Why is Personal Branding Important?
Your story can have a significant impact on your career, both in terms of establishing yourself and furthering your prospects. In fact, an impressive 85% of hiring managers say that a job candidate's personal brand is a factor in their hiring decisions. By being strategic about your personal brand, you can communicate to current or future employers what makes you the ideal candidate for a role that's open. By focusing on your strengths and building trust, cultivating a well-rounded reputation, you're letting them know that there's nobody quite like you - which is precisely what they're looking for. Creating a personal brand name might sound challenging, but there are small steps you can take to earn trust in your industry. One way to develop your personal brand is through networking. See below for some key networking and personal brand building strategies that will help set you on the right path.
Try out networking events
Backing away from excuses of not being able to take time off work or not being able to afford the travel costs to attend a networking event or a conference, such events are crucial if you want to build your network and develop your personal brand. By building trusted relationships with others, you open yourself up to new opportunities and knowledge that can help further establish you as an influencer.
Show the original you on your social media channel
Personal branding is essential in the modern world, and one of the best ways to improve your personal brand is by writing content for your blog, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter profile. However, content creation is easy to come across as self-promotional if you're not careful, which can turn potential connections away from you.
The idea is to enrich your contacts, not to continually trumpet your own successes—at least not all the time. Instead, create and share content that’s both valuable and supported by your line of work and personal beliefs.
Organize Local Meetups
If you are the organizer and first voice of an event that is helping out your community, say women in tech, your personal brand will instantly be seen as more credible, while also allowing yourself to connect with multiple like-minded individuals. Check out opportunities to get involved if you’d like to host an event.
Attending a space where shared ideas or interests can be discussed opens up a whole "stage" to present your personal brand.
Contribute to Well-Known Industry Sources
After gaining credibility in the tech industry through renowned platforms and delivering new, valuable ideas, you can earn or strengthen the title of a 'tech thought leader' or an 'tech expert'. Some leaders gain these titles by writing op-ed pieces for industry publications and later get involved with different events as keynote speakers. Your content delivered by a popular industry platform will reinforce your personal brand to other women in tech who will then want to be a part of your network.
This list is not all-inclusive, however we believe it does provide a route to more improved personal brand building and networking.
What do you think? Did we leave out other key strategies that you have used and found effective?
