Читать книгу Launching & Building a Brand For Dummies - Amy Will - Страница 47

A personal brand is a person’s unique combination of skills, expertise, personality, and values that defines their identity and reputation in the minds of clients, partners, and associates and is used to advance their career. A strong personal brand positions someone as an expert in a specific field or industry or as an authority on a topic of interest. Personal branding is often used to launch a person’s career as a coach, trainer, speaker, consultant, author, actor, influencer, and so on. In a way, a personal brand is a business, product, and service brand all rolled into one with a personal touch.

Effective personal branding requires the following:

 Knowledge, skills, or expertise: Be good at what you do.

 Value: Commit to delivering value in everything from the content you use to market yourself to the products and services you deliver or recommend.

 Creativity and originality: To differentiate yourself from the competition, offer something unique.

 Authenticity: Be real, not phony.

 Exposure: Blog, podcast, post YouTube videos, join relevant social media communities, and make yourself available for interviews.

 Consistency: Find your niche (as explained in the next section), stick with it, and make sure that all your personal branding efforts are aligned.

To create your own personal brand, follow these steps:

1 Conduct a self-assessment to get to know who you are and what you can offer of value to others.

2 Decide who and what you want to be associated with (other brands, businesses, people, products, and services).

3 Identify and get to know your target market.Who’s your audience? Who’s likely to follow you and why?

4 Follow established leaders in the field you’re focused on.Find out what they offer of value and how they differentiate themselves. How can you differentiate yourself from them?

5 Network with others in your industry.Get involved in the communities where established leaders and your future followers hang out, keeping a low profile at first to get a feel for the culture and norms. Be careful not to step on anyone’s toes as you begin to network, at least until you get a feel for the community and people get to know and accept you.

6 Start to put yourself out there via blog posts, podcasts, social media, video, and so on.