Personal branding. Why you need a personal brand and how to create it

Successful people are not born, they are made. A well-thought-out personal brand is the key to professional well-being and stable financial income in the future. But for your corporate identity to have high profitability, it is important to be able to correctly build an image strategy and sell your product.

Personal brand is a must have in modern world any successful person, acting as an external confirmation of the individual competence and exclusivity of the subject in a certain segment social activities. It helps not only to stand out among competitors, but also to significantly increase one’s own importance as a specialist, expand the target audience, and also increase income from work or business. It is the image of a person that forms the desired image, bright and recognizable among the masses, with the help of which it is easy to achieve certain commercial goals.

A personal brand is an intangible asset that can be successfully converted into profitable tangible dividends. Only a high-quality trademark can provide a long-term perspective for the development of a project and make your face a trademark of a product or service. But in order for a universal idea to become a guide for others, and for you, as a professional, to gain authority in your niche, hard work and knowledge of branding principles are required.

Components of a personal brand

The process of promoting your own name is impossible without such components as:

  • Reputation. It makes it possible to promise a real result at the stage of offering a service, and consumers, relying on the word, believe that the promised will be provided. Reputation is hard to build, but if a person fails to deliver on a promise once, faith in their brand will be easily lost, sometimes forever. The stronger the belief in the reputation, the easier it is to promote your product.
  • Expertise. This is the presence of special knowledge and skills in the represented field, which makes the author of the idea a master, an expert in this field, which is what reinforces the brand name. An expert based on personal experience, is trusted, and his opinion is important to others. He will be listened to.
  • Popularity. Demand among a wide audience. Not to be confused with fame.

To create a personal brand, it is not enough to master only one or two of the above achievements. Only the combination of all these criteria forms a personal brand.

Types of personal brand

When developing own brand you need to accurately classify your expertise, as well as clearly understand what type of brand is most suitable and cost-effective for you:

  • Expert. Provides professional information support to narrow-profile specialists through the distribution of thematic content.
  • Provocative. The main goal is to shock, amaze the audience with scandalous news or some kind of sensation about the life of famous people.
  • Mixed. Combines elements of expert and outrageous type. Has a wide target audience.
  • migratory. Involves moving from one category to another. Possible with well-constructed branding.

An indicator of a correctly chosen image policy is the monetization of the created image. It can be done through the direct sale of your product or service at a price slightly higher than the competitive price, consulting, public speaking, conferences and creation of an advertising and information platform (media). Here it is important to clearly understand which of the listed opportunities you are ready to use today in order to achieve the desired result. Therefore, drawing up a detailed action plan on paper will not be superfluous.

Why develop a personal brand and who needs it?

If you have an exclusive idea or a dream, or you want to be different from others, to be recognizable, to increase your own communicative power, to have an endless stream of clients, to do business under your own brand, to be independent and at the same time make good money - you definitely cannot do without a personal brand. . To form your own image, it is very important to understand your basic system values.

Benefits of personal brand development

A person who successfully creates a personal brand becomes successful. It is easy for him to negotiate, his convictions are listened to. It is easy for such people to sell goods and services. The first one who benefits from creating a positively perceived image is its owner. Customers will reach out to him, and offers from partners will begin to come after them. Some of the main benefits include:

  • The presence of clients. Paying a high price to purchase a product or service marked with your personal name.
  • Partnership. Receipt of proposals for cooperation in projects, business and other enterprises without financial investments from your side, but using your brand name. That is, just because you are a human brand.
  • Possibilities. New initiatives, people and connections.

The development of a personal brand helps to sell and promote your product across high price maximizing the benefits that come with this process.

Who needs a personal brand

People engaged in intellectual work, dissemination own product or services, owners of medium and big business, engaged in a certain type of activity, must necessarily build branding tactics aimed at creating a sought-after and integral image product. A personal brand in this case helps to generate PR without a budget, attracting only one of your clients and projects. An indispensable condition for the successful development of the brand in any field of employment is the activity of the author. Without regular updating of information content or monitoring the state of one's positions in the media space, full-fledged promotion of the name is impossible.

Formation of a personal brand and media image

A strong media image is a versatile and powerful tool that, combined with a competent marketing strategy, makes it possible to profitably monetize an idea or project. Like any project, branding also requires detailed plan, which describes in detail the principle of building and promoting an image image. Image formation tactics consist of:

  • Choosing a niche, target audience and areas of interest. Provides for the search for one's social purpose, the desired area professional implementation And own role in her. The key questions in this segment are “Who am I?”, “What is my job?”, “What is my mission?” and others. At this stage, information is collected and a personal asset in the form of a knowledge base is created.
  • Analysis of competitors. The next important step in the brand name creation process. Includes study famous brands, current trends And success stories in the area under consideration. This helps to understand your place among rivals and find your own unique solution.
  • Creation of a strategy for promoting a personal brand. Any undertaking in building a personal brand should be based on a well-thought-out strategy. It is not necessary to develop it in the smallest detail, as recommended in marketing, but putting it on paper will be much more convenient, clearer and easier to implement.

