If you’re serious about success, you need to actively work on your personal brand. This is the persona you present to the world. It defines how other people perceive you.
There are five key steps for managing your personal brand. Here are some tips you can use to make-over your personal brand easily and successfully.
Be crystal clear about what you stand for
Because your brand is an expression of who you are, you need to be sure you know who you are. Consider questions such as “What makes you different to everyone else?” and “What do you want to communicate to the world?”
After you’ve answered these questions summarise your responses in three sentences. Distil these into a single sentence of seven words or less. Then move on to the next step.
Create an action oriented tagline
Your tagline tells the world – in seven words or less – who you are. It’s a catch-phrase that identifies you and makes you memorable. To be truly compelling, your tagline should be short, clever and memorable. Download your free copy of my ‘Build a Standout Personal Brand’ podcast for more tips.
To really add impact to your tagline, start it with strong and vibrant verbs. For instance, a personal trainer might use the tagline ‘Changing the world one waistline at a time’. Remember to keep your tagline short, sharp and action oriented. After all, you want it to be a compelling and memorable ‘audio logo’.
Choose a colour scheme that reflects your personality
Once your audio logo is in place, turn your attention to your visual image. No, this doesn’t mean you need to create a logo to reflect your personality. But you should consider using colour to create a consistent, recognisable style.
Your colour scheme should contain three or four main colours which you can wear, print and publish comfortably. To choose YOUR colour scheme, ask yourself:
- What are your favourite colours?
- What colours are most commonly used to represent your profession?
- Do the colours you’ve chosen complement each other well?
Jazz up your ‘about’ pages
The fourth step of personal branding is revamping your social media pages. These are a great place to start experimenting with high impact branding. They’re simple to knock into shape. Plus, they’re often the first thing new clients or future employers see. Make sure you load up a professional photo, use your tagline in the headline field and include practical examples of your work on professional sites such as LinkedIn. Listen to my free podcast ‘Build a Standout Personal Brand’ for more advice on practical tips.
Remember that your ‘about’ pages frame who you are as a professional. So make sure they are professionally written and laid out.
Post an article once a month
Posting regularly on social media or starting your own blog is a great way to stand out. However you must publish regularly and consistently. A solid starting-point is to write at least 500 words a month. Make these visible by publishing on Facebook, LinkedIn or your own website. For tips on how to get inspiration, download my podcast here.
About the author of this tip sheet
This article is brought to you by professional development expert, Eleanor Shakiba. Eleanor specialises in coaching and training women in high intellect roles – such as academia, IT, engineering, finance and health. Eleanor is qualified in Social Anthropology, Applied Psychology, Adult Education and Neuro Linguistic Programming.