Building the Brand of You

When looking for a job, what do we do to prepare? We put together our portfolio, we spruce up our résumés, we clean up any questionable social media and we start putting our best foot forward and apply for jobs. It’s not enough anymore to get good grades, take the right classes, have the right internships and extracurricular activities if you want to land you’re dream job.

That’s a lot of work to put in all at once before even submitting your first application. Why spend so much time prepping your materials and image once you decide to head down the job search path? Developing and maintaining a personal brand could be just the solution to the time-consuming first steps of securing employment.

A personal brand is something that can be created once and maintained and tweaked over time. It does take a lot of work to get it started and get it right at first, but it’s important to any young professional, but especially those in public relations.

So why is it so important? Personal branding, when done well, gives a great first impression without you ever having to speak. You can establish yourself as an expert on issues and build your reputation easily by using particular elements of personal branding. Once established, it’s an effortless way to put your best foot forward and get your name out there in the industry.

Even if you’re not looking for a new job, creating a personal brand is something all PR professionals should do. It can be as simple as making sure all of your social media accounts project the same image or a complex as coordinating all of your public accounts, creating a personal website and/or blog, and guest posting on other influential blogs. Pick what works for you and see where it takes you, but doing something is really important. How can you manage someone else’s brand if you can’t even manage your own?

Why is a personal brand important to you? What about it do you think is most important?

This is part one of a series on personal branding, which will explore the why, how, when and what of building a brand for yourself – your most important client. Check back soon for the next part of this monthly series!