In the age of social media frenzy, is it necessary or complicated to develop or maintain an authentic personal professional brand? Today, there is a trendy culture, whereby people portray themselves on social media for the opposite of what they truly are in real life in the bid to appeal to or attract a certain group of people. Some would even argue that this is part of personal branding or like they will say in another parlance “packaging”. That brings me to the question, how does one brand oneself in such a way that you maintain authenticity while portraying yourself in a way that appeals to the right audience? Be you an individual who is unemployed and looking to attract the right organisation or the employed professional who is looking to accelerate their career from one level to another, how can personal branding help your career advancement.
A few months ago, a post by Emmanuel Fajuyigbe generated a lot of attention. In fact, this post landed Haider Malik a job at Canary Wharf Group plc. The post was about Haider Malik who stood on the Canary Wharf Tube Station with a placard that read his degree and a barcode to his CV whilst approaching potential employers. In the piece by BBC Jamie Moreland, Haider revealed that the reason for taking this unorthodox approach, was because despite having graduated with a first-class degree, he struggled to find a job after so many interviews. He mentioned that he “got fed up with his personality not coming across”. Whilst most people spoke about his courage, I focused on his outside-of-the-box thinking. His unorthodox approach to approaching recruiters and organisations was creative and this made him popular and landed him a job. A lesson from this story is how differentiation and personal branding are key in this age to appeal to the right audience. When we speak of “personal branding” some people assume branding is only useful for a corporation/organisation. However, this is also useful for individuals. This brings us to the question: what is personal branding and why is it important? Personal branding is an intentional way of presenting yourself to the world both online and offline. Employers/recruiters these days would hardly hire anyone without verifying their lives both offline and online. Whilst branding oneself may seem time-consuming, it is an intentional pain-free time worth spending. It presents itself as an avenue to opportunities, to grow oneself for success and access to opportunities that may advance you either personally or professionally. It helps differentiate you by setting you apart from the crowd not only to potential employers, but to your friends, your colleagues and potential connects, clients and the whole world.
How does one achieve this?
- Maintain online presence: if employers use search engine to know about you, would they find anything? You cannot maintain a blank slate online. Google is the most popular search engine today. If a recruiter searches your name, will anything pop-up? Part of branding yourself is to maintain an appearance online. Write articles, if you attend conference, don’t just post the picture, say something about the conference.
- Google yourself: Google yourself and see what others see when they search for you. You just might be surprised by what you will find. This enables you to conduct damage control should you find something that does not depict your brand intentions. If this is the case for you, you may delete the unwanted things. Another option will also be to disintegrate your unprofessional social (like Instagram& Facebook) media account with the professional(like LinkedIn). The way to do this is to use acronyms or initials for the unprofessional and leave the professional as it is.
- Define yourself and purpose: This will take a deep reflection on what you want others to perceive about you, what are your long-term and short-term professional goals, who are your target audience, what is your networking strategy? Your answers to these questions will help you define your identity and develop an action plan.
- Measure your success: Constantly measure yourself by reviewing your strategy and goals against what you have achieved overtime. This will help you restrategise if you feel you are not achieving your goals.
- Be consistent: Whatever strategy you decide on, consistency is the golden key to achieving results. Develop a pattern and stick to it over time.
- Network: One of the many reasons why one needs personal branding is to expand on your connection. Putting yourself out there is the fastest way to achieve your goal. There are so many ways to do this either physically or online; attend networking events both virtually or physically, attend physical or online conferences, webinars, engage with mentors and fellow professionals’ posts on LinkedIn. Remember if you engage with what others post, it’s only natural for them to notice you and even return the favour.
- Be yourself: Being yourself starts from being authentic and genuine. It’s easier to sell the truth than lies so why not be yourself. Save yourself the stress and the hassle of branding fakeness.
Achieving your goal will take intentional and consistent effort. It is a continual process that takes time. However, in the long run it will be worth it.