One of the key points is to think over options for promoting your media image.

Where to talk about yourself

The easiest, most convenient and effective option for branding is the Internet, with its rapidly developing social networks, as well as live communication with the audience, which allows you to directly broadcast the brand and exchange information with colleagues in the shop. This is an indispensable part of the formation of a personal style and the shortest path to growing a strong trademark. On what platforms is it most cost-effective to promote your image today?

You can create profiles on popular websites such as Facebook, VKontakte, Instagram, Twitter and Youtube. By actively using the network and systematically updating content, you expand your audience and also advertise yourself to the target audience. Constant communication with your own subscribers or ordinary fans significantly increases the level of trust in you from users.

Own website/blog

The presence of a personal portal or blog allows you to attract the attention of potential customers to your person and demonstrate the respectability of the advertised brand. The information on the site must be unique and competent within the covered field of activity. This allows you to stand out from the crowd of the same professionals and become recognizable among many.

Expert articles in the media

The task is difficult, but doable. The form of implementation can be different, both in the form of full-length analytical articles, and expert notes, comments or reviews. The main thing is that the information provided is reliable, objective and useful. Building your reputation as a competent specialist in this way, you create a unique personal brand. If you are an expert in business or personal development, you can in our magazine.

Offline events and conferences

Direct contact with the audience also helps in strengthening your credibility and makes your brand more accessible (real). Lively attention to your fans, constant participation in various specialized conferences, speeches, seminars and trainings as an expert, increase the profitability of your corporate image and the expected fame.

Personal brand promotion

Promotion of a personal name takes time, perseverance and a clear content strategy. To develop win-win tactics, one should decide on the number and nature of the social networks used, the quality of the submitted information content and the method of its publication. Remember, the content you generate is intended not only to demonstrate your own knowledge, but also to gain personal authority, that is, the development of a personal brand!

As an illustrative example, you can depict in detail the path of a potential client on paper, across all proposed media platforms - from the starting position, indicating information about you and the client’s step-by-step progress towards the goal, to the place where he selects and pays for goods (services). This will provide an opportunity to look at yourself from the outside, see and understand the most effective levers for controlling the behavior of the audience in achieving the desired result.

A personal brand is a universal way to declare yourself as a successful person and an expert. high level. Since the image has a direct impact on professional activity and its further development, it is necessary to be able to properly form and present a personal brand. This will help ensure a stable reputation for your name and take the desired place in the chosen field.

If you have something to add on the topic, feel free. Leave comments!

A personal brand is one of the COOLEST things you can create for yourself.


8 benefits of creating a personal brand.

This process takes a long time. I created a personal brand. It took several years. I realized that a personal brand doesn't grow on its own after reaching a certain level of success.

This needs to be worked hard.

Building a personal brand is like building a business. Need to define target customers, use the best marketing methods and work tirelessly to give customers what they want.

What about the result? He's worth it!

When you build a brand, it becomes easier to connect with potential customers, sign contracts and get opportunities that were previously unavailable to you.

In fact, you need to start with the right basics.

Seventy-seven percent of B2B buyers say they only talk to a seller after doing a bit of online research.

More than 50% are ready to abandon a purchase after reading company information online.

A lot of eyes are directed at you. Therefore, it is worth taking care of building a brand and doing it effectively.

I have been successful in building a personal brand through careful planning. I prepared a lot of things even before I began to promote myself.

Here's what you need to develop your personal brand.

1. Pictures

How happy I am that the era of glamor photography is over. But the people who used such pictures in professional field, in general, they were right.

(or thought in the right direction...)


Rice. 2. Sample photo

When you start personal branding, you want to be recognizable and you want people to take you seriously. I have a row professional photos which I use all the time in my professional work.

My appearance is changing (and yes, I'm getting older... or growing up), so the images have to be updated.

Take pictures that represent the person you aspire to be and use them on all social channels, on all websites, on profile pictures, in the text of your biography.

2. Your focus

Entrepreneurs looking to build a personal brand want to be known as experts in a particular field. When you create your personal brand, you need to determine what is your passion or the area in which you are best oriented.

  • What will you focus on?
  • What is unique about your point of view?
  • What will your business be based on?
  • What is your vision?

When you understand your main focus and have your own vision, it helps you lay the foundation for the rest of the steps you need to take to launch your own personal brand.

