Personal Branding

When I say Paris Hilton, what comes into your minds? If I say David Beckham or what about Bill  Gates? All these famous people established their own personal brand. When I sort their names, some characteristics come into our minds; fashionable, innovative or sportive ,are just few of them.  There are also some examples from the brands and cities; Volvo builds the safest cars. Apple is the most innovative. Paris is the world’s most romantic city. Nordstrom provides the best customer service. All of them about associations with name and emotions. It is also possible for us, because we are not just people, we are more than that and we have to market us to others. And in today business world; HRs are searching not just person, they are hunting down brand. CV’s are not enough for hiring a man, it is used in business life also .

New  HRs trend is to google the candidate before calling for interview. It is funny, but it make sense. The vast majority of employers do it before hiring someone (77%, according to the most recent study I saw on this). They  are collecting personal data from social media(Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) and other accounts (Blogs, Linkedin ).Their purpose is to identify your personality first, because our social media behaviors tell everything they need. So , the job searcher should concentrate on identifying themselves is those platforms too. All these platforms come together and build our personal brand.

To create  a personal brand is critical and also useful for personal development too.

Before doing anything about personal branding, first you should make your personal SWOT. Do you know what is SWOT analysis? I prepared personal SWOT for you.

After determining your favorites parts disgusting parts of  yourself, you should answer these questions easily. They will help you to carved out your personal brand.

Q1) Who are you ? Who do you want to be? Are you happy with yourself ?What are your differences ?

Q2) What is your mission ? Goals?

Q3)What are actually doing to be successful in business life?

After answering these questions, you are ready to create your personal brand in platforms.

1.Email address: You must take an e-mail address . For your address, use firstname.lastname@gmail.com.

2. Resume/cover letter/references document: These are typical documents that you need for applying for jobs and when you go on interviews
3. LinkedIn profile: A LinkedIn profile is a combination of a resume, cover letter, references document and other projects .Also it is useful for expanding connections, looking jobs  and reaching business related articles and being members of related groups. Use it to create your own personal advertising, to search for jobs or meet new people, expand your connections.
4. Facebook profile: As a  famous social platforms, you should have a Facebook account. It is more personal network, but it helps to establish your brands.
5. Twitter profile: Your Twitter profile should have an avatar that is supplementing of your profile.It is good to say that social medias mostly increase your market  value rather than  developing your personal brand. Before getting social media account, you should be aware of this social media tool is for business life. You should draw a line.
6. Blog/website: It should be better if you have  own yourname.com or a website. Depending on your time and capability, you should start to write a blog which  has  a stronger  affect on HR because blogs rank higher in search engines  when they  google you ,and lend more to your expertise and interest areas .

7. Portfolio: You should have your personal portfolio by sharing your project or jobs on the social platforms like academia.edu.

8. Video resume: You can shoot a video to tell yourself for a certain job opportunity. You can talk about your academic information and regards, qualification you have  , capabilities and expectation . You get about a minute or so to communicate with others But sending it anywhere, once you upload it to YouTube.
9. Wardrobe: Your personal style is tangible and is extremely important for standing out from the crowd. Select clothing that best represents you because it will be your pictures/avatars online, as well as when you meet people in reality.

10.Business Cards: It is not matter your job ,you should have a business card to suit your personal brand. There are some websites to design your business card ,ıf you be interested in.

Personal brand means not self-promotion. It is about draw an image  to maintain  and create your leadership ability .Another thing is that be yourself. If you are not the person in your imagine, set goals to be the person.