5 Tips to Help Women Create a Strong Personal Brand

Over the years, many women have struggled with inequality in the workplace and as a result, lacked confidence and struggle to formulate an authentic personal brand. A personal brand is the summary of you as a professional that everyone who interacts with you in real life and online will experience. It needs to be consistent, admirable and a true representation of your skills, accomplishments and passions. Women have historically been put at a disadvantage in the workplace with some acting as though they should stick to household chores. For women to accelerate their careers or become the boss, building a personal brand is key.

Building a strong personal brand can be difficult, and as a result, we often see vague or confusing personal brands that can hold you back in your career. To perfect your personal brand, read on for our top 5 tips.

• Commit
  Building a personal brand is a commitment. You need to be able to put time and effort into your personal brand to get it right. In fact, perfecting your personal brand can sometimes feel like a full-time job in itself! Think about how much time you can commit to building a personal brand and work out how best to utilise that time. If you can only commit an hour or two a day, restrict yourself to one social media account for the time being. It is better to do one thing really well than to start multiple accounts and then simply forget them, By doing the latter, you’ll show your personal brand to be undisciplined or unable to commit, which can be damaging to your career.

• Think bigger than self-promotion
  While self-promotion is an element of your personal brand, don’t make it the main feature. Letting others know about your success or any upcoming events you’re excited about is encouraged, but your personal brand should be so much more. You are looking to engage, excite and encourage rather than solely focus on yourself. You don’t want your personal brand to be ‘bragger’.

• Be accountable
  Remember that every action has consequences, and in the online world, the smallest of actions can be magnified and cause huge ripple effects. Before you post anything online, think about whether it truly reflects you as a person and as a brand, and ask yourself whether your actions or words could be hurtful or insulting to others.

• Define yourself
  Think about your strengths, key qualities and who you aim to be and summarise yourself in 5 or so bullet points. Every interaction you have online or in real life should demonstrate at least one of these bullet points. If you’re struggling to define yourself, ask your team for help. If they struggle, then you know that you haven’t got a strong personal brand and really need to put some work in!

• Offer something of value
  If you want your personal brand to help you get ahead in your career, you need to offer something of value. It’s all well and good defining yourself and stick to it to create an authentic depiction of yourself, but if the qualities you’re exemplifying aren’t desired in your dream job, it won’t help you get there. Look at the role you’re aiming for, and what is required of the person in that position and aim to make your personal brand show those qualities – if you’re not currently holding those qualities, you can use your personal brand to attain them and make yourself more employable.