How to Build a Strong Personal Brand to Land Your Dream Job and Grow Your Business

What Is a Personal Brand?

Think of a personal brand as your professional reputation. It’s the perception your peers  have of you based on expertise, personality, values, and how you present yourself to your community. It can shine through the posts you share on your Linkedin, to the nautical themed ties you’re known for wearing around the office. It will set you apart, make you recognisable, and communicates what others can expect while working with you.

This isn’t about creating a fake persona – but the opposite. A  great personal  brand amplifies what’s already there: strengths, values, and authenticity, in order to connect with the right people. 

1. Define Identity: Who Are You and What Do You Stand For?

Before starting you have to define what it is about you that you want to communicate. Consider:

• Values: What do you believe in? Values guide our decisions and actions, so think about what’s important to your life, integrity, and worth.
• Strengths: Your natural inclinations will be the strengths you can fall back on or push further up your skill pole. Highlight these skills as they’ll build credibility to your audience. Think about your experience. 
• Purpose: What’s your rocket fuel? Bold and capitalise. Identifying and carrying your “why” can shape your direction for yourself and pave your brand on the map so  everyone knows where you stand.

Clearly defining these aspects solidifies the foundation your brand can stand on. Their accessibility to you can create avenues of opportunity and creativity in problem solving.

2. Lock In Your Target: Who Needs to Know About You?

Whether it is potential employers, clients, or collaborators, a strong personal brand will speak directly to them and their interests. Reflect on the following:

• Job Seekers: Who are the decision-makers in your industry? The big bosses. The movers and shakers. In your mind, what are they valuing in potential candidates?
• Entrepreneurs: Who are your ideal clients? Give them names. Do they bike to work or drive? What are their needs and wants from a service provider? And most importantly, are you trying to speak to a younger version of yourself? Sometimes there’s discrepancies between how we want our messages to be received, and how they come across. 

Understanding the target audience lets you tailor your brand messaging to resonate with them personally. 

3. Hammer Your Message: Develop a Unique Personal Value Proposition

This is a concise, memorable statement that communicates who you are, what you do, and why you’re the best choice. It should answer these easy as questions:

• Who is this?
  They might know your name, sure, but does that answer the question? What has made you? We are built by the sum of our experiences. Which experiences in your journey have shaped you? Think management, fieldwork, advocacy – the roles and qualities that have landed you here.

• What do they offer?
  This is where the building blocks of your experience craft achievements. Were you that motivated worker that took all of their past work experiences under their wing to transform into an adaptability master? Are you analytical, seeing all the pieces of a project and how they emulsify into perfect harmony, crafting a management savant? Are you a creator, allowing instinct and wisdom to shape your projects?

• Why are they unique?
  As someone who has been a part of the industry and the flow of people it holds, have you seen something lacking that you are now itching to fix? Are there voices unheard? What is it about you that will speak to your target audiences? Is it experience in a specific field, past work in ket communities, holes in the industry you know exactly what to do with?

While there’s a lot to think about, stick to your key messaging. This should be easily communicated on your website, LinkedIn profile, business cards, and social media bios.

4. Start Your Online Presence: Choose the Right Platforms

By showcasing your expertise on topical news, posting your presence at key events, and highlighting the  work your consumers want to listen to, you can reach a larger audience. But platforms aren’t all made the same, so here’s how to leverage key social media effectively:

• LinkedIn: Use this for your professional networking, sharing accomplishments, and engaging with industry content.These are your peers and industry leaders. Where events and business opportunities can change your online landscape. 
• Personal Website or Blog: If possible, create a personal website. This is where you can directly control your brand narrative, host a portfolio, share your knowledge, and showcase testimonials.
• Social Media: Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook can be useful for building connections and sharing insights on a more personable level. While everyone here may have also followed you on Linkedin or visited your website, these platforms are a great way to put the person back into personal branding. 

Consistency across platforms is key: each one should reflect the same core message and visual identity.Think back to your Identify and Personal Value Proposition. These are your foundations and signage to who you are, so stick to ‘em!

5. Share Valuable Content: Showcase Your Expertise and Build Authority

Content is the cornerstone of building trust and demonstrating your expertise. Share, create, and target content that aligns with your brand values and resonate with your target audience:

• Blog Posts: This is your chance to Write about industry insights, case studies, or advice for newcomers or peers in your field.Basically, a chance for you to nerd out about your niche business expertise. 
• Videos and Webinars: We are in the era of video content, and that is because it is more engaging than an article. Host webinars or share quick, helpful videos that address common questions by clients or peers in your industry. Even fun facts about your process or products are snippets of highly engaging content. 
• Social Media Posts: Consistent, relevant posts that offer value to your audience will help build your reputation as an expert.This can take as little time as five minutes depending on your audience, but thinking like a peer, client, industry leader or consumer during key events can expand what content is of interest for your constituents. 

