How to Build a Strong and Professional Brand

Building a strong network is an essential part of establishing a successful personal brand. In today’s world it is no longer enough to have a great product or service or be part of a strong business or brand. You need to have the right connections, right sponsorship, and support to establish your own value that defines you and your purpose. Here are some tips on how to build a better personal brand.

1. Branding is about representing consistent value that indicates both intellectual attraction and emotional appeal (Allan Weiss). Make sure you demonstrate a healthy balance where needed.
2. Make it clear so people know why they should work with or for you, what value your product or service is for them and why they should respond to you NOW. Make it compelling or it is confusing.
3. Most people think of their brand as a noun, it needs to be a VERB and acted upon. What do you need to do to make your brand come alive?
4. Be a bold contributor and make your narrative clear and unique. Be active and in control of it. No-one is more responsible for their brand than themselves.
5. Defining your brand means defining your values, your brand purpose, your unique selling proposition (USP), and your target audience. Once you have a clear picture of who you are and what you stand for, you can start to identify the people who are most likely to be interested in what you have to offer. Who do you want to influence?
6. One of the most important things you can do to build a better brand is to offer value to those people who are in your immediate sphere of influence and those who are in your prospective networks. Provide useful resources and insights as well as knowledge you can establish yourself as a generous and helpful person known for your willingness to give before you ask. Be generous, be responsive, be curious.
7. Whether you attend industry events, join professional organisations, utilise social media, offer value and be authentic. Build your reputation as a someone who is a voice of reason, intuitive and caring. What type of thought leader are you?
8. Trust yourself to step up and out of the competition and be willing to back yourself in discussions and conversations with colleagues, leaders and peers.

The best way to do this is by:

Doing your homework before your mouth work. Be incredibly well prepared to present business case arguments, backed by emotionally intelligent awareness of how people are ‘feeling’ about difficult or different situations.

Learn more about the personality styles and preferences of those in your meetings as well as their motivators and slant the conversations to meet what is high priority for them.

Build social capital online and within the business by contributing to conversations and things of importance to the business outside your immediate work areas if possible.

Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse what you want to say, how you say it and when you should say things so you feel confident and competent in delivering your view points and ideas.