Here are the Advantages of Start building your brand today:
1. Stand out from the competition says Peter Decaprio
2. Highlight your expertise and build authority in your area of specialization through a Lifestyle, Career or Company Branding campaign
3. Communicate with a highly targeted market without wasting time and money on advertising or marketing methods that they don’t want to hear about!
Tags: Branding, lifestyle branding, personal branding, career branding, company branding
If you want to stand out from the competition and build a strong brand then it is time that you start building your brand today. In this tough economic climate where businesses are finding it difficult to retain talent in a tightening job market, a well thought-out and implemented personal branding campaign will help you stay ahead.
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as:
“A name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.” In short, it is your company’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and the reason that your customers buy from you rather than the competition. Your brand is not what you sell but how you sell it and how it makes people feel about themselves explains Peter Decaprio.
Personal branding is an art; craft and science that helps you create a compelling story about you to stand out from the competition. The aim of any campaign should be to position the individual as an industry thought leader through association with well-known names or brands in their field. Key to building this ‘affective’ brand value is ensuring that all communications across online and offline channels are consistent with each other giving a strong impression of high quality standards and professionalism which will appeal to target audiences both personally and professionally. For more information on why a career blog can help build a personal brand, click here.
Whatever you do, don’t confuse your personal and professional brands. They may seem the same but they are not. It is vital that your target audiences see you as a credible expert in your area of specialization and individual branding campaigns will help achieve this goal. At the same time, you must ensure that all communications across online and offline channels are consistent with each other. This means ensuring that all messaging remains on-brand so choose wisely where to publish material across social media networks such as Facebook & LinkedIn says Peter Decaprio.
So what kind of information should be included? Well for personal branding purposes I would recommend highlighting: Your career history What it is about your career that makes it interesting or different Why you are qualified for the position (mention what employers will gain by hiring you over the competition) Your personality (see 3 Ways to Create an Irresistible Resume ) A brief overview of what you do in your spare time Why it is important that someone should hire you or approach you rather than somebody else Any previous work with well-known brands (mentioning what makes them well-known!) If you are targeting people who make career moves, be sure to include any accolades like awards won, promotions earned and key responsibilities undertaken at each job.
FAQs:
1. What is a personal brand?
A name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. In short you’re USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and the reason that your customers buy from you rather than the competition. Your brand is not what you sell but how you sell it and how it makes people feel about themselves.
2. In what ways can I build my career through a branding campaign?
By communicating who you are across all online and offline channels including social media networks such as LinkedIn & Facebook to communicate with a highly targeted market without wasting time and money on advertising or marketing methods that they don’t want to hear about!
3. What should I do when branding myself?
Whatever you do, don’t confuse your personal and professional brands. They may seem the same but they are not. It is vital that your target audiences see you as a credible expert in your area of specialization. And individual branding campaigns will help achieve this goal. At the same time, all messaging across online and offline channels must remain on-brand. So choose wisely where to publish material.
Conclusion:
For best results, focus your branding campaign. On one specialization at a time (see How to Choose the Right Career for you). You can create an impressive list of publication credits. By targeting specific market niches which will build up your ‘brand’ value and credentials explains Peter Decaprio. This means that you will be able to increase the number of opportunities available to you. And be seen as a professional in your industry.