Recent years have shown a huge increase in freelancers and sole-proprietors in the business world. With freelancing and small business, personal branding is extremely important. Take a look at personal brands in fashion, music, and web companies and you’ll be surprised at some of the names you’d recognize by their brand:
Air Jordans pretty much made Nike the massive success, and is still the #1 shoe in the world! JLO and Martha Stewart are two more great examples of how a brand can make a person a celebrity or a celebrity make a brand. So how do you start and promote your own personal brand? Let’s take a look at some simple keys.
What’s the advantage of a personal brand?
Personal brands, like any brand, attempt to influence people and create recognition. One huge advantage of a personal brand over a business brand is that they are easily movable as well as easier to trust. Yes, easier to trust. It’s all based around psychology, and in a world that’s always telling us what we want in order to make a sale, we have become very untrusting of business. The minute we think we’re being sold to, we tend to block out whatever information is at hand. However, when you see a celebrity or person that you like or can relate to, you’re naturally more trusting of the brand and the products associated with that brand.
How do you build a personal brand?
Personal brands are easy to start but hard to grow. The key to branding is using technology as well as establishing credibility. A good starting point is twitter or a website. Using technology to get ahead is a time consuming difficult market, bit can make you a celebrity in time. Look at some of the famous youtubers, tech shows, and even bottom rung celebrities becoming famous again.
The hardest but probably most successful way to create a personal brand is to build something amazing using your natural talents. This doesn’t mean you have to start out on your own either. Take a look at any popular Disney or Nickelodeon actor for some great examples. Almost every popular tv actor has gone on to start their own movie, singing, clothing, etc. Mylie Cyrus, Hillary Duff, Amanda Bynes are just a few young entrepreneurs in the making. To leverage an institution’s credibility, choose a great one and become part of it. Learn how the business works, and be the best in your workplace. This will automatically lead to success if the company has a strong name and brand.
Build your brand now
You’re probably already using facebook, twitter, linkedin, blogs, and forums so why not gear these technologies to start building your brand now? Start with a logo and a name and stick with it. If you haven’t noticed, popular brands almost never change (take Google for example). Start putting that logo and link to your website or whatever all over the internet. Put it in your signature for emails and forums. Create groups
and use social media to communicate with others that have the same interest as you. There are literally hundreds of ways to promote your name with no cost, but it’s a matter of finding what works best for you and remaining committed to always stay involved with those methods.