The importance of personal branding
What exactly Personal Branding is?
Personal branding refers to marketing people and their professional paths as brands (Trzeciak, 2015). This activity aims to communicate the uniqueness and value of a person. It can be achieved through brand positioning to a specific target audience (Labrecque et al.,2011). The idea of personal branding originates from the concept of product development and promotional actions, which are changed into self-promotion and personal development of the individual (Morton, 2012). To simplify, personal brands are similar to corporate brands, however, instead of promoting a business, you market yourself.
The Role of Personal Branding in a job market
Nowadays, personal branding carries utmost importance in business and career progression. Since the measures against the pandemic involved the implementation of psychical distancing, the physical contact between people has been significantly limited. This resulted in an increase in the traffic on social media platforms, which facilitated their users to connect in both personal and professional relations. Presently a great number of job interviews is held online instead of face-to-face meeting, which accurately illustrates this phenomenon. Also, recruiters, before giving a candidate more consideration, usually scrutinize their social media profile to learn a bit more about the potential employee (Cotriss, 2022; Kaur, et al., 2020; Working Solutions, 2020). Therefore, an active yet mindful online presence is a powerful tool to positively impact one’s professional career. Through personal branding, individual aims to competently manage their experience and skills which is a fundamental aspect of their professional environment. According to Kaputa (2005) ‘personal branding teaches the individual how to stay relevant to the market’. Also, it constitutes an important practice for job seekers because it helps define their strongest attributes and promote themselves to employers. Owning a personal brand differentiates an individual from their competitors and adds a personality to their resume. The crucial point here is that personal branding is a phenomenon that is fluid. It is susceptible to change and development as changes and develops the person, their interest, skills and circumstances. Nowadays owning a personal brand has constantly growing importance in professional life.
The role of Personal Branding for Business
There is also another perspective justifying the importance of personal branding, namely entrepreneurial site of it. One of the principal reasons for launching a personal brand is to attract viewers and encourage them to take action on anything an individual has to offer. As summarized by Labrecque et al. (2011) ‘personal branding entails capturing and promoting an individual’s strengths and uniqueness to a target audience’. It is a continuous process of evolving and maintaining a reputation and impression of an individual, group, or organization (Horton, 2011). Therefore, many entrepreneurs pay utmost attention to the creation of their brands. As people of business, they are aware that telling their story and managing the impression people gain from your online reputation, results in generating leads and revenue.
How to use social media for personal branding
The role of Social Media in building a Personal Brand
One of the principal goals in pursuing a personal brand is to showcase the personality behind the product. The popularity of social media has simplified the management of personal brands. Users of various platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and personal blogs create and successfully develop their own brands. Presently, social media is the most convenient way to grow identity, establish a reputation and become visible in a specific industry or niche. The key to maintaining an effective personal brand is assuring the consistency of the brand across all mediums. Morton (2011) sees ‘clarity and consistency as an absolute basis for developing an acknowledged personal brand. Also, according to Cheney, Lair and Sullivan (2005) ‘the strongest personal brands and those that are consistent. Nowadays, with numerous options of synchronising Facebook and Instagram accounts or promoting Twitter and YouTube on personal blogs and vice versa, the means of executing that are endless.
Ways of using Social Media for Personal Branding
1. Cross-promotion
Cross-promoting blog posts on various social media is an example. The strategy aims to increase traffic to a blog and encourages the audience to explore the content and the person behind it. Since blogging is a powerful component of an overall content marketing strategy, writing inspiring articles could constitute an investment in one’s (personal) brand (Heston, 2022). Hence, if an individual possesses a blog, promoting it through other media would definitely facilitate maintaining a strong brand. Skilful sharing of blog posts via various social media channels would facilitate the delivery of a steady stream of visitors to the blog.
2. Engaging Content
Apart from serving as means for the promotion of blog content, social media play other significant roles related to personal branding. Facebook, Instagram or Twitter are ideal spaces to update your personal brand. Nowadays, billions of people use the Internet daily. While they search for any specific content, person or activity, this is where they would turn to. Therefore, posting eye-catching images or sharing interesting videos can help the personal brand to differentiate from the others. It is also crucial for attracting the attention of the target audience. When the attention is already there, the personal brand can be promoted by forging relations with the audience and inspiring engagement, which leads to brand loyalty (CyberClick, 2022).
3. Infographics
Infographics, on the other hand, apart from serving similar purposes, are also a medium for transmitting information or data through a visually attractive and engaging format. They break down more complicated topics and explain complex them in a simplified way. Posting self-designed infographics can provide the audience with valuable and easy-to-consume content. Also, this strategy is likely to gain the personal brand a positive reputation, as it shows expertise on, sometimes complex, subjects. For example, dietitians developing their personal brands often support themselves with infographics to explain to their viewers the science behind macro and micronutrients.
Another element of personal branding is hosting your own podcast. In that way, the person behind the band excels in content creation and provides the audience with even more value.
To sum it up...
All those strategies work best if they are cross-promoted on various social platforms. For developing a successful personal brand is it recommended to have more accounts on different social media platforms. In that way, the brand can reach more people, however only if it is condition regularly updated. The following advantage of pursuing a personal brand on social media is the possibility of reaching the target audience without as much effort as other manners would need (Belk, 2013). Additionally, social media offers the opportunity for a person to promote themselves as a brand in an affordable way (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010).
Good examples of using social media for personal branding
Deliciously Ella
One of the inspiring personal brands developed on social media is Deliciously Ella with over 2 million followers on Instagram. The brand focuses on all aspects of the vegan diet from selling cookbooks and snacks to running its own delis and restaurants. The success of Deliciously Ella can be attributed to the free content regularly published on social media by the brand founder Ella Mills. Ella dedicates herself to creating an online community where she personally connects with her audience. Instead of just sharing photos or recipes, she replies to comments herself, inspiring engagement from her followers. This direct contact is also enforced by the sort of content Ella creates. She posts insights into her own life together with the food she eats. In that way, the audience can explore not only the products the brand offers but also Ella’s personality and entrepreneurial journey. Ella's success is believed to derive from personal engagement and the creation of content that is both – valuable and free. She is determined to popularise healthy eating and consistency towards this philosophy together with skilful execution granted Ella an astonishing success. Besides, Deliciously Ella is active on various social media. She started by launching a blog and cross-promoted her writings on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Then she established herself on YouTube and Snapchat finishing with the creation of her podcast. Therefore, this personal brand is a model example of effective use of all the social media and their mindful management.
Natacha Oceane
Natacha Oceane is a fitness and nutrition guru with outstanding credentials. She achieved a PhD degree in Biophysics from University College London and her competency shines through in her content (Hanif, 2018). Natasha is present mostly on YouTube and Instagram. She dedicates herself to simplifying the science behind her workout programmes and physical exercise. Her genuine grasp of fitness and nutrition is contagious which is one of the reasons behind her popularity. Natacha's personal brand relies on her own research, experience and education. Those components transmit authenticity and reliability. Like other influencers, she also shares videos about her own lifestyle and daily routine. This type of content forges a transparent relationship between creator and subscriber. It also helps to vary the content, so the audience is intrigued at all times. The success behind Natacha’s brand lies in her bubbly personality, extensive knowledge and personalised integration with her audience. She also knows who her target market is and speaks their languages. Natacha offers lots of free, quality content on YouTube and Instagram, which encourages the viewers to reach for her paid products. She cross-promoted her content on various media including blog, TikTok and Snapchat and has reached over 1 million followers on both Instagram and YouTube.
Comments