of value.
The Fourth C: Constant
It is not enough to be clear and consistent if you’re not always in your target audience’s purview. Strong brands are constant and they’re always available and visible.
For Coca-Cola, the world is the target market. That’s why you can’t make it through a day without being exposed to that familiar script logo. Vending machines, people carrying a can as they walk down the street, restaurant menus, product placement in TV shows and movies, billboards and print and TV advertisements all scream “the real thing.’
You would need a budget the size of Coke’s to remain top-of-mind to everyone in the world. So just remaining visible to those people who need to know about you will make you successful.
In short, be constantly visible to those who can help you reach your goals.
The Fifth C: Current
A strong personal brand is based in the present with room to evolve for the future. Your core, authentic brand elements don’t change; but your brand needs to grow to remain relevant to your market.
Starbucks has been steadily adding to and evolving its brand throughout the years. Consistent with its core brand promise of a place to build community, Starbucks has installed wireless networks in their stores to remain ahead of the curve and give their customers yet another reason to hang out and be a part of the community. Martha Stewart evolved from writing cookbooks to entertaining to being the overall Domestic Diva. And then… well, let’s just leave it at that.
Your brand should strive to remain relevant. Don’t let it be stuck in the past!
The Sixth C: Compelling
A strong personal brand is appropriate for and relevant to the ideal target audience. You must ensure that what differentiates you from your peers is interesting to your target audience. Get ready to wow them with your unique offering! This requires that you really know your target audience. You need to understand their pains, their challenges and their dreams.
It may sound like a lot, because it is! Ensure that what you do and how you do it is irresistible.
The Seventh C: Connected
Rarely do people achieve greatness alone. Instead, strong brands surround themselves with others for mutual benefit and growth. Every week on The Apprentice, we saw Donald Trump with his trusted colleagues. If you look closely at other strong brands, you’ll see that they understand the power of connections.
Your professional network extends your brand for you. It amplifies your message in the marketplace and avails you to opportunities that would otherwise be invisible to you.
To ensure that you see these opportunities, pro-actively make connections and nurture them.
In the end, all strong brands practice these Cs. Now it’s your turn to evaluate your own brand against these crucial elements.
Source: Sailing the Seven Cs by by William Arruda