Personal Branding: The How-To Necessity to Landing a Professional Gig
“Get ready to grow some self-confidence.”
Before we begin talking about personal branding, let’s discuss rhetoric. Rhetoric is defined as the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques. With that being said, personal branding is all about persuasive speaking/writing and who you stand for as a person. Confusing, I know. Let me break it down.
Personal branding is defined as attributes that are unique to you. Personal branding is extremely important when making a name for yourself in the professional industry because in addition to clearly stating who you are, you need to combine persuasive writing/speaking to sell yourself to employers, i.e. rhetoric! Rhetoric + personal branding = success in the professional industry. Simplified formula: persuasiveness + self-confidence= success in the professional industry. One can also say that branding is a form of rhetoric.
For example, I brand myself as a voluptuous intellect with a passion for food. My brand is persuasive, witty, surprising, and funny. When people hear me refer to myself as a voluptuous intellect, their attention is set on me; and it is not because I refer myself as voluptuous, but because they understand that here’s a person with self confidence who isn’t afraid to show it. All employers seek that. Immense self-confidence.
One way to figure out your own personal brand, before applying it to the professional industry, is creating a SWOT analysis. Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats. Click here to check out my article on SWOT analysis. This article is perfect for those applying to the professional world for the first time and need a how-to-guide in getting there.
Personal branding is like your personal statement. Your personal statement defines who you are, what you stand for, how you appear, and who you want to appeal. Understanding this concept is the first step in understanding your personal brand.
Commercial Industry/Social Media
Let me present you with a real world example: commercial industry. Commercial industry is the epitome of personal branding and rhetoric. Marketers are always asking the question of how they can attract more consumers, what are some rhetorical devices that they can deploy, how do they improve their personal brand. You have companies that heavily integrate their rhetoric into their social media.
For instance, Ferrari. Everyone knows Ferrari as this luxurious brand. The question Ferrari has to present itself is how do we persuasively appeal to our audience to buy our product. Social media. Ferrari implements their luxurious products with lavish gimmicks. They present to the consumer that they could have this lifestyle too.
This is a similar process to personal branding. How can you appeal to your audience/ employers to hire you. Apply your interests, hobbies, talents, whatever you got to social media. Essentially sell yourself so that employers see what you are made of. For example, I sell personal brand on every social media platform I can think of: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, LifeSpace, Medium, Wordpress, etc.
It is crucial that you sell your personal brand on every platform because employers look at this, and determine from your personal brand if you are a good fit for their company. Social media platforms are also great for building your online portfolio- simply stating your accolades, published work, work history, etc. In sum, social media is a great way to employ rhetoric to your personal brand
Alright, so by now you must be wondering how does creating a personal brand help with your chances of landing a professional gig. Well my good friend, we have tackled the social media aspect of rhetoric and applying that to your personal brand. I have given you an example of a commercial industry to show the effectiveness of building a personal brand through social media. But now, I will discuss the most important factor that coincides with implementing rhetoric and personal branding: audience.
From here on out, I will be using my own personal brand as an example/ how-to-guide. Further, I will be using my food blog to explain the procedures of combing your personal brand with professionalism. Finally, I will culminate all the points into a couple of sentences that emphasize the importance of personal branding. Let’s begin.
Okay, so my food blog, coffeeanddoughnuts.net, is essentially my personal statement. It is what I stand for, what I want people to know about me, and how I want to present myself to employers. With that being said, the first thing up on the discussion board is audience.
Who is your audience?
When making a personal brand statement, you want to think about what type of demographic you are catering to, who do you want to appeal, what persuasive methods can you bring to the table, who is your specific audience. It is vital that you emphasize in your personal brand who your audience is that way when people look at your personal brand they know who you are, who you wish to represent, and it gives your audience an understanding of who they are involving themselves with. For example, on the “about” page on my blog, I state who is my audience. Stated in the picture below, is my personal brand statement. I state what the blog is, who is involved, the purpose, and finally who the blog is catered to: experienced and novice cooks at home. Note that personal branding and audience serves as a direct relationship to one another. If you were to state, “My name is X and I believe in A, B, C, and I want to be able to do, Q, R, S,” other like-minded people will follow. Do not worry about appealing to the whole world. Be comfortable in your own skin. Do not be afraid to state in your personal brand that you are a voluptuous intellect. Those who are interested will follow you.
Here is how you determine who your audience is:
- Ask yourself what you stand for and who are you appealing to.
- Convert your ideals into several sentences.
- Explicitly state who your audience is.
Here is how to combine rhetoric, personal brand, and audience into professionalism :
- If you haven’t already, create a SWOT analysis. There are perfect for creating your personal brand statement.
- As reiterated before, SELL YOURSELF to active seeking employers. Don’t think “how do I get myself hired,” think, “ Here’s why you want to hire me.” You do not want to give your employers a chance to question whether they should hire you or not. When creating your personal brand, you need to be in the mindset that anybody who sees this is going to hire me. The way to deploy rhetoric is to have self-confidence. Of course in a professional manner. Don’t post anything in your personal brand that you don’t want others knowing.
- Once you have mastered rhetoric, personal branding, and determined your specific audience, the rest will follow.
In short, to build a successful personal brand for the professional industry, master rhetoric, know your audience, and have a ton of confidence. Use this method, and I can almost guarantee you will find a job in the professional sector. So far, my methods haven’t failed me.