3. Elevator pitching

Let's pretend that I meet you in the elevator. I start a conversation, and it comes to your work. You have approximately 30 seconds to explain to me what you do.

Can you condense everything related to your work or brand into such a short speech? It must be clear and to the point.


Rice. 3. Illustration for the paragraph "Pitching in the elevator"

The purpose of such a speech is not only personal connections. Such short speech can be used in in social networks and online biographies, helping followers and potential clients to better understand who you are and what you do.

Write down what you do and what makes you valuable. Don't be afraid to go into details. Now shorten this text.

Reduce until you come up with a strong statement that has real impact.

4. Unique offer

Your special offer is closely related to the previous point - with elevator pitching. This is what sets you apart from everyone else in your industry or specialty. If there are 2,000 entrepreneurs who offer the same service, why should a client choose you?

Why should the audience pay attention to you?

What is your unique value?

Your Unique Proposition should be concise, articulated in a single sentence that clearly explains who you are, what your strengths are, and how your audience can benefit from your products.


Rice. 4. Unique business proposition

A unique offer typically covers three categories:

Quality- this refers to quality materials or ingredients, craftsmanship or private production. For example, “The best ingredients. The best pizza" from Papa Johns.

Price– the price is not the best unique offer, but it can work if you have the most the best prices, guarantees, discounts or unique special offers.

Services– this may relate to returns, guarantees or extended service to meet the needs of the client. For example, Tom's Shoes distributes shoes to those in need.

This is an extremely important component of branding. Your unique proposition will be featured in all your marketing communications and influence your outreach questions.

5. Specific audience

Determining your area of ​​expertise is only part of the story. You must know exactly who you are serving. Building a brand is meaningless if you don't know who your target audience is.

Define your audience. Then any content you create will be meaningful, as will the marketing efforts that will lead to brand monetization.


Rice. 5. Who is our target audience?

Think of it like playing darts. You get points if you hit the board. But you get more points if you hit the center. If there is no target, you throw darts blindly.

When you know your audience, you can:

  • create valuable content that meets the needs of the target audience;
  • generate proposals that will solve the biggest problems of the audience;
  • attract brand advocates who will like your message and willingly share it;
  • determine the best ways to engage your audience;
  • determine where to find them.

Defining an audience takes time and research, but without a well-defined audience, you won't grow your brand.

6. Student mindset

You need to keep the mindset of an eternal student, no matter how much experience you have in this field. Change happens quickly, so make the attitude "I'm a student and I need to study all the time" become a habit.

Stay tuned, listen, and stay on top of the latest industry trends.

If you fail to produce meaningful content, you will no longer be interesting to people.

7. Create a marketing strategy

Before you launch a personal brand, you need to think over your own promotion strategy. It may not be as detailed as the marketing strategy for the main brand, but a documented marketing plan should be created.

It should include (but not be limited to):

  • using social media and scheduling;
  • engaging opinion leaders;
  • content- marketing strategy creating, distributing and promoting content;
  • an SEO strategy and link building strategy using tactics such as guest blogging to improve visibility;
  • an engagement strategy for groups and sites like Quora.

8. Personal brand audit

If you are building a personal brand, certain public information is already available about you.

Before engaging in growth issues, do an audit and analyze your online presence. Do an advanced search by brand name and identity.

This will help you eliminate everything that goes against your brand image and show you the possibilities for a branding campaign.


Rice. 6. Results of a query named NeilPatel

This is not a one-time audit. Schedule your personal brand reviews to control what appears online.

9. Create a personal website

A website is not just a place to show off your accomplishments.

Of course, you want to talk about your experience and the work done. It is also important for you to make sure that you control all the space associated with your brand.

A brand website is another source of content that will appear at the top of search results when people search for information about you.

Having a website ensures that you get good results at the top of the search, rather than letting some third party take care of your online image.


Rice. 7. Neil Patel's website

10. Your story

The most powerful personal brands have thought of a good story. People interested in working with you will want to know your story.


Rice. 8. Neil Patel's story on his website

If you specialize in more than one area, or if you have a genuine interest in a number of things, your story becomes even more important.

This is the theme that ties all things together.

Think of the most famous personal brands like Mark Cuban, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet or Richard Branson.


Rice. 9. Portrait of Richard Branson

In any case, stories get out, they have a huge weight and impact on brands, they determine how others will see a given brand.

What is your story?

11. Work with feedback

Even when we look in the mirror, it is not easy to evaluate ourselves and understand who we are. It is not easy to form an objective opinion about ourselves.

Use the feedback to develop a development program for your own brand. Ask for help from people you trust - colleagues, friends, family members, employees. Ask them to describe you with a series of adjectives. You can ask them additional questions, such as:

  • What do I do best?
  • What are my weaknesses?
  • What are my strengths?

