differentiating yourself from others can be the basis of your personal success as a new web freelancer by creating a well-defined vision of yourself that reaches the internet audience.
the web and technological innovations have led to profound transformations in the world of work, with the creation of digital professions and a growing change in the very concept of professional and entrepreneur.
differentiating yourself from others can be the basis of your personal success as a new web freelancer by creating a well-defined vision of yourself that reaches the internet audience. in this era of digital professionals, personal branding acquires a fundamental value that can make the difference in a competitive market like that of the internet. in this article we will consider the individual aspects of this reality in order to understand what personal branding is, what its purpose is and how to develop it.
what is personal branding
when we refer to personal branding we consider the set of marketing strategies aimed at promoting yourself and your professional image. thanks to personal branding you will therefore have the opportunity to let the public, present on the web, know what your competence is and the different attitudes you have developed in a particular work activity. to understand this concept, it may be useful to dwell on the words that are the basis of this reality.
“personal” is an element that identifies the physical figure of a subject. therefore, we are not talking about a product of a company or a service, but about something that characterizes you. the term “brand” on the other hand is often used commercially to identify a brand, and implies a particular style, or even defined model, which reflects a series of characteristics that make a product distinctive. behind the concept of brand there are therefore the set of emotions and opinions that that object or service arouses in the public.
by combining the two words, personal branding, we will therefore have a series of realities that help create a vision of yourself for the public. in some ways, as jeff bezos said, “that’s what people say about you when you leave your room”.
goal and purpose of personal branding
among the purposes of personal branding there is to create a complete vision of you so that users on the web have an idea of what your skills are, and evaluate whether to rely on your skills. once upon a time, in the everyday world, there was talk of a job reputation that arose from your actions at work.
today, in the reality of the web, there is personal branding. developing your image on the internet so that your presence has good visibility, therefore becomes a reality that can make a difference in the digital world. thanks to personal branding you can …
communicate your potential in the best possible way: working on personal vision in order to focus on the set of elements that characterize you, such as your attitudes, your strengths, your weaknesses and the resources you have available, allows you to have a vision complete yourself that you can then present to the public;
visualize the objective of your brand: you will be able to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve within a specific market, concentrating your energies and resources in a more appropriate way;
reach the predetermined target: create a vision of yourself that can be directly received by the public, allows you to identify the target of people you want to address and also reach them through valid communication;
establish an image of your brand on the web: personal branding allows you to offer the public and your potential customers a very precise image of yourself, your work and services that can be useful in solving a user’s problems;
develop your online reputation: personal branding activities allow you to create an online reputation that makes your professionalism acquire value, creating a clear distinction within the mass of offers on the web;
strengthen web marketing strategies: you can use the most valid web marketing strategies in order to increase the number of your customers and your business.
how to develop it
the bases of personal branding are based on your ability to be able to give a very precise image of yourself, positioning yourself in a market reality that reflects your skills and knowledge. the first step to take is therefore to set a specific goal, that is to establish where to enter the digital job market. there may be an innovative idea or a reworking of an existing one. furthermore, it may also be useful to establish what your mission and vision is, so that you can outline the right target of people you want to address.
it will obviously be necessary to establish distinctive traits that characterize your personal branding, therefore the set of elements that distinguish you from your competitors. to do this, it can be very useful to have specific knowledge and qualifications in a particular sector, keeping you up to date and open to news.
once you have laid the foundations of your brand and focused on the subjects you want to reach, you can take action by creating a personal branding marketing plan, in which you will identify the individual strategies that can be used in order to promote you.
tools to use
below we list some tools to use to create your personal branding …
traditional: with traditional strategies, off-line advertising activities are considered. an example is to use flyers to be delivered to users who fall within the target, to send paper presentations such as resumes, which do not take advantage of email marketing systems, or to advertise on the media, such as television and radio or directly on signage. probably, if structured in the right way, these tools will allow you to create a personal branding that can have its effect, but the cost in time and investments will still be high and not proportional to your work.
website: creating your own website and blog can be an important step in promoting yourself. the realization can be done independently, if for example you have knowledge of web marketing and the ability to compose the contents within it. you can also rely on professionals in the sector who will create it in order to reflect your personal branding strategy.
social networks: facebook, youtube, instagram, pinterest, linkedin are just some examples of social network platforms that can be valid tools to promote yourself to the web audience. it will be important to choose the most suitable social network obviously based on the target audience and the type of vision of yourself that you want to promote.