When applying for a job or for business, it is import for the individual to brand him or herself properly. Branding is a process of characterizing oneself or possessing a distinctive kind of marketable identity. By marketing key-elements in a personal identity, one will exhibit values important to business owners and corporations looking for the perfect individual for the job. The following 10 steps will aid in obtaining a successful characteristic so that the individual can create his or her personal branding.
1. Reality Check
The first step in developing a brand is to determine what goals or accomplishments can aid in the individual’s assessment of his or her qualities. Some questions to ask one are what would you want? What kind of individual are you? What are your passions? Do you have any accomplishments? Are there any goals he or she has? Are you where you want to be in life? This assessment is a way to analyze where he or she is in this process. To obtain a first look, ask friends, family, acquaintances, and coworkers if any. This will identify one’s good or bad qualities, and to help identify achievements. One helpful tool is to acquire a self-assessment test available through various schools and programs like a DISC examination.
2. Dress for Success
After completing and evaluating a personal assessment, one should direct his or her attention to their appearance. If one wishes to become a professional, he or she should match their image to their personal appearance. One should dress accordingly to the desired profession, but in an interview environment, one should dress in a professional manner. Human resources will always appreciate the attempt one does to look their best no matter how informal the job may appear. As a professional, he or she should have three professional outfits to use during interviews and meetings. These outfits should be clean and not tattered. Taking these outfits to a dry cleaner will only improve one’s chances in impressing an employer. One should pay close attention to their grooming habits and make sure he or she is cleanly shaven and washed.
Some helpful hints are to never wear too much cologne or perfume, obtain a haircut regularly, don’t wear an over abundance of flashy jewelry and one should make sure to wear clothes not offensive or too bright for the interviewer. One should take care of any dental problems, and one should make sure their breath is fresh before their interview. One should never chew gum during the interview and always sit up straight and tall during the meeting. As an interviewee plant both feet on the ground and relax. This will show more confidence in his or her appearance.
3. The Introduction
One should learn to introduce oneself in a professional communication. Communicating one’s brand is important when meeting others. Practicing a brief introduction is easy to communicate and can relay a proper branding. During an interview, this practice will aid if the applicant is asked about his or her history. Finding a beginning, middle, and end to an introduction will aid in communicating a succinct history. This exercise will assist the individual in offering his or her goals during this communication. Goals should relate to the job one is applying for or toward the professional desires of the individual. The important points one wants to relay are good points about oneself and where the individual began the pursuit for the position he or she is applying for. The individual should learn to describe his or her goals and how he or she will confidently succeed in this endeavor.
4. Show a Winning Attitude
Pants are put on one leg at a time, and everyone has to do it to get dressed. This is important to remember before the individual tries to ramrod a superior err to another individual. A conceited attitude can cause a bad branding in the first impression. A confident attitude can go a long way with companies, but remember to be honest and open about everything pertaining to the job. One should never be negative or cause another to think less of the person because of his or her comments. Always be positive and show a level of balance and confidence when speaking to others. Professional men and women will think more about the individual who has integrity and will show that he or she does not know everything, but is willing to learn what the job takes to be successful.
5. Be Card Friendly
One of the key tools in showing a professional branding is the ability to present a business card to an individual. The business card is the perfect invitation to meet someone and to show that person you plan on staying in contact with him or her. Business cards act as a calling card whether they have a title or a corporation on the card front or if the card has the individual’s name and number only on the card. One should present a business card at every meeting. A professional card without the embellishments work best if the company name or title are absent. Along with the name and phone number, the individual can add his or her e-mail address or website to the card. Any method of recognition is a benefit to the individual’s success in developing a brand.
6. Tools of the Trade
Business cards are not the only tools used to market a brand. Marketing with various tools can improve the brand because tools can be found when the individual is not present. Business print such as letterhead or envelopes, cards, pens, pads, personalized calendars, and brochures are beneficial to the individual in letting his or her name become public. Other marketing tools can come from recruiters, job developers, previous employers, and social networking. Personalized materials used by recruiters and job developers consist of cover letters, resumes, Curriculum Vitae (CV), or video resumes. In social networking the materials that work are public e-mail, professional online profiles, online group memberships, blogs, and websites. Any of these materials can improve branding, so keeping material up-to-date and professional in every standard is very important.
7. Professional Online Imaging
With social networking groups on the web, a proper image is important in establishing an online identity. The image one portrays can easily change by the ingenuity of an individual who wishes to do harm to others by identity theft. Protection of one’s image is imperative when concerning branding a name or the individual. To determine protection of one’s image he or she should invest in an online protection program that monitors for the company or by him or herself on a regular basis. When his or her web address is protected, one should make certain that any inappropriate behavior and photography is deleted from any professional cites. He or she should evaluate FACEBOOK friends and determine if the friend will have any detrimental effect on one’s branding. If this friend has inappropriate content, one should delete the contact to improve his or her image.
An individual should create a successful profile and join professional programs that gear toward a professional audience. Two popular websites are 12 Manage and LinkedIn where business practitioners go to get advice and develop professional business contacts. If an individual is a recent graduate, another location to create contacts is through the Alumni cite for his or her university. This university or college site offers alumni articles, career opportunities, industry news, and professional contacts. This branding process will help in developing an image that corporations look for in an individual.
8. Proofread, Proofread, Proofread
This process is a dying breed in texting, instant messaging, and twitter entries, but in the professional arena proofreading is still a priority when concerning communication in business. An individual’s writing skill is another way for corporations or management to determine intelligence and depth of an individual applying for a position. In today’s computer age, there are many tools that can assist in writing a grammatically correct document. One should read a document and not count solely on a computer spell-checker because the computer cannot determine word use. One should watch for proper spelling and the use of a word in a sentence. The individual should determine if the document has proper capitalization, punctuation, and sentence structure. One should invest in a peer-reviewed computer program that helps in writing. This will benefit the individual’s communication skills and his or her branding.
9. Ask Your Mentor
Asking a mentor for advice is the best method to obtain a straightforward opinion on an individual’s behavior. A mentor should be a trusted friend or colleague experienced in the same industry or profession. Mentors are veterans in the field that have been through the same process. This advice will help the individual with the pros and cons of any position. When an individual looks for assistance in branding, he or she will have educational mentors, employment mentors, and community leader mentors. One should ask his or her mentor how to improve behavior and branding commitment. How to speak, how to act, how to succeed, and how to present can only make a brand stronger. If the individual has poor communication skills and his or her mentor cannot offer an unbiased and professional opinion, this mentor is not helping in the individual’s best interest. In finding a brand, one should make certain that his or her mentor is a valuable asset in the growth of any success.
10. Update Regularly
With everything, evolution happens and in time, brands can become outdated. Updating regularly will keep the brand fresh. Experience, education, and prestige can improve, and documenting these changes will inform any corporation of the individual’s growth in a career or position. One should document these improvements in resumes, online profiles, and social media records. In updating a brand, one should start from the beginning and start with the introduction and move through the steps. New ideas and aspirations should reflect on one’s branding as well as a flexibility to grow in one’s career. These are key elements in developing a personal branding. Following these 10 steps, the individual has the tools to market himself in a professional brand.
Patrick Tremblay
