Personal Branding
Hi there! Welcome back for Week Three.
As a recent college graduate, this topic immediately stuck out to me. Throughout my undergraduate career, it seemed so easy to maintain my personal brand. I was in a sorority, many clubs, always with friends, and enjoying the life of an on-campus college student. My social media posts reflected my brand by promoting events I was going to and activities I was a part of. My wardrobe consisted of oversized t-shirts, athletic wear and tennis shoes (specifically Hoka’s). I had built my reputation by volunteering for club events and making friends in classes. I was excited, eager, and through my involvement, felt a sense of purpose.
As you can probably tell, my brand was pretty obvious: basic sorority girl. While that term is usually used in a negative way, I was happy with my brand. I was doing things I loved to do and I was having fun. Actually, I was so happy with that brand that I had not thought about what would become of my personal brand when it was all taken away from me. Within what seemed like the quickest 4 years of my life, I had both developed and lost a personal brand that I felt was truest to myself. Graduation day brought the end of my basic sorority girl brand. I no longer had weekly events and photos to flood my social media, or a dining hall to eat fried chicken with my friends at the same time each week. I did not think much of it until I got home and found myself having no plans other than babysitting and waiting for graduate classes to begin in the fall. I was confused and unsure of my purpose. I no longer had the brand I once knew.
It was time for a new one.
But where to begin?
Personal branding is defined as “the strategic and intentional process” of creating an image of yourself that will leave a lasting impression on others (Cooks-Campbell, 2023). Consider it your first impression for future employers, coworkers, interviewers, clients, customers and even friends. It is vital to your professional and social life because you have the ability to build your own reputation. That’s right! You get to build it yourself because you can take control of how you execute it. However, building a personal brand is different than trying on clothes. You cannot just pick out the one you like and decide that is what you are going to wear or be. Your brand takes a lot of thinking, self-evaluating and upkeep. So, that is what I am going to do!
As learned in class, there are five steps to effectively building a personal brand. In my new and unfamiliar post-undergrad life, it is important that I follow them. Read along with me as I follow the steps to develop a plan for building my personal brand.
- Self-reflection. In a professional setting, I can recognize my strengths and weaknesses. When asked to carry-out a task, I listen and follow instructions carefully. I like to do work to the best of my ability and ask for feedback so that I can correct any errors. On the downside, I often struggle with balancing my work. I am confident that I will get the work done when it is required. However, when doing so, I will try to work on so many tasks at once that I find myself more overwhelmed than necessary. My personal values are friendliness and kindness, pouring into others and being encouraging and supportive. I plan to incorporate these values into my personal brand.
Identify your demographic. The demographic I hope to capture is men and women around my age (23 years old) and older (to retirement age). I would like to capture the attention of people around my age and a few years older because we share similar values and characteristics. They may have a job that interests me and they may be able to put in a good word for me. Any age above that is important because that age group has the most experience and are most likely doing the hiring.
Examine your existing brand. To do this, I will search my name on a web browser. Anything that comes up from a social media page I no longer use should be deleted and removed, if possible. This is to avoid clutter when future employers or clients are searching my name. I want them to see the most updated version of myself. Social media pages that I do use should be updated with the latest information. For example, my LinkedIn account should reflect any recent work and professional experiences. My Instagram and Facebook accounts should have appropriate content and paint me in a positive light.
Redefine your style. Traits I will use to describe myself are engaging, accountable and diligent. I will use these traits to create a brand statement that will be used on my social media accounts, job applications and resume. It is important that I use a genuine tone of voice, rather than generic descriptions.
Build your footprint. Once I have fixed up my social media accounts and aligned my values, the job is not done. I need to think about what content my followers and audience will want to see and deliver it authentically. Curating well-thought and appropriate social media posts will help boost and improve my brand. Once I start posting, I must continue to post regularly. There are many social media software apps that allow users to plug in posts and select a date and time for them to be posted. The software will automatically post at the selected time. This way, followers can stay engaged.
While my old personal brand may have felt like my favorite, it certainly did not follow the steps to being effective. Now that I am moving on to a new phase of life, I must align my personal brand with the goals I have for my future, like getting a job. As an intern, it is important that I work on my personal brand to appeal to both my current and future employers.
I hope that you enjoyed reading my take on personal branding. Maybe now, you can develop a plan!
Until next time,
Maiya Sokol
References
Cooks-Campbell, A. 2023 “Personal Branding 101: Steps, Tips, and Examples.” BetterUp, www.betterup.com/blog/personal-branding-101. Accessed 1 Nov. 2023.
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