Personal branding is a concept relatively new to the market, but not new necessarily to how employers find the right employees. Think of your personal brand simply as your reputation. If you were to ask others three adjectives to describe you, what they say is your personal brand.
Your friends probably like you and that’s a good thing. The goal here though is to get employers and potential employers to have respect for you. When they hear your name, the adjectives they should think of are along the lines of “diligent, smart, and indefatigable.” Your actions in the workplace and how they reflect on your resume go a long way towards determining your brand, but there are some easy ways for you to affect your brand without leaving your home.
Thanks to the internet, there are a myriad of options available to you for burnishing your personal brand. The goal here is to earn you the respect of your peers in a particular industry, regardless of whether or not you currently work in that particular field. By interacting the right way, you’ll end up building a brand beyond what you thought capable.
Here are the three best ways to build your brand without leaving your home:
- Set Aside Time. The reason why so many people need offices to work is because the office environment means productivity. We’re not very productive at home. It’s just human nature. The way to combat this is create an office within your house and have work hours. During this time you should be communicating with people in your industry, checking out forums, making sure your social media is right and doing all things to enhance your personal brand.
- Post on Forums. Message boards and forums are your friends. They allow you to communicate with multitudes of people and share ideas. Many times, you can bring these ideas back to the office and they could earn a lot of goodwill. When posting on forums be respectful and polite. Remember what your mother said: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” You only degrade your personal brand if you point out how someone’s comment is stupid.
- Social Media Presence. Twitter, Instagram and Facebook need to be your friends. Check out the trends in your business or a business you’re interested in. Post great articles and generally spend your time provoking discussion and praising others. Be the fun peer who brings something to the group. Social media can relate the absolute best of who you are, so unleash that power!
Personal branding is one thing that we can control. We can’t control whether the boss likes us or how difficult the work is, but our actions control our reputations. Be sure to burnish your personal brand on your off time, and it will pay dividends!