12. Define your goals

Why are you developing a personal brand? To create a solid image and help you advance your own career? Or do you want to create a more authoritative and trustworthy persona to attract customers?

Goals will help you build your personal brand by giving you direction for promotion and marketing. In addition to large goals, define smaller ones that are more accessible and achievable.

Where do you want to be in 6 months? In a year? What are your brand-related goals?

When you create goals, break them down into smaller steps and create a kind of map that you can follow to reach those goals.

13. Create a personal style guide

Brands often use style guides to define the look of the logo, fonts, and color that will represent them, as well as their products and services. Such guidance may even concern the dress code of employees.


Rice. 10. Wendy's Website Style Guide

Everything you do affects your personal brand. Create a personal style guide. A large number of brands use such guides. This way your brand looks consistent.

It's about that. How do you dress. How do you present yourself. How you behave with other people, how you write and answer e-mails.

14. Create a content strategy

I have already written about the need to create a marketing strategy, but I will write about this separately. Not everyone comes up with an overall marketing strategy or social media plan. But you need to at least think through your content marketing strategy.

A lot of branding has to do with content.

A content strategy will help you stick to a schedule and write on relevant topics for your audience, as well as give you the opportunity to develop your own personal brand.

Moz has developed a great content strategy that you can use as a guide and template.

15. Conduct competitor assessment

Building a personal brand is not a competition in popularity, but it is better to understand your position among competitors.

Data may be collected from time to time, such as Google trends, showing common search interests related to your personal brand.


Rice. 11. Google Trends

Need to know key indicators related to your brand to change strategy and act accordingly.

Here is the data from the Buzzsumo website.


Rice. 12. Data from the Buzzsumo website

In the early stages of building a personal brand, you may or may not sell anything. Regardless of your approach to monetization, you have competitors. They fall under two categories:

  • Direct competitors who also seek to get money from your audience;
  • Indirect competitors who seek to win the attention of your audience.

Once you've decided on your target audience, take a critical look at your industry and figure out who's getting your audience's attention and what that someone is doing to engage them.

Do not copy the actions of competitors. This is a bad decision. Try to be unique.

Competitor scoring will let you understand what your competitors are doing and do it 10 times better to grab and keep your audience's attention.

Conclusion

Your personal brand is how the world sees you. For this reason, you need to polish your own brand and give yourself a good boost to further development. If your brand is unpolished and uninteresting, your efforts will be in vain.

Incorporate the above elements into your own brand launch program to help you reach out to the right people. People will begin to identify you with a certain industry or field. By sharing information, trying to build relationships, you will move towards your goal of gaining authority in your own niche.

It won't be long before the right opportunities present themselves - your branding efforts will pay off and you will begin to reap the rewards.

Magomed Cherbizhev

Share:

I am working on building a personal brand of private specialists and top officials various companies. My clients include lawyers, doctors, architects, copywriters, yoga trainers, business consultants, and usually this is a promotion with the message “I am a professional in this field, I am an expert and I want people to know about it.”

Two main questions arise:

  • how to make sure that I am chosen by comparing with competitors;
  • how to make colleagues respect and recommend me.

A personal brand solves these problems. It includes not only fame and popularity. A personal brand is a much more complex level, associated with the emotions and associations that arise when you mention your name. Relatively speaking, this is a set of expectations from you: who you are, what quality of work you will give and in what manner.

The trust factor becomes key. The client wants to know from whom he is purchasing the service. And the personal brand here acts as a guarantee of quality and high service.

On a professional level, a personal brand manifests itself as an authority in the industry. You become a weighty figure who is approached for comments, invited to conferences. The factor of trust in a public person also works here.

1 How to start building a personal brand

A personal brand is always some kind of promise that you make to your audience. You form expectations, create an image, which then must be met. Do you want to get the desired result? You need to clearly understand what image will help to achieve it, what audience you want to impress.

It is important to know what image "sits" in the head of your audience when it represents a person with your positioning. Therefore, it is better not to rely on your opinion (often based on stereotypes), but to order an audit from a personal PR manager.

Creating a personal brand consists of three stages:

  • idea formulation and concept development (core);
  • packaging of the image of a person;
  • personal brand promotion.

A personal brand is not built at the snap of a finger. Be prepared for the fact that you will have to work on the brand, that is, invest time, money and effort in your own promotion. And it will be possible to talk about the first tangible results at least six months later.

2 Target image

Before you start promoting, you need to clearly articulate the main messages that you want to broadcast. Who is your main target audience? What do you want people to think of you? How should your target audience perceive you? What specifically should be associated with you?

All this can be reduced to a short formula:

I want (WHO?) to think that I am (WHAT?) and do (WHAT?)

