Personal Branding

Personal branding is a business practice in which people market themselves and their skills using methods similar to corporate marketing and advertising of brands and products. While the concept of personal branding is not new to business, personal branding has become a contemporary trend linked to articles published in the late 1990s urging individuals to use modern social and digital media to create and control their professional image and identity. By 2015, personal branding was seen as one of many trends in the field of business self-help. In the twenty-first century, a variety of companies, motivational speakers, and authors have gravitated toward selling advice regarding personal branding to professionals.

Brief History

Personal branding is a model for professional success based on the idea that individuals should market themselves and their abilities in a similar fashion to corporate marketing of products. Using one’s own name and image as a branding tool is the most basic form of personal branding and is an ancient business practice. In preindustrial cultures, business owners regularly used their own name and their own image and reputation to market their services.

In the early 1900s, personalized businesses were common in the United States. The Ford Motor Company is a prime example; the early marketing for the company was based on promoting the image, ingenuity, and reputation of the company’s founder, Henry Ford. The impersonal model of corporate identity became dominant in the mid-twentieth century as a result of growing business size and an increasing tendency toward collaboration rather than individual leadership. Increasingly, personal branding became associated more with celebrity endorsements, through which a company hopes to increase sales by associating products with the image or reputation of a high-profile member of society.

Celebrities provide a prime example of personal branding, as a celebrity’s career is based on personal reputation and public image. Since the emergence of theater, literature, and other commercial art forms, artists have taken steps to control their image in an effort to attract consumers. In some cases, this effort involves radical changes to one’s identity, such as changing one’s name or undergoing plastic surgery. Actor Cary Grant, for instance, was born Archibald Leach but changed his name in an effort to make himself more attractive to movie studios and viewers.

The personal branding trend of the twenty-first century is thus a resurgence, popularization, and exploitation of older professional concepts. In essence, the trend is based on the idea that consumers respond more positively to businesses that are personal, providing the appearance of reliability, honesty, and accountability. The most recent resurgence of this idea, and the origin of the term "personal branding," has been linked to a 1997 article by Tom Peters titled "The Brand Called You." After 1997, dozens of self-help authors and speakers as well as consulting companies began to sell books, techniques, and strategies for personal branding. By 2015, the concept had become sufficiently popular that some higher learning institutions instructed students in personal branding as a subset of business marketing and professional development.

Overview

Personal branding is about controlling and strategically using one’s image as a tool to enhance professional appeal. Before the digital era, marketing generally required purchasing printed advertisements and promotional materials. In the digital age, however, it has become easier for people, regardless of relative resources, to utilize web-based tools and social media marketing to begin selling themselves as a product. The first step toward personal branding is to research and shape one’s online identity, which can be defined as the perception of a person’s personality and professional qualities collectively presented through the Internet.

Personal branding experts recommend using social media strategically. Photos, videos, and other content posted online are part of a person’s public image and this data can be edited and presented to create a specific personal and professional image. Personal branding specialists also recommend increasing one’s media presence using methods such as starting a blog and posting articles about professional issues. In a 2014 article published in Inc. magazine, writer Jayson DeMers lists "writing and publishing" as one of the most important steps in effective personal branding.

Like any product, a person’s "story," derived from their professional and personal history, is an essential branding tool. In the second edition of the book Branding Yourself (2012), authors Kyle Lacy and Erik Deckers argue that each individual has a unique personal story and that this story can be reimagined and "packaged" in such a way as to increase a person’s professional appeal.

While there are numerous books and programs purporting to teach personal branding, effective strategies differ depending on the field. For instance, a wedding photographer might want to appeal to a different subset of clients than a photographer looking for work in architecture or the fine arts. A person’s online image can help to attract clients within a specific subset of the customer base. When creating advertising materials, such as a professional website, business cards, or a blog, the choice of color, design, typography, and other aesthetic elements can have a major impact on success. Many professionals utilize designers and consultants to help them create an attractive, marketable, and targeted image.

Personal branding can be important in helping job seekers to stand out from other candidates. Depending on the field, employers and clients may look for a candidate’s name online using a search engine, and it is advisable to control and strategically monitor one’s online presence. Social media, while an important networking tool, can also detract from an individual’s professional appeal. Job seekers are advised to visit and edit their social media profiles prior to beginning a job search or applying for a position. Individuals can also use personal branding to aid in promotions and advancement in their career and company.

In a 2015 article in Forbes, personal branding expert William Arruda wrote that the modern business model is becoming smaller and faster and that professionals seeking to market themselves need to adjust to this trend. Arruda advised that short posts to social media sites such as Twitter and short video posts to sites such as Vine or TikTok were becoming more accepted and attractive in the personal branding field. Arruda also reported that employees within companies were increasingly being encouraged to learn about personal branding, as it is seen as a synergistic way for individuals to help sell the corporate brand by controlling and crafting their own personal brand. In the 2020s, the use of social media to craft and promote personal brands became even more prominent. In addition, it became possible for people to create social media careers based solely on their personal brand.

There have been few objective studies on the effectiveness of personal branding. However, the long history of the personalized professional approach supports the idea that the basic concepts behind personal branding are effective. As the trend has grown, however, it remains to be seen whether personal branding techniques will become the new norm for professionals, thereby becoming less unique and possibly less effective. Blogging provides one example, as the blogging trend rapidly increased the number of blogs in the 2000s and drastically reduced interest in blogs and their effectiveness as a promotional tool.

Bibliography

Arruda, William. “The Hottest Personal Branding Trends That Will Impact Your Success in 2015.” Forbes, 2 Dec. 2014, www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2014/12/02/the-hottest-personal-branding-trends-that-will-impact-your-success-in-2015-part-1/. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.

Avery, Jill, and Rachel Greenwald. "A New Approach to Building Your Personal Brand." Harvard Business Review, May/June 2023, hbr.org/2023/05/a-new-approach-to-building-your-personal-brand. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.

Biba, Erin. “Facebook: Personal Branding Made Easy.” Wired, 19 July 2011, www.wired.com/2011/07/friendship-limits/. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.

Deckers, Erik, and Kyle Lacy. Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself. 2nd ed., Que, 2012.

DeMers, Jayson. “5 Steps to Building a Personal Brand (and Why You Need One).” Inc., 27 Aug. 2014, www.inc.com/jayson-demers/5-steps-to-building-a-personal-brand-and-why-you-need-one.html. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.

Giridharadas, Anand. “Branding and the ‘Me’ Economy.” The New York Times, 26 Feb. 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/02/27/us/27iht-currents.html. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.

Hyder, Shama. “7 Things You Can Do to Build an Awesome Personal Brand.” Forbes, 23 Aug. 2023, www.forbes.com/sites/shamahyder/2014/08/18/7-things-you-can-do-to-build-an-awesome-personal-brand/. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.

Kang, Karen. Branding Pays: The Five-Step System to Reinvent Your Personal Brand. BrandingPays Media, 2013.

Laker, Benjamin. "Why Your Personal Brand Could Be A Winning Strategy For Career Success." Forbes, 21 Aug. 2024, www.forbes.com/sites/benjaminlaker/2024/08/21/why-your-personal-brand-could-be-the-secret-weapon-for-career-success/. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.

Llopis, Glenn. “Personal Branding Is a Leadership Requirement, Not a Self-Promotion Campaign.” Forbes, 8 Apr. 2013, www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2013/04/08/personal-branding-is-a-leadership-requirement-not-a-self-promotion-campaign/. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.

Peters, Tom. “The Brand Called You.” Fast Company, 31 Aug. 1997, www.fastcompany.com/28905/brand-called-you. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.