Personal branding

Personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands. Personal branding is essentially the ongoing process of establishing a prescribed image or impression in the mind of others about an individual.  

Tom Peter’s first wrote about personal branding in an article called ‘A Brand Called You’ in 1997. He said ‘we all need to understand the importance of branding as we are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called you’. See www.tompeters.com for more information.

Implementation process:

1. Ask yourself: What do I do that’s remarkable, measurable, distinguished, and distinctive value? Ask yourself: What do I do that I am most proud of? You have got to be an exceptional expert at something that has real value. Focus on only one thing (ideally a very small niche).
2. Be a visionary, leader, and teacher. 
   • Develop a carefully managed LinkedIn profile.
   • Write articles which disseminate original ideas on personal business and industry blogs.
   • Develop an online following.
   • Teach a class to students at a TAFE or University.
   • Contributing a column or an opinion piece to your local community newspaper.
3.  Be a business-person who is obsessed with value adding and pragmatic outcomes.
4. Remember that everything you do and everything you choose not to do communicates the value and character of your brand. For example, your emails, phone conversations, dress, logo, and office are all part of the larger message you are sending about your brand. 
5. Live your brand and be authentic.