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What is personal branding?

Marketing yourself as a brand, finding your uniqueness, building a reputation on the things you want to be known for, and then allowing yourself to be known for them. Your brand is your reputation, how you interact with others, and creating a memorable experience with them. When you consistently deliver your experience with them its when you build your reputation.

How do you brand yourself?

Whether you’re searching for a better job, looking for a promotion, considering changing careers, or growing your network, building a personal brand can help you reach your goals. Below are steps to be followed when branding yourself;

• Determine and prioritize your values and passions, this determine where you want to be in two, five years, including your ideal career path.

• Define your key traits, what makes you stand out from the crowd, or your uniqueness, for instance, you may be an extroversion person or an agreeableness person.

• Develop your personal image, have professional head-shots on social media, unique email address signature, and build credibility with the contents you post on social media.

• Define your target audience, this may include the person who pays/will pay you, the person who influences the person who pays you and your supporters.

• Build your presence online, let your ideas out there, connect, and interact with different people to develop your brand.

As a job seeker one needs to brand themselves in such a way that it's easy for recruiters to identify their skills and talents through the use of social media.

Why brand yourself?

There are various benefits gained from personal branding, below are a few mentioned.

• Gaining trust, a personal brand shows what drives and motivates you to success, why you do what you do, this creates an environment of trust among colleagues or other potential people as you’ve clearly shown your intentions.

• Build connections, you have to invest in getting to know people, social media platforms are built for professionals of all kinds, and being active could provide you with opportunities to connect with potential and business people. By finding groups that fit your brand, needs, and where you can also offer insight so as to build connections within the group.

• Create confidence, in the process of building a personal brand one gain confidence because they get to know their weaknesses and strength in their area of expertise. Also, confidence will come from their positive qualities and strengths that they could share publicly. If people know that they have something which they can offer, their self-esteem will soar.

• Having authenticity, the personal brand comes from passion, skills, goals, and values. It is a result of a person’s need for fulfillment and meaning, it helps a person grow from something that he or she believes. Personal branding is a person itself and no one else, it doesn’t allow individuals to create a fake persona that is not genuinely them.

• Builds credibility, establishing name or recognition as an expert in the area of specialty. A person also builds a lasting impression and a self-reward for the individuality itself. People will perceive a person as an expert if he or she is more visible to their target audience. A brand will drive a person to the top of the chosen marketplace.

"Design is the silent ambassador of your brand"

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