By answering these questions, you will get your image of the goal.

3 Audience definition

The main task of a personal brand is to help the target audience choose a specific person. Choose as a service provider, opinion leader, a person who you want to read and who you can trust. In order for the target audience to choose you, you need to determine who is included in it. This is important to do at the very beginning in order to understand what language this audience speaks and where it is concentrated.

Usually, both the company and the person have at least five target audiences. For example, it could be potential clients, current clients, media representatives, market colleagues, opinion leaders in your field, officials ... You will have different channels of communication with each audience, so it is important to highlight segments. I have thirteen such target audiences.

4 Personal brand packaging

The packaging of a person is not just about how you look. This includes the development of many components: from the appearance and behavior to the elements corporate identity– your personal website and logo.

At a simple visual level, this is how a person looks, how he dresses, how he carries himself. Does the appearance correspond to the broadcast messages, is there a feeling that “something is wrong”. At a deep level, this is a legend: where did you come from, what is your story.

Visual design plays a big role in the perception of your image by others. Each element should work for your image, or at least not conflict with it. The list of elements will be different for everyone (it depends on the tasks). Here are just a few:

  • personal logo;
  • design working documentation(forms, envelopes, etc.);
  • corporate font and presentation design;
  • business card design
  • Personal site;
  • personal stamp;
  • branded accessories and clothing items.

A personal brand gives recognition, audience loyalty and detuning from competitors. And as a result, more clients and partners, which is vital for professionals in a highly competitive market.

5 Personal brand promotion

It is important to develop a strategy for promoting a personal brand. It will answer questions about exactly which tools you need, in what order to use them, how often, and which ones will be most effective. At one time, I counted more than 140 tools and channels for self-promotion. Let's consider the main ones.

Publications in the media

If your niche is full of competitors, then at the first stage it will be quite difficult for you to get into major magazines or on a TV channel. Start with thematic Internet portals and industry forums. Not those who have 20 readers (although they also make their way into the search engine results), but those where your audience is present - remember that not everyone needs to be in the "CEO". Or use the "train" technique: attach yourself to already known names. For example, write relevant material, take 2-3 comments from well-known experts yourself and add your opinion to them. Such material is much more likely to be published.

To gain recognition from the professional community, become a member of relevant associations, take part in competitions and industry exhibitions. Try to attend key events to prove your expertise and raise awareness. Naturally, it is better to be a speaker than a spectator. Please note: there will be different events for different target audiences. Don't just work for clients, consider other people as well.

Communication with opinion leaders

Influence through influencers is another way for an expert to communicate with the target audience. Identify the people your audience listens to and then connect with them. Arrange joint projects, pool resources, use the partner's audience. "The strong are friends with the strong." If you are not yet known in the market, it is important that in the eyes of the audience you stand on a par with already recognized specialists. The easiest way to do this is through joint projects.

Creation of individual special projects

It is very effective to have your own projects. For example, host your own event or create a business community. Invite a well-known person in your circles to cooperate - this is how you kill two birds with one stone: increase your status, save your budget and gain access to your partner's audience.

Personal website and blog

The site is an entry point for getting to know you, an aggregator of information and a place where you decide how to present yourself. The blog on the site is a simple tool for demonstrating your expertise as an expert. A person's site can be of any structure: a business card site, a portfolio site where you post your cases that show your expertise, a blog site or a portal that contains not only your useful materials, but also a lot of information on the profile of your activity. Unlike the press or events, this is a promotion channel that is completely under your control. Bonus: a well-designed site will allow you to take control of a good half of the search engine results for a query about you.

One of the most effective and budget options for promoting the image of an expert. Perfectly helps to create the image you need, depending on your goals and on the target audience you need. The response can be measured in likes, comments, or maybe ... in rubles. Services and consulting are perfectly sold through personal pages.

They allow you to quickly and specifically convey information to the target audience. They work to enhance your image. Thanks to regular mailing, people remember you, wait for letters and become stronger in the opinion that you are a true professional. In recent years, emails have been declining in open rates. It all depends on your target audience: if it is in Telegram, go there right away.

Own book

Writing and publishing your work is a great goal. A book published by a well-known publisher, which can be found in all major stores, will serve as clear evidence of your expertise. Unlike an article that you read and forgot, you can insert a book into your list of regalia. Especially if you make it a bestseller.

6 How to understand that you already have a personal brand

A personal brand, like a brand in general, is the associations that arise when your name is mentioned, multiplied by the reach rate. You can consider yourself the owner of a personal brand if at least 60% of your target audience (not those who bought something from you, but the entire target audience) have the right associations you need when you mention them.

