PERSONAL BRANDING

PERSONAL BRANDING

I am going to attempt to talk about Personal Branding in its most simplistic form here. The essence is that anyone who reads this will understand it easily enough to act on the info contained therein.

First, I’d like to start by defining “branding”. Branding is the “process” of creating an identity that represents your products/services in the minds and hearts of your customers or clients. From the above definition, it’s easy to see that first you must have a defined target and then second, that whatever identity you intend to create must connect with the target both intellectually and emotionally.

That said, we can attempt to define Personal branding as a personal identity that your target can connect to, both emotionally and intellectually which associates “YOU” as an individual with the services/products you provide. In recent times, the highly competitive nature of the ever-evolving global market place has necessitated the need for personal branding whether as a career or business person, if you are serious about maintaining your relevance.  As a career person, you need to constantly prove your worth to your employers if you do not want to be replaced, and as a business person, you need to establish yourself as the only solution to the needs of your customers. There are lots of reasons why you should brand yourself but I’ll give you just one: because you have “competition”. Let me further help you understand, no matter how great your services or products are, truth is, you are not the only one with the same quality of services/products. And even if you are, it’s just a matter of time before someone comes up with something similar or even better.

Now, if you are career person reading this, I’d like you to understand that the key to maintaining your relevance to your employer is your ability to position yourself as a solution to the needs of your employer and to constantly reinvent yourself so as to continue to fill in that role. How? It’s simple! Every business wants to make profits and to save costs and if you can find ways to meet these needs, then you have the answer to the question. And when you have found the answer, the next step becomes establishing yourself as “the solution”. And that is what “Personal Branding” is about.

So in a nutshell, how do I brand myself as an individual?

1.       First, define who you are: the problems (social/economic) you want to solve, why you want to solve them, the skills and talents you have/need to be able to solve these problems very effectively and the results you want to achieve from solving these problems.  This is called “Brand Definition” and it forms the basis of your branding process. The next thing would be to:

2.       Develop a brand strategy by defining the following:

a.       Who needs your services/products? (Please understand that as a career person, the job you do is your service to your organization)  This defines who your target market/audience is.

b.      Where can you find the and how?

c.       How can I dress, walk, talk and behave in ways that will define and establish the services I render in the minds and hearts of my target?

The answers you give to these questions will set you on your way towards transforming yourself into a distinctively distinguished “solution provider” in the heart and mind of anyone that you come in contact with. If you have any questions or you need help with any of the above, you can connect with me via the following:

 Email: electrandukwe@gmail.com.

Phone: +2348037648830

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Or you can follow me on twitter: @electrandukwe. Thanks!!!