Article

Jay Denhart-Lillard
Jay Denhart-Lillard 8 January 2016
Categories Social Media

5 Reasons To Take Action On Your Personal Brand In 2016

It's the new year, and time for making those resolutions about weight, or gossiping or cursing. But those are not the only topics that you can choose.

It’s the new year, and time for making those resolutions about weight, or gossiping or cursing. But those are not the only topics that you can choose. 

I like to pick positive attitudes and habits that I would like to add to my life in each January. I find it’s easier to think about adding things into my life than trying to ’give up’ things instead. And although there are countless reasons why a strong personal brand can benefit you, here are a few reasons why this may be the most important year yet for building your ideal online persona and getting it working for you.

  1. Because the workforce is getting more competitive.  Higher graduation rates, more and more millennials moving into management roles, and a growing need for companies to utilize the personal brands of their employees in order to present a stronger corporate brand. Also, with the rise of Uber and AirBnB, there are more opportunities for working ’gigs’ rather than full-time employment, and this means your reputation comes into play for each new project. You want to have a strong brand to demand higher salary, and every new engagement is a chance for you to make an impression and get a new sale/trial.
     
  2. Because people prefer to buy from other people, not faceless companies. Building a personal brand that is powerful, discoverable and consistent can help others in connecting with you. And in many cases it’s just about keeping a clean, clear presence on the right platforms. Adecco published a work trends study this year that found LinkedIn to be the most popular platform for professional purposes for recruiters (61 percent) as well as job seekers (34 percent).
     
  3. Because it can make or break your job search. According to Jobvite, 93% of recruiters will use the online presence of a potential job seeker to decide if they will make the first cut to get an interview. 94% of recruiters are active on LinkedIn, but only 36% of candidates are, so you can get an automatic advantage just for showing up and participating!
     
  4. Because it’s already impacting your life. You already have an online brand. You just may not know what it is, or how it already could be affecting your potential. It’s now commonplace to look up people on Google before meetings, after cocktail parties, and upon receipt of emails from unknown people. And if you work in sales, then the numbers can get really interesting. According to a Dell study conducted at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, 75% of B2B buyers use social media to help them make purchasing decisions. So, if you’re in sales or not, it’s probably important to run an audit on your online presence every now and then, just to stay aware of what others may find. Then you can decide whether or not to take action.
     
  5. Because your reputation and brand are your only true assets. There are very few skills and abilities that are so completely unique that they can directly generate wealth and happiness. After all, with 7 billion people on the planet, how unique can any given set of skills be? In this life, it’s as much how you play the game as what cards you’re dealt, and that means we all have to stand for more than just the skills of our hands and feet. We have to offer something special - something unique and only possible through ourselves. I call this my personal brand, you can call it your special sauce, or whatever. But whatever you call it, we all need to identify it and find ways to speak about it.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s tackle this year and make every day count!

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