However, the needs of your audience change quickly, and in order to remain an authority figure, you need to adapt to them. After reaching desired status it will need to be supported. You can’t say: “I have a personal brand, there’s nothing else to do.”

At the initial stage, promotion can be done independently. But if you have already reached a serious level and your time resource is limited, it makes sense to delegate the work to personal branding specialists and contact a specialized agency.

  • Building a successful personal brand is additional source income
  • How to create a personal brand
  • How to create a personal branding plan

In the new century, professionals in various fields have increasingly begun to think about how to stand out from a large number of other professionals, in other words, how to create a personal brand.

Most often, building a personal brand is important for highly qualified specialists, top managers and heads of companies in the fields of science, culture, business and retail. This phenomenon has reached a particularly noticeable flowering in the West. There, for example, you can often see small shops, cafes, restaurants, the name of which is the name of the owner.

If you have been thinking about your career goal, how to create your own niche and become one of the market leaders, this article is for you.

Successful building of a personal brand is an additional source of income

You should always remember that having high goals becomes the spiritual component of the brand. Building a personal brand is a matter of time. It is always unique and must match the legend you have created for yourself. To build a strong personal brand, you need to be a self-sufficient person, you need to invest effort, money, spare no time.

To get started, try asking yourself a few questions.

  1. Which target audience should know about me, who is it?
  2. Why do these people need to know about me?
  3. What information can they know about me?
  4. What are the ways to convey information about me to the target audience?

A personal brand allows you to raise your value in the market. A successful personal brand is an additional source of income. A strong personal brand can provide a greater degree of freedom and the ability to create new theme for your professional niche. To do this, do the following.

  1. Analyze your professional niche.
  2. Understand the criteria by which specialists in this field of activity are evaluated.
  3. Analyze your best and worst abilities.
  4. Choose strategies career development in this market.
  5. Find out how high the salary is possible for such a specialist.
  6. Put financial goal for the coming year.

How to find out how much a brand is worth

What factors influence the value of a brand and what formulas are used to calculate its value, the editors of the General Director magazine figured out and prepared for you step by step algorithm calculation.

How a personal brand is created

Step #1. Raising ourselves from the level of a specialist to the level of a market expert

If you're going to promote yourself as a professional, build an image of yourself as a product.

  • Determine how you can be useful to other people.
  • Take care of appearance, business card, image, create a blog, website and write on professional topics.

Invaluable help in building your own brand can be provided by your business card. A business card is a space for creativity. Be sure to bring at least 5-7 business cards with you to the meeting. At the same time, before putting your business card in your interlocutor's pocket, talk to him for a while and ask him a few questions.

It is important that your business card contains the following information:

  • FULL NAME.;
  • Company `s logo;
  • job title;
  • Company name;
  • contacts.

You can also give additional information about your career achievements, important events or hobbies and hobbies.

Your image in professional circles is important. Therefore, feel free to participate in forums, professional communities, contests, answer questions from clients and colleagues.

When you become an expert, you move to the level of a professional. In business, this can mean that you are turning from an employee into a partner, making common work with company leaders. Now you work not for money, but for what you are really interested in as a professional.

Step #2. We increase our income by creating popularity in professional circles

So, by creating the image of a successful celebrity, you can afford to live with dignity. That is, in order to increase your income, you need to become valuable in the labor market.

The more people who know about your achievements and personal attitude to something, the more people understand that you successful man. And the stars are worth several times more! Your opinion will be considered more if you are more famous and authoritative for other people. If a person is a popular person, this is a definite plus for the organization. The level of reward for the work done in this case will also increase.

Step #3. Expanding the customer base

New service consumers come by themselves as they go for a well-known name. By creating a positive image, you:

  • proceed from the basic postulates that you are a useful person,
  • help other people
  • work in a niche in which you bring the greatest value.

New clients come to you as a specialist in their field. For example, many will prefer to learn time management from Gleb Arkhangelsky, read books on business published by Igor Mann, or order a website from Artemy Lebedev. I think everyone will remember a few names of businessmen or consultants who are well-known in your city.

Step number 4. You position yourself as a unique product in the market

Offer unique services, create your own unique style. Find your niche in the job market.

Your professionalism is everything that is directly related to your work. A man-brand is his projects. A person-brand is spoken about not only by his appearance but by the way he does his job. Details can be remembered: style, design, manner of presenting information, vivid presentation. The latter is relevant for those who act as a business coach.

Your task is not only to teach the client here and now, but to make sure that he remembers you and calls again tomorrow, the day after tomorrow - when he again has a similar question.

  • How to develop leadership qualities: 3 undeniable rules of life

Step number 5. Develop your personality

Learn all the time, evaluate your professionalism in comparison with other experts, take the best from them, constantly improve your education. Take information not only in a narrow professional field, but also in its adjacent areas. State yourself constantly.