6. Cultivate a Professional Network: It’s All About Authentic Relationships

Networking is key to building an impactful personal brand. It can also be very tiring. Focus on developing genuine connections rather than collecting contacts. This will make the ‘work’ in networking far more enjoyable as crafting a web of people you want a relationship with will transform an online presence into a personal brand people interact with. 

• Engage on LinkedIn: Comment on posts, join interesting groups, and reach out to people whose work you genuinely admire (both in and out of your industry).
• Attend Events: Participate in conferences, workshops, and seminars (in-person or virtual) to expand your reach.This gives you opportunities to talk about your motivations, values, and current interest. And who doesn’t love a chance to talk a bit about themselves? 
• Give Before You Get: Share others’ content, recommend people, and offer help where you can. Sometimes you have to play the field before you can lead it, and this is the grunt work that will create that strong web of people who will be your audience and potential consumers. Building goodwill often leads to future opportunities, so enjoy the crunch now before it ramps up!

7. Seek Feedback and Refine Your Stuff 

This isn’t a static image you shine at potential buyers. It’s an ever evolving arc that transforms as you gain new experiences and insights. Ask colleagues, friends, mentors, or clients for feedback on how you’re perceived. They may also be able to direct you to improvements you hadn’t considered before. While your personal brand is a reflection of your authenticity, it’s a professional reflection, so take constructive criticism when you can get it!

• Change When Change occurs: If your goals or audience changes, update your brand messaging to stay aligned.
• Enhance Your Toolbox: Continuing education and skill-building help keep your brand relevant and valuable.

8. Visual Identity: Create a Consistent Brand Look

Your visuals, while being aesthetically appealing to you, should complement your brand message and make you easily recognizable.

• Profile Picture: Use a professional, high-quality image that reflects your brand personality. Politicians go for simple head shots, academics usually angle for more arty photography, community leaders showcase themselves front and centre amongst a sea of constituents. It is simple messaging through a lens. What will yours look like?
• Colour Scheme and Font: If you have a personal website or blog, choose colors and fonts that align with your brand’s mood (e.g., bold and energetic vs. calm and professional). Is being a part of your personal brand the fact you’re a mover and shaker? Then you want to grab attention both online and offline.But while we’re talking colour and font you want bold, but still; in the realms of professional. 
• Graphics and Templates: Use consistent templates for social media posts to ensure a cohesive aesthetic across platforms. What’s a template? They’re frameworks that act as pathways for your brand to flourish.

9. Consistency and Authenticity

These are your two pillars to keep between. Consistency and authenticity are the backbone of a strong personal brand. Ensure that your messages and visuals contradict each other across all platforms, and that they genuinely reflect your brand identity. 

• Keep To The Course: Authenticity builds trust. Trying to project a false image will be hard to maintain and likely won’t resonate.
• Be Reliable: Show up consistently and stick to the values you’ve committed to.

10. Measure Your Impact and Adjust 

How do you know you’re making the impact you’re gunning for? Regularly assess how well your brand is performing and where you might need to pivot. Don’t get obsessed like so many of us do in the beginning, but regular check-ups can alert you to needed change, and more importantly, the progress you’ve made. Track the following metrics:

• Engagement Rates: Are people interacting with your content? Any comments, or just likes? What can that tell you about your content?
• New Opportunities: Are you attracting the type of job offers or clients you want? This can be harder to gauge if they don’t tell you where they have found your business, but think about direct messages. Tags. Invites from your platforms. 
• Feedback: Listen to feedback from your network, clients, and mentors. This can be hard to ask since you’re asking them how your brand is perceived, but chances are they’re right beside you in the same boat!

Remember, one of the most important tools to learning is making mistakes, being aware of them, and assessing where to edit your approach. By staying aware of what’s working and what’s not, you can make improvements to evolve and strengthen your brand. 

Take Control of Your Brand to Reach Your Goals

Building a powerful personal brand requires clarity, consistency, and patience. By following these steps, you can develop a personal brand that not only helps you stand out to employers and clients but also supports the growth of your career or business. It’s a bit of a lifestyle change, really, because it is widening your social world to involve industry. Where platforms always have events, connections, experts, and learning opportunities. At Two Names Branding and Communication Agency, we believe that a strong personal brand is the cornerstone of professional success. So start the journey today, and lay the foundations of a brand that aligns with who you are and the goals you want to achieve.