Self branding, or personal branding is used extensively in business networking and social networking circles. If you are a business person you will undoubtedly have heard this term, but do you know what it can do for you or your client?

Personal branding is defined as when an individual has become a brand much in the way that businesses are brands and often identifies an individual as an expert in their field.

This can be deliberate and sometimes it can just happen as a result of a business persons activities.

Richard Branson, ‘The Beckhams’ and Madonna are good examples of exceptionally high profile personal branding, and even if the personal brands weren’t deliberate to start with in each instance, I can pretty much guarantee you they are carefully managed now they have become a brand.

What Sort Of Person Can Become A Brand?

One of the most popular industry types that rely on personal branding are what are known as ’professional speakers’. Speakers are also typically writers and coaches and/or trainers.

This industry tends to require a level of personal branding to enable success for the individual because writing and speaking is a very ‘personal’ business activity.

A speaker and/or writer for example often has their own personal style and it’s important for the individual to be seen as an expert in their field if they expect to be booked for speaking engagements or for other businesses to buy merchandise such as books and Cd’s.

Imagery?

What typifies a personal brand is a business that tends to use the owners name for the company identity design, and where the owners photographs are used extensively in advertising and marketing.

How To Create A Strong Personal Brand

Certain activities will help to build a compelling personal brand and these include;

- Networking with effective communication skills (bad networking will destroy your personal brand, believe me I do a lot of business networking I’ve seen it happen a lot)

- Blogging (so as to show expertise in your field as well as your core personality/brand)

- Article Marketing (so as to show expertise in your field)

- Pod casts! Hip and new way to market yourself, very popular.

- Business videos…on the rise now also.

Is Personal Branding Important For Every Business Owner?

Personal branding is a great way to market your services as an individual however it doesn’t suit every business and there are some downfalls to self branding.

For example, presuming you don’t want to work forever, it can be very hard if not impossible to sell your business and pass on your personal brand to someone else. When your business is tied to ‘you’ as a person, it makes it less valuable than if it has it’s own brand that could be sold on to someone new without effecting the brand (and perceived value in the eyes of it’s customers) itself.

Now and The Future

Due to the rise in social and business online networking most small business owners are now developing a personal brand in addition to their ‘business brand’ whether they like it or not. Who can ignore the Internet age and how many are not on Facebook, Ecademy, Twitter and more?

As soon as you begin regular interaction with other business owners and your customers, as a named representative of your business you start building a personal brand, so be careful to ensure that this matches the brand ethos of the business you represent!

Can you think of any more examples (outside of Celeb-land) of personal branding in business?

Author
Amanda Vlahakis is the designer behind popular graphic design service Truly Ace Design and Truly Ace Design Blog

www.trulyace.com

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