Keep track of all technologies, innovations in your professional field.

The ability to teach other people becomes important. Give them advice, change their lives for the better.

A well-known example is Artemy Lebedev. This is the first person who took up web design in Russia. He is a market leader and believes that design will save the world. The main tool for promoting your brand is to become a guru in your field in Russia. To increase his influence, Lebedev established the "Hard Disk Drive" award, which he gave out to the sites he liked. Experts will tell you about other inspiring examples during the course of the School CEO.

Personal brand promotion plan

The goals of promoting a personal brand can be divided into two areas:

  • customer stimulation;
  • improving the image of your own brand.

In order to maximize demand and promote their professional services, use the impact hierarchy model. According to her, customers go through several stages from the realization of needs to purchase.

In the first and second stages, the goal of promotion is to inform about you as a professional. As many people as possible should know about your services.

On the third and fourth you form a preference for your professional services. At this stage, when they already know about you and even, perhaps, used your services, you need to force them to buy your services again. It is appropriate to offer promotions, cost reduction.

And in the last stages, you convince the client that you are better than your competitors and maintain your image. And for this you need to constantly improve, learn, accumulate experience. The main thing is to remind about yourself and about what services or goods you have in your arsenal.

TPS International Inc.,

Liana Martirosyan- HR Director of Agrofirma Ariant LLC,

personal brand coach

A brand is an expectation, a picture that is created in the minds of others when they see or hear a brand, name, product or logo. According to Randall Hansen (2007) “The word personal branding can be interpreted as a promise… a promise of product quality… a promise that your product is better than your competitors… a promise you make to be successful.” For example, Volvo differs from other companies in that it makes a promise of safety and security, while IBM makes a promise to be reliable. Personal branding isn't just for big corporations. new trend, called "Personal Branding", is very relevant today.

Reasons why personal branding is relevant

The reason for this was:

  1. The technological revolution has changed modern structure careers. It's like you work for one or two companies and that's what your whole career is all about. Today, many people change from 4 to 8 jobs during their lifetime. Personal Branding is essential to your career development and effective tool career growth. It helps define who you are, what you live for, what makes you unique, special and sets you apart from others and allows you to find what you are looking for.
  2. The way we communicate is changing. The Internet has elevated each of us to the position of a publisher. Email, newsgroups, bulletin boards, blogs, electronic network and online workshops and chats provide an opportunity for all of us to explore, provide and find new job. People want to do business with people they know or with whom they feel a sense of trust, connection and emotional unity. If the connection is established, people will trust what is familiar to them, be friendly to it, and, therefore, will be more sensitive to you, to business relations with you. Thus, a personal brand plays an important role in business development.

It’s not enough just to be a qualified specialist, it’s time to make a conscious choice of your life goals, values, guidelines, true dreams, develop yourself in such a way that others perceive your personal brand as something very strong, harmonious, unforgettable. It is this perception that will bind your company and you, as you will do exactly the kind of work that you love. You will be able to create exactly such a perception among customers that is beneficial to you, the brand that will emphasize your features, uniqueness, strengths, values ​​and personality. By bringing your brand to the fore, a brand that is memorable, exciting, you will continually develop it. This is something that you can develop and manage, it is essential for opening new opportunities in front of you, for your employment in a prestigious and high paying job and achieving success in life. Everyone has a chance to learn, improve, acquire skills and be a strong brand.

Personal Branding - Business Categories

To date, there is no job security. Therefore, it is especially acute during economic crisis a person needs independence, he wants to manage his own life and redefine goals for himself and see new creative opportunities. According to management guru Peter Montoy (2005), there are three categories of businesses that need personal branding:

  1. Independent service professionals (actors, agents, artists, athletes, writers, advisors, consultants, designers, dentists, product vendors, agents, real estate agents, etc.)
  2. business in the field personal services(owners of sports complexes, auto shops, cleaning companies, bakeries, equipment repair shops, printing houses, kindergartens, painting salons, etc.)
  3. value-adding product sellers (auto dealers, bookstores, publishers, record companies, retail etc.). They need a personal brand that influences the opinions of people who have a significant impact on public opinion.

Everyone has a personal brand, but most people don't know about it and don't manage it strategically and effectively. You must control your brand and how others perceive you. This will help you to actively grow and show yourself as a highly qualified specialist.

Personal branding - key benefits

A strong personal brand has its benefits. He:

  • Stimulates the creation of an expressive image, depending on the values ​​​​and qualities that are important and inherent in you.
  • Tells others who you are, what you do, what makes you special, why you are of value to them, and what they can expect from you when they work with you.
  • Influences how others perceive you.
  • Creates a certain image in the minds of others, and what they will get if they cooperate with you.
  • Creates your personality, distinguishes you from others, which makes it easier for people to understand who you are.
  • Gives chances to your clients to consider you the only solution their problems.
  • Sets you apart from the competition and makes you unique and better than your competitors in the market.

