Branding is personal. Every business and organisation have a brand identity and constantly develops its branding to remain relevant. Every aspect of branding reflects their personal or company identity, ideologies, goals, achievements, and vision. As a permanent, contractor or freelancer, you are no different. We have established that all branding and brand messages should reflect your work and goals. Personalising all content to mirror you and your brand message is the next step in this process.
What does differ is your overall brand tone of voice. It might seem tempting to mimic how another brand interacts with its audience base, but this would be a grave error. Each aspect of personal branding is tailored around you and your work.
With 92% of customers preferring to work with genuine and authentic brands due to a desire for relatability, there is no better time to centre your brand around your legitimate self.
Tailoring Content To Your Target Audience
Candidates typically identify their target audience very early in building their brand due to the nature of their work. But the projection of this into a personal brand is where many fail.
Tailoring content to your target audience makes your potential clients or network relate to you. For example, if your brand industry is based on digital marketing, writing content tailored to quantitative analysis will attract an unrelated audience to your network. If you do not usually work within a specific industry, tailor your content to the clients you wish to attract to create a well-structured network.
While working within a specific industry may dictate that you write to a certain level of audience seniority, your brand identity and content should still reflect you personally as much as possible.
3. Utilise Social Media Platforms to Build Up a Network
Technology advancements have given businesses and potential clients a new step in the hiring process: social media. Employers check applicants' social media for typical full-time and permanent jobs to learn more about their candidates and protect their company's reputation. Social media is more than just a pre-employment check for freelancers and contractors; it’s now a representation of their skills and reputation.
Social media and networking platforms are the key to marketing your personal brand. Social media and online marketing have skyrocketed and are used daily in organisational and personal branding to build a client base. Using social media correctly allows you to tell your story and appeal to a high reach of potential clients.
Approximately two-thirds of freelancers utilise social media channels to promote their services. If you, as a contractor or freelancer, are not taking advantage of these platforms' free advertising, you are missing out on an audience base of 4.9 billion people. Here are three examples of powerful social media platforms you should be utilising:
LinkedIn can be a great platform to build your brand, promote your services, and create a network. The popular networking service is used by the majority of professionals who are aiming to expand their connections.
This platform has a high reach and enables all users to make global connections. LinkedIn’s job search tool can allow you to apply for contract and freelance jobs and enable others to contact you via your profile to discuss opportunities. This is why LinkedIn is a pivotal tool in your brand development. A professional and informative LinkedIn page will encourage professionals to contact you concerning career opportunities.
Examples of how you can develop your personal brand on LinkedIn include:
- Write a short and personalised statement about who you are and what you do to be used as a bio, which every professional looking at your page will see
- Update your portfolio (if relevant)
- Create short and to-the-point video content about your brand as a whole or new projects
- Share posts and content that relate to your services to support like-minded professionals, create connections, and build up your overall brand reputation
- Complete LinkedIn skill assessments to showcase your skill proficiency
- Connect with potential clients and businesses who work within your industry to streamline your network
- Endorse clients' or other professionals’ skills to maintain positive work relationships
X (Formally Known As Twitter)
The platform that is known for over-expressing opinions can prove helpful in the development of your personal branding. The latest news travels faster on X than on any other social media platform, allowing you to tailor your content to emerging industry trends and become an industry leader.
X also provides various tools for your brand to boost your visibility and increase your network, including the ability to post, repost, use hashtags, and monitor business account analytics. But it's how you utilise these tools that counts.
Examples of how you can develop your personal brand on Twitter include:
- Create an ‘X for professionals’ account to reinforce your image as a brand and create a positive reputation
- Follow only individuals or groups that you would want clients to associate you with
- Post only meaningful content and keep sharing any political opinions, unless industry-specific, to your personal account
- Engage with your followers by replying to comments, messages, and requests
- Optimise your profile to represent your professional brand by using a clear headshot profile photo
- Write a snappy bio that is reflective of your personality and business activities
Though not a networking platform traditionally associated with building a brand, Instagram's social media platform is growing. Increasing numbers of small businesses and personal brands are becoming noticed by a vast audience due to the platform’s broad global reach.
Instagram allows you to create a business page dedicated to your work and skill development, retaining your image as a professional brand and keeping your personal accounts private. The platform offers many tools to assist organisational brand development, including stories, reels, posts, comments, and shares.
Examples of how you utalise these tools to develop your personal brand on Instagram include:
- Create a memorable username that relates to your brand, specialism, and professional nature
- Follow industry-relevant individuals, pages, and hashtags, and use hashtags to reach your target audience
- Personalise posts on your profile to reflect your brand’s tone of voice and keep this consistent
- Interact regularly with followers and professionals who engage with your posts
- Post informative content story posts to give followers and potential clients a short snapshot of your daily work activities
- Optimise your bio to contain only brand-relevant information, including a brand description, contact information, and links to other platform profiles.
No matter how complex your needs are,or how many roles you need to fill, the consultants at Creative Recruitment l are here to help you attract and retain the sector specialists that will lead your business to greater success. Contact us today to explore your requirements and learn about how we can support your Digital, Marketing and Creative recruitment needs.