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How to Use Your Down Time to Work On Your Personal Brand

Personal Branding

Down time at work is inevitable. Whether you are currently working from home and have spare time, are transitioning into a new role, or have a slow influx of work coming in, we have the perfect solution to best utilize your time, work on your personal brand. Branding is key to the success of a company and also the success of your career.  We want to help you build your personal brand with these top tips.

Define your personal brand

What are you passionate about? Who inspires you? What is your focus? These are all questions to ask yourself as you begin to work on your personal brand. Research is key as you define your personal brand look, feel and voice. We recommend checking out people you admire on social media, and following companies that you love to get ideas of how you can craft your own personal brand, as well as what you like and don't like.

A picture is worth 1,000 words

Next up when it comes to personal branding is social media. Make sure both your personal and professional social profiles present you in the right light, in line with the brand you’re trying to get across. Ensure all photos are appropriate and articulate who you are both personally and professionally. Don’t post something you wouldn’t show your boss or your grandma. Branding yourself on social also includes updating your accounts often and making sure that your profiles are searchable.

Take the elevator

Part of your personal brand, will be developing your own elevator pitch. Be sure you are able to sell yourself and your skillset in any given moment. You should also be able to pitch yourself in a quick text or email at the drop of the hat. Things to include in your pitch are, your current role and the role you’re aspiring to have, your expertise, which industry you specialize in and any applicable skills.

​Your personal brand encompasses who you are as a professional and can therefore make or break your career success. To have a strong personal brand and elevator pitch, you should have a definitive answer to these questions.

  • What separates you from your competition?

  • What’s your unique selling point?

  • How do you demonstrate/express all of the above to others?

These questions should help you define and continue to strengthen your personal brand.

Mission possible

What is your personal mission statement? This is different from your elevator pitch in that it is your why not your how or what. Part of personal branding is determining what you want your brand to stand for as well as what motivates and inspires you.

Take that class

A great way to keep yourself busy when you have downtime and continue to build your personal brand is to add to your skillset. There are so many free classes available online, whether you’re trying to grow your career in digital marketing, design or UX, there’s a course out there for you. We also recommend signing up for webinars to learn what trends other professionals in your industry are seeing. Adding to your skillset with help keep you focused while also adding to your personal brand. It’s a win win.

Building out your brand

A great way to showcase all of your personal branding work is by developing your own website. If you're a writer we recommend publishing your own content to a blog and ten sharing it to your social media. If you're a creative, you can turn your portfolio into a website and incorporate your mission statement and pitch. With a website you can continue to add and change things as needed and have something concrete to refer back to. If you decide to look for a new job or start freelancing you can use this site as part of your application.

Your personal brand is something you'll continue to work on and add to as you move throughout your career. Get additional tips and information on growing your career on our blog.