A few years ago, with the rise of social networks and the production of digital content, the concept of personal brand became popular among professionals, becoming another step in companies' personnel selection processes.
Now, it is almost mandatory for professionals to develop their personal brand not only to build their professional experience, but also to stand out among their colleagues and be recognized as unique in their field.
But anyway, what is personal branding? It is the mark we leave for others. It means that you become the option that a company prefers since you have differentials and characteristics that make you unique.
The personal brand is also what we have already created, unconsciously or not, in our social networks and others perceive about us when our name is mentioned; It is not about making a logo or business cards, that could help but this goes further.
Furthermore, today, when interpersonal relationships are increasingly anonymous and virtual, building your personal brand is of vital importance. Furthermore, today millions of people share the same capabilities, do the same things, so differentiating seems increasingly complicated.
So, since many people already have an idea of our personal brand, the ideal is to manage and direct it to achieve the professional purposes we seek and project the image that interests us.
Tips to create your personal brand
- Get to know yourself: It sounds silly but getting to know yourself can be a process that takes time. To achieve this, ask yourself what you are good at and not so good at, what you know how to do and what you can do; By having these questions clear, you will be able to develop your message, making yourself known in this way, being clear why you want to be recognized.
- Have a strategy: Define what messages you want to give, where you want to go and who you want to recognize you; This way you won't be wasting your content and you'll focus it on where you really want. For this, it is important to define a specific SMART goal with a specific time frame. It is useless to set a goal like “I want to be famous” since it is abstract, indefinite and even impossible; Better you could think of one like “I want to be recognized as the psychologist who uses a unique method (detail of the method) in his consultations” and from there, begin to develop a content strategy that reinforces it.
- Make yourself known: We already said that we have all created that brand without intention, but in this step, we propose to communicate your message by directing it to those who need it. To do this, define your audience and start studying their tastes, needs and priorities.
How to define your personal brand?
- Social networks: Define which networks work for you according to the audience you have defined and do not limit yourself to posting and posting worthless content. Better create a community and feed it with valuable posts, comments and responses.
- Networking: Increase your professional contacts and take the opportunity to learn from those who know the most in your field; Get noticed with valuable content on topics related to your profession.
- Guest-Blogging: Generating your own content on professional topics is a good way to create your personal brand, generating it on the networks of others is great. This way your opinions will be highlighted and more and more people will begin to know you.
How can my personal brand contribute to the world today?
We are in a very particular moment in humanity in which uncertainty and change prevail, and in which our personal brand can be built in an interesting way.
Of course, if we stop to think, we are facing a situation in which we can define what we want to do today and tomorrow. For that, we suggest you follow this process:
- Take a look at your university performance or your CV and discover what you know how to do best, which projects you liked participating in and which ones you didn't.
- Likewise, analyze what you would like to do and what projects you would like to participate in that you have not yet explored.
- Take advantage of your free time or at home to study and train yourself in those gaps that you feel you have in your experience or CV.
- Get your creativity rolling and imagine yourself professionally at this very moment: what could you do to help others? Share your knowledge with others virtually, develop a socially collaborative app, make a list of ventures of acquaintances, etc. all ideas are welcome.
And if you haven't started yet, apply to be our next intern.