The contemporary century is one of the craziest and most impressive ones. I really often talk about the democratization and the new possibilities everybody has since the internet and the social media worlds opened their doors. In this article, I would like to share one really powerful thing this change brought with it: Personal Branding!
It’s not possible to talk about every aspect of this huge topic but I would love to give you a quick inside about how important a Brand around your person is today and how I think it is going to develop in the future.
But only one step at a time. What is Personal Branding? I would argue that everybody has his or her own personal brand. Have you ever had a job interview? The interviewer asked you about your goals, favorite hobbies, and strengths or weaknesses. You told him or her your story and you created your own Personal Brand without thinking.
I think that this storytelling is going to replace every established media channel we know today.
Another example everybody of us should be familiar with. Today is grannies birthday and it was two years ago when you met your aunt the last time. After the basic talk, she asks you about your future, girlfriend/boyfriend, and other plans. You transform into a marketing expert and with a few simple sentences, you dodge around the fact that you don’t really know what you want to do in the future.
In all those situations we have to talk about our life. That’s nothing new because humans love stories since they told each other the first ones around the campfire. In the past, it was about the last successful hunting and today it changed to interesting stories on Instagram.
I think that this storytelling is going to replace every established media channel we know today. Brands were so dependent upon the media 30 or 40 years back. Tv channels and newspapers decided almost alone about celebrities and had such a huge influence.
Today we are able to find our own crowd, build our own community and Youtube channels and blogs have higher click rates then newspapers. But how does it affect companies or freelancers in the business world?
We will see companies that grow because of a combination of impressive and inspiring Personal Brands at the top of their companies.
On the short term, you can create your own accounts for those companies and services but the real magic happens if the people behind those brand starts to talk about their life. I truly believe that the vision of a company gets more and more attention and people (no matter if they are consumers or employees) will judge differently.
We will see companies that grow because of a combination of impressive and inspiring Personal Brands at the top of their companies. I would argue that we will see people getting jobs because they have a better personal brand or getting inquiries on a completely new level.
At the moment this attention is underpriced, underestimated, and in the growth. If you start now with your personal brand on Linkedin, Instagram, your blog, or in real life you are going to succeed in the future. People always want to discover the hack or shortcut. But a very good investment would be to use the energy in building an own personal brand.
Stay creative!
Samy
