What is personal branding?

It's all we can hear about nowadays: personal branding, personal marketing, you are a brand!
But what does all of this mean in real life? Have we all turned into coca-cola bottles?

Discover what personal branding is, how you can build your personal brand and what is it good for...

photo credit: Kevin Labianco via photopin cc

Everything about us speaks

This is the first thing to realize when talking about personal branding.

A study by Prof. Mehrabian showed that in our daily communication, when we talk about feelings and attitudes, meaning is conveyed in a
7 - 38 - 55 rule:

• 55% of what we get across is through our body language: appearance, gestures, facial expressions, etc;
• 38% of meaning is transmitted via the tone of voice;
• and only 7% by the actual words we use.

Of course this does not mean we can say anything we want as long as we do it with a smile and a choreographed routine. 

But it does highlight the importance of other aspects besides words and content when we want to get a message across.

Personal Branding is what you want people to say about you when you leave the room

This is one of the best known definitions of what personal branding is. 

Another one is 

"It's the words you would want people to use in describing you"

So it's about being aware of what you want to get across and using every element you can control to help you communicating that message. 

Your personal brand already exists (assuming you've had contact with other human beings). 

You have left an impression on them. So why not use everything you can, to get a clearer or stronger or more effective message to the people at the other side of the communication line (aka your target audience)?

This mindset is particularly relevant nowadays, when there's so many people talking, and so much noise (online an off) that it becomes increasingly difficult to reach the right people and grab their attention.

How can a job seeker make a difference in the mind of a recruiter?

How can an entrepreneur reach and keep their target audience?

A personal brand isn't a mask

At least it shouldn't be.

Creating a personal brand is not about creating a super, duper, wonderful CV and website and social media presence that has absolutely nothing to do with who you are in real life.

And it's also not about being different just for the sake of it. It has to make sense. 

What you have that sets you apart form other professionals, job seekers, entrepreneurs has to have meaning - a connection - with what you are trying to sell (your services) or tell your audience.

There's some work behind it.

The basic three steps to building a personal brand are discovering the answers to these questions:

1. Who am I?

2. Who do I want to be?

3. How do I get there?

What about you? 

Do you have another definition of what a personal brand is?

Please let us know in the comments bellow.

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