If you continue to any website or blog that offers marketing and branding business advice, you've probably seen the term "personal branding" mentioned in a handful of articles this year.
With so much information available on the Internet today, consumers are increasingly spending more time researching companies, brands, and products before making any purchasing decisions. Many also spend time researching individuals related to the companies they are considering purchasing products and services from.
Therefore, many CEOs, executives, salespeople, and other professionals within the organization have started developing their own personal brands online. In the post below, we'll explain what a personal brand is, why you should spend time managing your own brand, and how to get started.
What is a Personal Brand?
So what is a personal brand?
According to marketing and branding expert Dan Schawbel, personal branding is “a coherent message and image for individuals and entrepreneurs to differentiate and stand out from the crowd by identifying and expressing unique value proposals, whether professional or personal, and then achieve a specific goal. In this way, individuals can increase their recognition as experts in their field, build reputation and credibility, advance their careers, and build self-confidence. "
Do I Have a Personal Brand?
Although you may not be aware of it (or want to admit it), you already have a personal brand. Thanks to search engine sites like Google, we are used to turning on our laptops or taking out our smartphones whenever we want to know more about the people we meet. Many of us have searched Google ourselves at least once (and some of us do this often). We want to know what information is available about us. If you've ever spent time with Google yourself or someone else, you would support the idea that we all have personal brands. We use the internet as a tool to learn more about the people we interact with (or are planning to interact with).
Now that you understand that you have a personal brand, the question to ask yourself is: Are you managing the information people find about you online? Or are you completely unaware of what kind of first impression you make when your potential customers start searching for you online? If you haven't taken the time to develop strategies to track, maintain and strengthen your personal brand, now is the time to start.
What Are the Benefits of Creating a Personal Brand Website?
One of the best strategies you can use to build your personal brand is to buy a domain name and start a website for yourself. If you haven't done so already, we recommend that you find out if IsimizSoyaname.com is available for purchase. So, buy it and use it as the primary domain name for your personal branding website. There are many benefits to setting up your own personal branding website. Here are just a few of them:
Your personal branding website will start appearing in search results as a result when people enter your name on sites like Google and Bing. Most likely, it might be the first link users will click after it starts appearing on the first page of results to search for your name.
Unlike sites like Facebook and Twitter, your personal branding website gives you full control over how (and in what) way information about you is presented.
Your personal branding website allows you to be a better manager of your online reputation. An opportunity to set any story.
Your personal branding website makes it easy for you to benefit (through original blog posts, videos, and other types of content) as an expert in your industry.
Best of all, your personal branding website helps you get a better first impression. It can help you demonstrate your professionalism, knowledge, and ability to help your customers find solutions and answers to their problems.
How Can I Get Started?
As mentioned above, the first step is to find and purchase YourName.com (or some variations depending on what's available). Next, you should spend time formulating a plan for what you want to add to your personal branding website. At a minimum, we recommend the following:
A blog
An About section with your photo and / or video
Links to your company's website, products, and social links
Customer references
Information about your hobbies and interests outside of work
Useful resources for your industry
What Else Should I Know?
Your personal branding website is not your resume. You have the opportunity to help people understand who you are, why you are doing what you do, and how you can help them. Your personal branding website should also never be static (as is, you've set it up and never look at it). Instead, existingt and prospective customers (and Google) should be constantly updated with new information that they will find interesting.