The term ‘brand’ is something that we tend to associated with companies rather than people. However, the reality is that just like companies and their products and services, your brand exists whether you are deliberately creating one or not. Consider yourself the Brand Manager of your own brand, which needs to be carefully managed if you are to create the right impression in the eyes of others.

Unfortunately, people make snap decisions about people based on various touchpoints, including social media profiles, an article that’s still out there on the internet, a comment on an article, or a comment that a person you know has made about you. These are all examples that can influence your brand without you even knowing it!

Other touchpoints include your resume, your Fllair profile, cover letters to applications, and your first handshake. As they say, you only have one opportunity to make a first impression.

What is your brand?

This is not an easy question to answer, but is important to reflect on. What sort of impression do you want to create? What sort of characteristics and values do you want to highlight? What things do you NOT want to portray?

Like everything, we do not suggest getting too caught up in what others think of you because sometimes, people just form opinions regardless of how you regardless of how closely you try to manage their perception. However, there are a number of things that you can do to put yourself in the best possible position to create the impression that you want to create.

Understanding your digital footprint

Have you ever tried to google your own name? You might be surprised by how much you can find out. Search engines index everything on the internet automatically unless you specifically hide the content. What this means is that an article you wrote 10 years ago is still likely to be discoverable. The same applies to comments and anything on social media.

When someone is considering your application for a new job, they are almost certainly going to try to google you in order to discover anything they can about you – to understand your brand. For this reason, you are well advised to do the same thing and discover what others are likely tod discover about you.

It is also recommended to look at your privacy settings on your social media accounts to determine what others can publicly see about you. Unless you do this deliberately, others might have access to parts of your digital footprint that you thought were private.

Creating a consistent brand

This is something that will be discussed in your meeting with your Career Support Consultant. The key is consistency across all possible online touchpoints that someone may have access to.

Then of course there is the personal interactions you will have during job interviews and any networking that you become part of.