6 Reasons Why Executives Should Build a Personal Brand (With Best Practices) was originally published on Ivy Exec.
Executive talent is faced with a myriad of professional challenges in every industry in the world. Regardless of your field of expertise, chances are that you are faced with stiff competition and an ever-increasing need to keep developing your competitive edge through constant self-evaluation in order to stay relevant and visible in a constantly-shifting business world.
What you might not have realized is that your personal brand is the most powerful tool in your arsenal and that you have an opportunity to future-proof yourself and your career by building and leveraging your personal brand. There are many reasons why all executives should have a personal brand nowadays, but not everyone knows how to do it right and how to maximize the power and potential of their professional image.
With that in mind, today, we are going to take a look at the best practices for personal branding and why you need to get started with it right away. Here’s what you need to know.
Developing a unique brand story
Engaging and compelling stories inspire people to take action and attract loyal brand advocates. Business leaders know all too well just how important it is to create a compelling story around their brand and how important it is for their brand story to encompass the values, causes, personality, and tone of voice of their company. Without these elements, their business would be just one in a sea of faceless corporations.
And the same goes for personal brands. Building a compelling brand story and narrative is the foundational pillar of your personal brand as a whole, and it will create a positive image that people will connect with on a deeper level.
To build your brand story, you need to:
- Have a unique brand personality
- Develop a tone of voice that resonates with your audience
- Have distinct values that make you unique
- Stand for important causes
- Weave your values, vision, and tone into all your messaging
Complementing the story with unique brand visuals
Of course, one of the most crucial elements of any successful brand is its visual identity. A personal brand needs to have unique and memorable visuals. Just like a corporate brand, your brand will capture the attention of your audience, build your competitive advantage, and help you become more memorable than your competitors.
To that end, your personal brand and its visual identity can help you get ahead in your field and position yourself as the top choice and authority through better exposure and visibility. Complemented by your expertise and other brand elements that we mentioned, this is a winning recipe for forward-looking executives.
Your visual identity can start with a logo, and you can create one quickly with a free logo maker without having to deal with designers or spend too much time brainstorming. Your personal logo can become your brand’s primary symbol and a crest that you can put on your website and your social media, but also your business cards and all client-facing documentation.
Building and leveraging a positive reputation
One of the key reasons why having a personal brand is important is so that you can better manage your online reputation and build one in the first place. Without a strong brand, managing an online or offline reputation can be a difficult challenge. Likewise, building a reputation in the first place can be a daunting task because you don’t have the support of a brand story or the visual identity to create brand followers or build a devoted community.
This also leaves you open to attacks from your competitors, and it makes it easier for people to try to discredit your work and your opinions. That’s why online reputation management is so important, and building a brand first will make it infinitely easier. Because remember, having a brand protects you and your image in the competitive business world.
Getting featured on authority websites
Industry experts and top-value executives get featured on popular websites and platforms in their field and beyond, but it’s important to note that their personal brands play a big role here. When you have a popular brand, a recognizable name in the industry, with a devoted following, you are much more likely to get asked for interviews and get featured on authority websites and offline media as well.
What’s more, building a personal brand is great for expanding your reach. When you have a positive brand image to back you up, you can easily reach out to websites and industry leaders for guest posting, collaborations, and partnerships. A personal brand also makes it easy to enlist guest posting services from a marketing agency, knowing that they will have no problem getting you featured on various websites and building your professional network with relative ease.
For this and many other reasons, make sure to start building your brand.
Opening networking and collaboration opportunities
It should go without saying that a personal brand opens new and exciting opportunities to expand your professional network. This is not just an opportunity to get invited to important events and land meetings with the top employers or potential clients and partners – this is an opportunity to get noticed and establish yourself as a top executive in your field.
And networking along with collaboration and establishing partnerships are all powerful ways to achieve these goals. To open these opportunities, you need to stay on top of the latest trends and events in your field, and you need to be proactive in brand dissemination, marketing, as well as online engagement on social media and professional platforms.
Creating a long-term personal brand strategy
Building a personal brand should not be a goal; it should be a journey and a long-term strategy toward steady professional growth and success. Your personal brand is not just a tool you can use to achieve your professional goals – it is a living, breathing entity that needs to evolve over time to support you and your career goals.
This is why successful personal branding relies on meticulous and continuous research and quickly adapting to the needs and wants of your audience. Keep in mind that not only are the top employers constantly evolving, but so are the potential partners, clients, and even your potential employees.
If you want to always be able to work with the best of the best, no matter if they’re clients, employees, or employers, you need to stay on top of their needs and the latest trends in your field. Weave these trends into your brand, and you will remain relevant and in high demand.
Over to you
It’s one thing to be a foremost authority in your field and a successful executive, but having a powerful personal brand allows you to take your career to the next level, and it is the one competitive edge that no one can take away from you. Much like you should invest time and effort into acquiring new skills and staying on top of the latest trends in your field; you should invest the same resources into building a personal brand.
Combined with a powerful brand, your skills and expertise will propel you to the top of your industry and will ensure that you and your services remain in demand in 2023 and the years to come.
