Did you know that every individual has a personal brand? Even if you have never thought about marketing or advertising in the past, you can still build a personal brand from scratch.

Many people ask, “what is my personal brand” because the idea itself seems unusual. However, in this digital world, everyone has a brand that they can promote.

For example, have you ever Googled yourself? Ask yourself if the listed items are what you want people to see and know about you.

This is when you will get into developing a personal brand if you want to present yourself in a more favorable light. Here is everything you need to know about what is a personal brand and why it is so important in the modern era.

What Is a Personal Brand?

In a nutshell, your personal brand is how you market and promote yourself. This is where you can pull together all your skills, education, experience, and personality traits that you want the world to see.

Personal branding is an opportunity to tell your story. Show people how you speak, behave, think, and use certain words. The main reason for personal branding is to set yourself apart from others. Then you can tie in your personal brand with a business to sell products or services.

This will become your professional image that people connect with. Then you need to focus on how the media portrays you and the first impression you give people when they discover you online.

Many people tend to ignore their personal brand by letting it develop organically or chaotically. You can either build yourself up slowly or go viral for twerking.

It all depends on what you want people to know about you and the perspective you want them to have.

Back in the day, your personal brand would have been a business card that you took around to give people. Now you can build your brand on so many digital platforms, especially websites and social media channels.

Why Have a Personal Brand?

Your personal brand matters because it can be critical when it comes to presenting yourself to potential clients. Personal branding provides the opportunity to ensure that people always see you the way you want them to.

Otherwise, they may get a negative impression if you do not come off well. You can use this chance to highlight all your passions and strengths. People must feel like they know you much better, or else they will not trust doing business with you.

For example, when it is election time, many people seek out political candidates based on views and problems that are important. Other voters are usually less interested and will vote for a name of a person they recognize or judge by how the candidate conducts themselves.

If you have a winning personality, you are more than likely to win a lot of votes. Even if you dislike a politician’s views, you will notice that they gain a lot of attention if they have a strong personal brand.

Developing a Personal Brand

Without a personal brand, it would be hard to call yourself influential. You need to use this to stand out from everybody else and show off your knowledge and skills to be seen as an expert in your field.

Creating this requires a lot of introspection and self-reflection. It always helps if you know yourself quite well because very few people are certain about who they are.

Most people find it challenging to describe themselves positively. If you want to develop a personal brand to impress clients and grow a business, you need to understand who your target customers are.

Businesspeople are the best at doing this because they have had a lot of practice even before the internet became mainstream.

For example, celebrities like Hugh Hefner became the face of Playboy Magazine without trying to build a personal brand.

You want to build a reputation as a person who cares about the people that will become your clients. However, you should always know the difference between branding vs advertising.

Many people confuse the two because a personal brand is all about you and what makes you unique. You do not want to come across as a stereotypical furniture salesman even if you are involved in the furniture industry.

There will be many cynical customers who can tell when someone is directly trying to sell something.

The entire purpose of personal branding is to step away from selling to make people fall in love with your personality instead. Your personal branding should also include all your social media accounts, especially the platforms where your audience spends the most time.

Unified Theme

Developing a personal brand should be all about consistency. You always want to stay true to your brand. Otherwise, people will find it hard to trust you if you do not have a unified theme.

For example, you need to have a consistent font and color scheme to use everywhere. Imagine the outburst if a company like Apple suddenly changed its business colors and logo.

People would be confused and become detached from the brand. You need to have your own color scheme consistently across all your social media accounts, websites, business cards, and all other printed materials.

Always ensure that everything matches. You should also pay attention to the footers in the emails you send, stationary, and invoices you give customers.

Even the brochures you hand out should all look the same. If you attend any events, incorporate these colors or patterns in your outfit to show people that you are not afraid to commit.

Think About Your Actions

Now that you know what is a personal brand, you should always ensure that your actions match your branding. The secret of success is underlying consistency.

You are trying to give people the best first impression, so you need to act consistently with your colors and logo. You want your personal brand to match what people say about you when you are not around.

If people do not believe in you, then you will lack credibility to gain trust. If you enjoyed reading this personal branding guide, check out some of our other posts for more information.