By Luisa Florez
Has it ever happened to you that when someone asks you if you know someone who can give advice on cars, your same friend always pops up in your mind? Or if an underclassman asks you about what professor to take the next semester, you always suggest the same energetic professor? That, my friend, is an example of the effects of personal branding.
What is Personal Branding?
According to Forbes contributor Glenn Llopis, personal branding “represents the values you can consistently deliver to those you are serving.” In other words, personal branding represents you as a leader and it becomes the ideas people associate with you. This can range from ideas like being tech-savvy, being a great networker, or being someone very passionate about STEM outreach.
Why is it important?
Simply put, it makes you stand apart. It creates an association between you and certain values. This association is important because it can lead people to seek you out and ask you for suggestions or advice on those topics or ideas. This can lead to new opportunities such as speaking engagements, new roles, or promotions. If you’re a student it can be the reason why everyone in your class wants you on their design team because they associate you with being a hard worker and very tech savvy. If you’re an entrepreneur or consultant, it can be the reason why investors want to partner with you or why clients want you to work on their projects, because your brand represents creativity and determination or cleverness and punctuality, respectively.
As an added bonus, developing your personal brand will help you improve your interpersonal skills because you’ll have to put yourself out there in order to effectively maintain your brand. Whether you decide to do that through videos, written articles, or speeches, your self-esteem, public speaking and networking will grow.
How do I start?
You start by taking action (like participating in our Personal Brand Video Challenge described below!). There are many ways to start building your brand. You can start on a personal level by building relationships or giving speeches, which can have a direct impact on individuals, or you can start developing your brand online. In fact, in today’s job market, having an online presence is important as more companies turn to the internet to learn more about their prospective employees. Leverage your online skills to create your own website to showcase your portfolio, videos or blogs. Engage in social media like LinkedIn or Twitter, where your brand develops not only through your posts, but also through the videos and articles you share. The important thing is to start and to be committed to being active with your presence.
Personal Brand Video Contest – Yes, there is a prize.
Need an excuse to start? SHPE Region 5 would like to challenge you to start or continue to build your personal brand through our Personal Brand Video Contest! Upload a video describing a passion of yours for your chance to win a $50 gift card! Deadline is July 1st, 2017. Simply create and upload a public video to facebook about anything you are passionate about and tag SHPE Region 5 in your post. Make sure to add the #SHPERegion5 and #MySHPEbrand hashtags to your post.
Once video has been posted, upload link to contest google form here > https://goo.gl/forms/gzcfKoT4OBoqrREL2
Writer’s note:
Why a video you might ask? It’s an easy way to express yourself in a personable manner and to practice public speaking. Plus, everyone loves to watch videos.
Referenced article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2013/04/08/personal-branding-is-a-leadership-requirement-not-a-self-promotion-campaign/#c275d03226fa
