What’s a Personal Brand and Why it Matters

YOUR PERSONAL BRAND IS YOUR SOCIAL CURRENCY. 

IT’S YOUR UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION. 

In other words, your personal brand is how you convey to your online audience exactly what you have to offer them and why you’re the best person for the job.

WE ALL LOOK ONLINE FIRST

The same way you’d never begin marketing a business before you’ve determined the product or service you’re selling and why other people should want it, an authentic personal brand is your most important tool to showcase your unique characteristics and position you in the minds of employers or clients who will in turn, trust you to solve their problems.

Before we do business with anyone, we check them out online to see if they’re worth our time.

KNOW, LIKE, TRUST

The “Know, Like And Trust” factor is very important in helping your employers or clients become more comfortable in dealing with and doing business with you.  It creates the credibility you need to give you an edge over your competitors.

If you haven’t spent time crafting your personal brand and making sure that when people look for you, they’ll find evidence of who you want them to see, you won’t get the calls for business and requests for interviews.   

NUMBERS DON’T LIE

In fact, according to a new survey from The Manifest, a business news and how-to website, about 90% of employers look at potential employees’ social media profiles, and 79% have rejected a candidate based on what they found.

Deloitte’s Reputation at Risk study showed that executives believe reputation damage is their number one risk concern with 87% of them rating this risk as more important or as important as any other strategic issue.

And according to Jobvite’s 2018 Recruiter Nation Survey

THINK BEFORE YOU POST

So, a good rule of thumb when it comes to personal branding is to THINK before your post.  Always ask yourself if what you want to post is in line with the values you want displayed in personal brand you’ve worked carefully to craft online.  If it doesn’t line up with your unique value proposition for which you want to be known, DON’T POST IT!

Remember, never post anything online that would make you cringe if you saw it in the headlines tomorrow.

GET HELP

Want to learn how to craft your professional personal brand? Contact Your Digital Guardian