Stepping into the world of personal branding can be overwhelming to say with least, with a plethora of blogs, events and courses on the subject I found it difficult to find where to start. Think of the likes of David Attenborough, Michelle Obama or Lady Gaga. What it is that makes them authentic and stand out within their respective fields?

Recently I was fortunate enough to attend a personal branding workshop led by David Wolstenholme of Brand Me Better. Having not given much thought to my personal brand previously, this training session really opened my eyes to the importance of creating a brand and being consistent.

As a newbie in the recruitment business I’d like to share with you my key takes out from my personal branding journey so far.

What are my core values?

Before I start marketing myself as a brand, I need to ascertain what my core values and motivators are. Although it may be easy to think of the obvious, such as proving a great service, it actually goes to a much more personal and emotional place to really discover what your values are. As far as company branding goes our Lotus flower perfectly represents our values – a rebirth of ideas – this is philosophy we strive to apply daily in the recruitment space. However, it may not be so simple to think of those values on a personal level, I know, for one, it is something I am still working to ensure my branding pin points these core principles.

Which platform is best for me?

With so many different social media platforms at our finger tips it can be confusing as to which is actually the most appropriate for your personal brand. With an endless pool of other recruiters and potential clients on LinkedIn this might seem the obvious way to go in terms of business development, however this may not necessarily be the best route to candidates. I find my demographic of candidates are much more likely active on Facebook or Instagram rather than a professional LI profile, so this is something I must consider when developing my brand and capturing my target audience when posting content.

Creating interesting and relevant ‘on brand’ content.

Then we get to the point of actually creating and posting content. How do I post interesting and thought-provoking content that will be attractive to my target audience, yet in line with my personal brand? I think this may be the toughest challenge within the personal branding space. With video content becoming more and more popular this is definitely something to include going forward, as well as posting regularly to build and engage your audience and share content that means something to you.

I know my personal marketing journey is only just starting and will be ever evolving but these are the key takeaways I have picked up so far. Going forward I am excited to build my brand, voice my opinions, contribute to discussions and share experiences to create a connection with my audience.

A big thank you to David Wolstenholme from Brand Me Better who has made me consider this topic in much more detail.



https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandmebetter/