5 Reasons Personal Branding Is Important for Business
The digital age has changed how consumers interact with companies, how employers view potential employees, and how business partners communicate. Transparency is a vital part of how business is done, and a lack of information could be perceived as secrecy or even deception. Career professionals and entrepreneurs must find a way to show their authentic selves that provides value to consumers to gain consumer trust. Without a clear marketing strategy, it can be easy for public information about you to misrepresent you as a business professional.
Personal branding is a way to control public perception of your business or career development. By learning more about personal branding and its importance to business, you can start building your authentic personal brand.
What Is Personal Branding?
Most people are familiar with brand-building around a product. It typically includes logos, brand colors, and ways the product can benefit customers. Personal branding creates a brand identity for an individual or a company. Many founders and business leaders confuse their personal brand with their business brand. As a result, the two are synonymous.
Creating a personal brand can help strengthen your business with information about why you're the best person for your position. Your personal brand declares who you are and what you stand for, which is why consumers should choose you over your competitors.
5 Reasons Personal Branding Is Important for Business
Personal branding shows potential customers a different side of your business than product branding. It can clarify business objectives and your company's mission and create a connection with your target audience. Creating a personal brand that aligns with your business objectives can help you stand out in a crowded market to attract new customers. Personal branding can strengthen your business image in these five ways.
Helps You Stand Out From the Competition
Seventy-six percent of consumers look into a company's online presence before visiting in person. Yet, in today's crowded digital space, finding a way to stand out from the crowd can be challenging. Personal branding tells a story that resonates with consumers and makes you memorable. Developing a personal brand can give your audience insight into why you are the best choice in the industry.
Provides a Different Way to Interact With Consumers
While it's true that product quality and affordable prices are pivotal to customer decisions, today's consumers want to feel confident about the companies they purchase from. People prefer brands with corporate purposes and values that align with their own. Your personal brand can give potential customers insight into your mission and what drives you as an individual. By including various avenues of communication, you can offer a transparent view of the people behind the corporation and make an authentic connection with consumers.
Builds Trust
People trust people, not businesses. Digital communication allows companies to cross geographical barriers and reach more customers than ever before. Unfortunately, scammers can use the same avenues to contact unsuspecting victims. Building a personal brand allows you to show customers who you are and what you stand for. As a result, customers feel they have a relationship with you and can trust you.
Leads to Opportunity
Business in any industry is competitive by nature. You'll compete with your peers for customers, jobs, and opportunities as a professional. By developing a personal brand, you can make yourself known in a way that is uniquely your own. While many professionals may have a degree and work history similar to yours, you can make yourself known for a particular area of expertise or specialized way of doing business.
Bolsters Your Online Presence
In the digital age, business and personal information are more accessible than ever. Whether you curate it or not, there is information about you online, and people will use it to generate an opinion about you (often before meeting you face-to-face). Personal branding lets you control your online image and gives you a chance to provide customers with the transparency they crave. When customers see that you are an expert in your field and have a strong presence that supplies value, they are more likely to do business with you.
How to Build a Strong Personal Brand
Building a personal brand is an endeavor that requires precise decisions and specific methods. It is not something that should just happen. As a business person or a company, your personal brand should reflect who you are in relation to your place in the industry. Your personality is an essential feature of that brand, but not every action or opinion is relevant to your business brand. To build a solid personal brand, you must authentically control the narrative about yourself without being overly emotional. These tips can help you build a reliable personal brand that is uniquely yours.
Devise a Content Strategy
Your personal brand won't be relevant to every consumer. Instead of trying to be everything for everyone, identify your target audience and devise a content strategy to provide them with relevant, authentic information. With this in mind, you can choose marketing to specific social media platforms, create specialized content for newsletters, and maintain control over the information that makes up your personal brand.
Clean Up Your Social Media Accounts
Fifty-five percent of consumers learn about brands or companies on social media. Sixty-seven percent of employers use social media sites to research potential job candidates. What you post on social media can influence how people think of you as a professional. While your accounts don't have to be all business, you must avoid posting comments or images that could negatively impact your presence.
Enter an Awards Program
You are good at what you do. Yet, sharing your accomplishments with potential clients or business connections can be challenging if your talents go unrecognized; whether an entrepreneur or a seasoned professional, recognition from a known entity can improve your credibility and help you build vital connections. Taking part in an industry business awards program can help you become a recognizable company and boost your personal brand. These are a few benefits you can gain from a business awards program.
Raise awareness of your brand: Awards are recognizable across multiple industries because of the trust generated by the organizations that supply them. When your brand is featured in a business awards program, people are more likely to know who you are and what you represent.
Increase visibility: Winning an award is a big deal and a newsworthy moment. Throughout the awards process, your name, face, and logo will make industry news from entering the acceptance speech. Press releases, social media posts, and industry events offer additional opportunities for you to share news about your involvement.
Attract top talent: Highly motivated career professionals make it their business to know what happens in their industry. As a result, participating in an awards program will likely make your organization memorable in an increasingly challenging recruitment environment.
Control your narrative: When you enter an awards program, you get to decide what you want to be recognized for. This can give you an excellent opportunity to show something unique about your brand or carve out a specific niche.
Network with industry professionals: Awards ceremonies bring together a large group of professionals that serve various positions across an industry. Taking part in an awards program means you'll have an opportunity to meet your peers, connect with like-minded professionals, and make your name known within the industry.
Gain recognition for successes. Awards document achievements and offer a form of deserved glory. Just like testimonials and case studies, rewards provide recognition of your accomplishments from an unbiased third party. Nominations and awards serve to show your customers the hard work and effort you've put into getting where you are,
By creating a personal brand, you can show who you are beyond your business and strengthen your business with what you bring to the table as an individual. Personal branding is part of a strong business strategy. It allows you to connect with customers authentically and identify yourself as a professional in the industry. Entering an awards program can be vital to generating a personal brand that your customers respect. Are you ready to enhance your personal brand with the recognition of a special awards program? Visit Think Global Forum to learn more about the benefits of awards programs and the upcoming year six of the Think Global awards.