“A personal brand is a widely-recognized and largely-uniform perception or impression of an individual based on their experience, expertise, competencies, actions and/or achievements within a community, industry, or the marketplace at large”
– personalbrand.com.
Have you ever read someone’s write-up and decided you can tell who they are? What mood are they in? The predominant emotion when they were writing? Or have you ever looked at a picture and thought, this person looks unhappy? That smile looks forced? This person seems so excited? Or a picture that (almost) moved you to tears?
Yes, right? And more often than not, you’ve not even met this person, and with the way the world is going (rolls eyes), it is almost unlikely that you’re meeting people how or as much as you would’ve loved to. Even when you do, you’re all wearing face masks (side-eye).That notwithstanding, that bit of them you are interacting with, is actively shaping your perception of them – their personal brand.
For something to be your personal brand, most people who interact with you have to see that same thing.
Rafiat Gawat
While perception is up to the audience, you need to put everything in place to ensure that you are perceived almost exactly as you want. What this means is that, it has to be deliberate.
Now, the big question is; how do we ensure we’re deliberate because God forbid we’re caught unfresh?
Here are five tips for your personal brand starter pack!
Set your objectives
To start, you have to be able to answer questions like: how do I want to be seen? What kind of impression do I want to leave when I interact with people?
Write it down!
I know, I know… I’m shouting, but trust me, writing things down helps to visualize them better, and then you can write down realistic ways to achieve them.
There’s three more to go and some extra tips on building your personal brand. Continue reading HERE.
About the writer
Rafiat Gawat is currently the Head of Corporate Communication at TGI Group. She is a seasoned corporate communications expert with more than 10-years’ experience in diverse and multicultural industries.
She is a certified associate of the Institute of Strategic Management, Nigeria; a member of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, and a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations in the United Kingdom.