You may have heard that we are moving away from the Business to Business (B2B) or Business to Consumer (B2C) approach and moving towards the H2H, Human to Human way of connecting.

Now more than ever, we need to find our own authentic voice amongst the noise; to stand out and be relevant and respected in their area of expertise. We achieve this by having a Personal Brand Story.

Building your own brand is a sure way to staying current, connected and memorable as a specialist in your field and not just as a brand but as a personality.

Rob Brown, Global networking expert and bestselling author of the book ‘How to Build Your Reputation’ explains we are living in a H2H world as people buy people. Regardless of your career path-we are all in sales. He explains the #1 thing you are selling is yourself and if we are not interested in buying you we will not buy what is standing behind you.

How to build your personal brand and stand out…

INFLUENCE

A sure way to raise your profile is to start blogging and dedicating time to it. Publishing rich content in your specialist area not only adds value to your network and industry but launches you out of the shadows as the go-to person in your field.

“There is no point in being the best-kept secret!”

NOISE

There is a rabbit hole of distracting clutter out there for consumers right now and so many brands are falling flat by using multiple tones of voices and brand messages across numerous channels that are the same as their peers.

So, how do you make an impact without getting lost in translation?

REPUTATION

Your reputation is what people remember you for and say about you when you are not in the room.

Are you building your network with decision makers and industry specific professionals? Is your network willing to recommend you? Why not check out your personal branding SSI score and see how you match up in your industry.

What do you want people to remember you for? What do you want to be famous for?

People always remember how you make them feel so first impressions count!

BE AUTHENTIC

Nobodies career plan or success story is the same, follow the beat of your unique drum and create your own version of success. Not everybody wants to be Hillary Clinton and if we all looked and sounded the same at networking events and on social media life would not be as interesting.

Become the best version of you and don’t imitate somebody else. “It’s better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation” Herman Melville, the Author of Moby Dick says

Key Take Always

1. In building your own personal brand story find a mentor or an online influencer.
2. Stay true to yourself but learn from the best.
3. Be your own version of ambition, however, start building your brand in stages to maximise your reach. Don’t be all things to all people, for example, focus on building one social platform or one cohort at a time and have a gradual build.

Don’t live your personal brand as a catalogue of stock images across social media. Be real, be true and be you and people will trust and believe in you.

Shauna Daly, Talent Executive at Alternatives.