Personal branding is the ongoing process of establishing an image or impression in the mind of others about an individual.

Refreshing your personal brand is often a topic that people consider when there is a significant event occurring in their professional life: perhaps they are considering changing job or career. Often the start of the year prompts people to re-evaluate their personal and professional lives, bringing about the need to improve the way their personal brand might be perceived by others and to increase the likelihood of being considered for opportunities that may arise.

The first step is usually to understand how you are currently perceived by others. Consider asking for feedback about your personal brand within your business or your broader network of contacts. Here are some ideas to get you started thinking about your personal brand.

 

There are many ways you can refresh your personal brand:

Improve your professional qualifications

If you want to be considered as an ‘expert’ in your field, it might pay to consolidate on your professional qualifications. This might mean continuing (or starting) a University degree or completing a TAFE course. Even an online course can help develop your professional qualifications and improve your understanding and confidence in a field. Speak with individuals in your network and your supervisors to gain an insight into where any skills or knowledge gaps might be and investigate courses that will enhance your brand.

Develop new professional relationships

Did you know that 80% of new jobs are sourced through your professional networks? Most often, these roles were high level roles that weren’t advertised through the usual channels. However, there are more benefits from having strong professional relationships than just finding yourself a new role. Moreover, the role of a professional network is to support you throughout your career. Formalised networking (such as breakfast seminars for example) can be tricky. Networking isn’t for everyone but a strong professional network has enormous benefits for your career. To develop more connections with people, it’s important to develop a strategy that works for you. This might include asking your current connections for introductions, attending events and following up with people afterwards or focusing on your local school, church or sporting group. You can meet people anywhere and sometimes a person you want to connect with is only 1-2 people away from your existing network.

Be a mentor

There are *huge* benefits for being recognised as a mentor in a field. It provides you with ‘subject matter expert’ status and helps develop your personal leadership and coaching styles. If the mentoring is occurring within the company, there are benefits to mentors such as increased recognition and exposure across the company. If the program is organised by an external party (such as a University), there are other great benefits such as building on your professional network, according to Recruitment juggernaut Michael Page.

Share on LinkedIn

Denny McCorkle from the Digital Self Marketing Advantage recommends using LinkedIn to share articles, engage with your professional network and improve your personal brand. McCorkle states: “A primary purpose of social sharing on LinkedIn is to confirm a career focus and define the value of your personal brand to important others (connections, clients, and career stakeholders).” Being visible and providing relevant information might include sharing news, trends, research/stats, issues, insights, and success stories.

For more support on how to refresh your personal brand, contact the recruitment team at Flexi Personnel.