What is the role of personal branding in the professional growth of an individual?
This article covers the relevance of personal branding in boosting one’s career growth post the MBA degree.
What is branding, and what is its potential?
The oxford dictionary defines branding as the activity of giving a particular name and image to goods and services so that people will be attracted to them and want to buy them.
Branding reflects how a company acts and serves its people, the values it shares, and how it projects those values. A powerful brand stands out amidst a multitude of its competitors. The brand’s potential lies in spreading awareness while boosting the product’s sales.
What have some advertisements done to leave permanent impressions on people?
The consumer:
– went back to school in Bata.
– kept Boost a secret of his energy.
– had a good day with Britannia.
– has had a break with a Kitkat.
– tasted the thunder with Thumbs up
The brands have kept consumers engaged with their trademark taglines. Using catchy lines, the advertisers have ensured that the customer stays hooked to their brands. Many of them have impacted the user to remain loyal to the brands.
What is personal branding?
Branding is not only for companies but also for individuals. Professionals narrate their stories while sharing their goals, skills, and expertise. However, in the increasingly competitive world, a personal brand is not an option to have. Therefore, professionals must build their brand. A personal brand reflects the person’s values. It helps to communicate a unique identity and clear value to employers and clients.
“Personal branding is one’s story.” The story can play a crucial role in constituting or furthering one’s career. Most recruiters have admitted that a potential candidate’s brand shapes the recruiter’s hiring decisions.
An effective personal brand works for a candidate in:
- accentuating his strengths
- ascertaining his personality
- establishing his credibility
- conveying the specialities that he brings to the organization
- indicating to potential employers/clients that he is the ideal fit for the position/assignment
How to create a personal brand? Introspect.
To create a personal brand that manifests a person’s personal and professional identity, he must reflect on himself. One must develop a list of areas where he excels. Some people may not like to project any forte for fear of getting type-cast. Nevertheless, they must select regions that best suit them currently and allow themselves to evolve as they progress professionally.
Can anyone ignore the importance of social media in the present times?
Social media helps people establish better relationships with their family, friends, and colleagues. Networking can have a social purpose, a business purpose, or both through Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and Instagram.
The lockdown during the pandemic has ensured students use social media sites for their classes. In addition, companies have been conducting businesses through Zoom or Google meets.
Which sites aid in augmenting one’s professional life?
LinkedIn is an online service for businesses and careers. It is a platform for professionals to share ideas and post articles.
LinkedIn is a place for job seekers to post their resumes and employers to post job requirements. A LinkedIn profile capsules a person’s professional experience. All connections, current and future employers, and recruiters can view the resume. In addition, a person can reveal his professional life, milestones, skills, and interests in his profile.
Academia.edu
Academia.edu is an academic networking site. It connects scholars and allows them to document their academic and professional feats, share research papers, and monitor and evaluate analytics on scholars’ research impact.
This site is a tremendously valuable source for keeping up to date with the academic output of specific scholars or topics of interest. In addition, it is a platform for presenting information and building connections for potential job opportunities.
Facebook is the most popular social media website for connecting people. It is user-friendly and open to everyone. It started as a platform to keep in touch or reconnect with long-lost friends. It soon grew to become the hub of business activities and advertisers’ dream location.
Facebook allows users to customize their privacy controls to protect compromising of their information to third-party individuals.
Twitter is a micro blogging site with several million users who tweet many times a day. Twitter users connect using a hashtag (#) with a username on topics of interest.
A word of caution
Social networking aids users in connecting with friends, associates, and existing and potential employers and clients. Nevertheless, one ought to exercise discretion in sharing information, pictures, or any particularly any sensitive or classified information. Unfortunately, many users have fallen prey to the misuse of data on social media sites.
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