Whether you are a senior developer, a tech/team lead, or even a team manager, personal branding is an excellent addition to your career. Building your own personal brand takes some time, but it is becoming increasingly a staple in the IT job market. Read our article to find out: What is the importance of a personal brand? How to build a personal brand in the IT industry? How to start building a successful personal brand?
Personal brand – meaning
The fact that personal branding is a must-have no longer needs to be reminded… Recruiters are using it more often, but that does not mean developers are not doing anything about it! There are many talented developers on LinkedIn who like to share their knowledge, and they base their successful brand on this.
Why is it worthwhile to build a personal brand?
A personal brand helps you build trust with your audience. When you succeed in gaining it, you can be sure that the audience will quote your content and cite you as a reliable source of information.
Let’s not forget about building an image of an expert. Being an expert in a particular field gains you more credibility. People will consider you a competent and trustworthy individual. Social media platforms can help with this for sure.
Having such an extensive brand helps you get more attention from recruiters. This gives you the opportunity to negotiate better rates. By creating your personal branding, you are also a showcase for the company. This can be an additional aspect of employer branding. IT companies pay more attention to this each year.
By having an online presence, you can also gain popularity in the real world. With a personal brand, you have a better chance of working with the media or conducting events and webinars.
How to build a personal brand in the IT industry
There are dozens of ways to build a personal brand. It is up to you to decide what you want to focus on. Remember that one form does not exclude others. Focus on what you sincerely enjoy. Do not follow the “the more the better” rule. You can provide much more value if you choose your priority. In personal branding, the most important thing is to be yourself!
Be active
A personal brand does not come out of nowhere. You need to establish your presence among people who have something interesting to say. The ideal way to do this is to contribute to the comments section and add your own value to the content of others. This way, we can reach a new audience and have a chance to show our perspective on a given topic without your personal content.
Create content – your online presence
Building an expert brand requires patience and writing skills! The ideal place to create content is an online personal profile on LinkedIn. There you can share personal posts, but also refer your audience to your blog posts, podcasts, or YouTube. Let your personal brand set you apart from the rest! Use a captivating personal brand aesthetic. Remember that waffling will not bring you desirable effects as the content must bring value to your audience. Therefore, before publishing, ask yourself, “What will the recipient get out of it?” to keep on showcasing an effective personal brand.
Attend events
Although the online personal brand is important, real-life networking has a higher success rate. To build a strong personal brand, you need to go beyond LinkedIn and your online audience. Look for meet-ups and industry events in your area. This way, you can meet many inspirational people. A recognizable personal brand gives you many opportunities. Who knows? Maybe the next event will feature you as a speaker!
How to start building a personal brand?
It is a clever idea to prepare a small plan before you start publishing your content. Remember: always better to be safe than sorry! It is good to plan a personal branding strategy.
Purpose of building a brand
Begin by defining your purpose. Why do you want to share content and start an online brand? Set a goal that you want to pursue. Before each publication, remind yourself why you are doing it. This practice will help you stay on a steady track.
Create the recipient’s persona
Like a UX designer… create the ideal persona. Work out all the problems your target audience might have: what interests they have, and what they do not like. Skip the demographic information—we will not use their place of residence 🙂 This will help you better tailor your content and personal story to your audience and your industry.
Find your personal branding inspiration and build your network
For starters, it is a good idea to observe people with well-defined personal brands and get inspired by them. Create a list of such people. Observe their social media accounts and contribute under their posts.
Prepare a list of topics – a personal branding foundation
Prepare a list of topics you want to cover as a part of LinkedIn personal branding . It is better to prepare your content ahead of time so you do not stress about the upcoming day of content publication. Inspiration is everywhere—just take a moment to let it find you.
Find your differentiator
Find something that makes you stand out from the “competition”. It can be a color, an item, a hashtag, or even a pet. Add this element to your publications so that your audience will subconsciously begin to associate you with them. Using CandidFuture as an example: personal brand attributes include Aga with a crown, Nat with a cat, and Klaudia with a cloud.
Wait for the results!
Developing your personal brand takes time. There is no rule that says after two months, everyone will know you and have you as an expert. Building an ideal personal brand is a process that never ends. Therefore, approach it patiently and do not be discouraged by an initially small number of responses.