Personal brand: backing it up in person

There’s a lot of things on the internet (and on here) about how to build your brand and how to make sure that everything looks absolutely wonderful on your LinkedIn and online profiles. It’s all extremely important. However, it means nothing if you can’t back it up in person, so here’s our personal brand tips that relate to the idea on a human level.

Authenticity

It’s all very well saying that you have the correct skills to do something, and even backing it up with relevant work experience and endorsements, but employers know what they’re doing. They know how easy it is to twist an experience into something that looks good on the internet and they know that many of your endorsements will be from your friend, so make sure that your profile is based on solid foundations.

You can obviously highlight the parts of what you have done that make you most valuable to the industry you are targeting, but if you start to build a profile on exaggerations and falsehoods, your brand will come crashing down like a house built on sand once an employer brings you in for interview.

Communication

Again, this comes down to how you sell yourself in person and how authentic you will come across. Truth be told, it doesn’t matter how good your skills and experiences are if you cannot communicate this to the people employing you. You can write the most phenomenal emails in the world to get yourself an interview, but if you can’t look your interviewer in the eye and give them a decent handshake, they’re never going to believe in the brand you’ve created.

If you’re a shy person, that’s fine. Selling yourself doesn’t have to be about being the loudest person in the room, and the old adage that empty vessels make the loudest noises holds true in many senses. But whilst you cannot trumpet incompetence aloud and expect results, equally you need to be noticed to be believed, and you must believe in your own brand before you can flout it to others. Determine your best skills and believe in them yourself first, and the rest will fall into place.

Networking

Being online can never replace the sheer face-to-face power of networking and having real human contact with those who you want to work alongside or even for. Your online brand must remain a tool to help you grow as a professional and must be utilised alongside traditional networking in order to maximise your potential.

Far too many people believe that their LinkedIn will get them the job they’re looking for, when in fact they should be out building relationships in the industry, from which employers will then have a look at their online presence. Your brand should be equally adept on and offline, and never should one replace the other. Balance is key in this day and age.