We emphasize the main position of the philosophy of personal branding. It lies in the fact that each of us has unique abilities and certain goals and dreams in life. By connecting your abilities, purpose and dream, we open ourselves to more happiness and success in life (Frost, 2003). These statements fit very well into the holistic, authentic model of personal branding that will be presented in the next Chapter. This project will help you reach your potential and create a trusted image that you can project into everything you do. It is in harmony with your true values, purpose, beliefs, dreams, and characteristic features. If you begin to develop your personal brand with strong tools and techniques, you will be able to maximize your effectiveness, this will create a foundation and people will perceive you as a reliable, honest and charming partner. This approach is not an external shell, but an internal content and differs from traditional methods, it is based on the development of human potential. This new approach puts more emphasis on understanding people and understanding their needs. You will be able to meet your needs by improving and you will be able to grow professionally and personally based on the concept of personal branding. This approach focuses your attention on the individual side, including your reputation, character and personality. If you build a good brand following this approach, you can easily convince others, attract new people, and attract new opportunities that are perfect for you.

What is the purpose of personal branding? What does he give us?

His goals:

  • create, implement, maintain and develop an authentic, strong, meaningful, consistent, concise, expressive, ambitious, exciting, inspiring, compelling, enduring, crystal clear, compelling and memorable personal and company brand.
  • leave a positive impression and emotions in the minds of potential customers (what makes you special, unique and authentic) based on your personal brand.
  • build truly strong and trusting relationships with customers, create an emotional connection with them, and effectively manage their expectations and feelings.
  • manage and influence how others perceive and think of you.
  • stimulate the creation of an expressive image, depending on the values ​​​​and qualities that are important and inherent in you.
  • use the brand to provide unique services that provide a sense of value to a specific target audience that matches your dream, life purpose, value, passion, professional qualities, uniqueness, specialization, features and what you love to do.
  • to position yourself favorably in relation to competitors, to build a strong reputation, and to develop an effective image of yourself that reflects your desires and needs of what you want to achieve in accordance with what you do.
  • showcase what makes you unique, what makes you different in the field you work in, that's what gets into people's minds.
  • to continually help others grow personally and organizationally. Create your image, inspire confidence and be honest, decent, reliable, sincere and have a personal charm.
  • create a reliable image of yourself that is based on true values, beliefs, dreams and talents.
  • make changes in relationships with others and relatives throughout life, be interested in everything that happens around you, set you apart from the crowd, be happy and attract success.
  • differentiate yourself, separate yourself from others, be authentic, and create a uniqueness around you that will help people remember who you are.
  • increase your brand value and awareness.
  • become famous, prosperous and outstanding specialist.
  • make you better and more unique, bring out your competitive advantages and work on the shortcomings.
  • effectively manage yourself as a business, develop self-esteem, unlock your potential, and enrich your relationships with others.
  • develop personal effectiveness, increase personal effectiveness and achieve maximum productivity.
  • align your personal brand with the company brand, develop a highly organized staff and create conditions for the real organization of training.
    • increase the competitiveness of your company.

Authentic Personal Branding - Signs and Principles

Authentic personal branding is the path to a happier and successful life. Your personal brand should come from finding your identity and meaning in life, and this is necessary in order to better understand what you want, fix it in your mind, give it all your positive energy, do what you love, constantly improve myself. Your personal brand should always reflect your true character and be based on your values, strengths, uniqueness and talent. If you create a brand in this organic, authentic and holistic way, then your personal brand will be strong, clear, complete and valuable to others. You will notice how your life will become fuller, you will be able to automatically attract people and opportunities that are perfect for you. If your brand is not built in this unique way, if you don't deliver what your brand promises, and if you focus primarily on selling and promoting, then you will be perceived as self-centered, selfish, and worthless, and your brand is just outer mask, dishonest business. Remember:

It's about loving yourself (self-love), loving other people, and loving what you do. You must love yourself less, at least as much as you love other people and the things you like. This idea can be found in most religions: "to love others, you need to love yourself." Remember what Abraham Maslow said: “We can only respect others when we respect ourselves. We can only give when we give directly to ourselves. We can only love when we love ourselves." Without knowing yourself and not striving for self-knowledge, it is very difficult to love yourself and others. Trust in a relationship is born through positive emotions, and not fake interest shown, which gives rise to a response and interest. With a personal brand based on your dreams, your most strengths, dignity, and values ​​can emphasize the uniqueness of your personality.