Should We All Start to Consider Our ‘Personal Branding’ More Seriously?

There are few terms that have undergone more sizeable transformations within such a short space of time as the ‘personal brand’. The internet has transformed the ways in which we perceive others in so drastic a way that many of us have felt the pull to enhance our digital presence from that of ‘the individual’ to that of the ‘entity’, and even outside of the sphere of celebrities, influencers and internet personalities, many of us have begun to consider the value of investing time, creativity and other resources into building a defined personal brand for ourselves.

It comes as no surprise that, in 2021, more people than ever before are exploring this concept. The job market has been uprooted and indefinitely changed by the events of the last year – events which, the world over, made all of us set much more store by our digital presence than by our ability to enter into any physical space or conversation.

And, while the coming months promise considerable changes to our ability to move around beyond the limiting parameters of our homes, the fact remains that the significance the internet – and our own digital presences – hold for us is only going to continue to grow larger and more influential in the coming months and years.

What’s more, the inherent publicity of any platform on which the average internet user exists necessitated a more cultivated approach. We are all hyper-aware of the ways in which we may be perceived, and more so than merely ensuring a squeaky clean internet record, there seems to be a great deal of potential in actively reinventing and designing the impression we put across.

So, is it time for you to make a concerted effort into your personal brand in 2021? Read more below.

As a Medium, it’s Incredibly Versatile

For many years, the majority of internet users have taken a relatively limited approach to their online presence. Social media accounts are utilised as a form of self-expression, though without any particular theme or direction; for the individual, they represent a place of spontaneity, rather than strategy.

What this means is that much of the potential offered by the world wide web to the individual goes untapped. Individuals have it within their power to curate online spaces that exemplify their inherent value, and those unique attributes that make them a valuable asset to prospective employers or clients. 

For instance, website builders offer a readymade platform for individuals who wish to create their own, custom site, and one of the most popular types of websites is the personal site, which offers a more innovative approach to personal branding and distinguishing oneself from the crowd than, say, a resume or C.V.

Individuals needn’t be a freelancer in order to justify an investment into a personal website. In reality, they offer one of the most effective ways for individuals to differentiate themselves from other professionals entering into a new, digitally-driven and hyper-competitive job market. Of course, it goes without saying how beneficial this will be in a world where your performance in job interviews continues to be limited by factors such as social distancing.

Take Control Over Your Public Image

While it may sound strange to anyone who has not enjoyed a prominent position in the limelight for the past few years, anyone with any digital presence – which, by virtue of your reading this, includes you – has, to some extent or another, a public image.

We all leave a digital footprint behind us, and that footprint only grows more significant has the internet grows older. Of course, we have all, at some time or another, been warned about this; even from a young age, the pitfalls of making a ‘bad mark’ on the worldwide web, and the ways in which that will hold us back within the job market, are impressed upon students regularly.  We are encouraged to clean up our social media profiles before even thinking of stepping onto the job market, and think twice (or twenty times more) before making a single word public.

What this means is that, for many of us, our personal experience on the internet is marked by plenty of trepidation, caution and reserve.

This is no bad thing, but it necessitates a passive approach to our digital presence. We simply mind our own business, and hope we don’t accidentally make public something that should not be made public.

What is empowering, however – and increasingly seen as a positive sign by job recruiters and potential employers – is someone who can take the bull by the reins, and utilise the full scope of the internet in order to use it to their benefit, rather than merely hiding behind rigorous privacy settings and leaving very little impression on the web at all. The inherent benefits of investing into our personal branding have been given more and more of a voice in recent years, and after the disruption to business as usual caused by the pandemic throughout the course of 2020, it is clear that its significant is readying itself to undergo exponential growth in the coming months and years.