How to Develop Your Personal Brand

Creating a strong personal brand is important in your personal life, to help move you into the next level of your career or when looking for a new career path. But, what is a personal brand? A personal brand is who you are. It is the values you stand for. The trick is to portray who you are to those who make the decision to hire you, to promote you, or to even give you a chance.

1) Have a Plan.

Create a plan as to how you are going to build your brand. Write out an actual plan as to how you are going to promote yourself.

First, define your audience - who needs to know who you are? It is potential employers? Maybe you are in business for yourself, so it may be customers. Whoever the audience is, create a plan to speak to that audience, to define who you are to that audience, in a way they will understand.

Second, be sure they know what you can do for them - let's face it, everyone is in it for themselves... how does this benefit me? What do I get out of it? How can they help me? Be sure they know what you can offer to them.

2) Create the Content.

Now that you understand who you are talking to them and what direction you want to go in, you need to create the content. Whether the content is going on your social media sites, a personal blog, or on your resume, the creation of the content people will see and read will help brand you. Ensure the content reflects who you are as well. If you are extremely creative and crafty, let those aspects shine through. Ask for help from a professional if you need.

3) Develop Strong Relationships.

Whether you are good at it or not, working to develop strong relationships can be challenging. The type of people you associate with (especially professionally) help define your brand as others see those relationships, especially if they are relationships on your social media sites. It takes some work, but will be worth it to create lasting and health relationships - not only will you feel good about yourself and develop self-confidence about you and your brand, but you'll also develop networking contacts that can help you in the future.

Developing relationships online and in-person are both just as important as the other one. Combining both types of relationships and networks will increase your brand, your network of valuable relationships, and your influence on others.

4) Keep Updating.

Branding is a continuous process. Once you've created the content and developed the relationships, keep going and keep updating. If you develop new strengths through education or experience, definitely add them to your brand. If you have something new to offer your customers or potential employer, let them know (through your branding, of course). Your brand will and absolutely should grow as you grow.