5 Things to Spring Clean Your Brand
Spring is here. Your personal brand should change along with it. You clean your inside and outside windows getting rid of the snow, sale build up and mildew. Now it’s time to do the same for your brand.
One of the biggest misconceptions is that you have to wait until you are deeper into the year to change. No you don’t! Now is a great time to examine your brand by keeping what works and ditching what doesn’t. Right now, you have enough evidence to know what isn’t working. Why wait until July 1st, because that’s the halfway mark? Change your vision now especially if it differs from the New Year.
Vision — Your vision is how you see yourself. We are a couple of months into the New Year. Has your view about your career changed? If it has, change your brand’s vision statement. Your brand cannot suffer blurry vision and still be strong and competitive in the global marketplace.
The next four things build upon your vision. They are: products and services, photo, content strategy and social media strategy.
Photo — how old is it? No selfies please. So what if you’ve taken it on the new iPhone? It is a camera phone; and a selfie is still an unprofessional photo.
Products and services — has your audience, industry or tech changed affecting your business? A marketplace shift means a pivot is needed to stay relevant.
Using myself as an example, I am a certified project manager. The project management’s industry certification guide has switched. This means that all of my project management products and services must be compatible with the new change. Stop fearing midyear changes because spring is still close to January. Market shifts don’t adhere to calendar. Change your products and services to adapt to the market.
Tip — you may say that you don’t have a product. Well, yes, you do: yourself. Your professional reputation and what you do are services that must be properly managed to achieve maximum exposure. Give you an example: the person who receives his promotion has managed his brand better than his coworker who hasn’t received one.
Content strategy — renewed vision means renewed content strategy. Your life is different now versus January. Content means video, audio, photos and in-person communication. Has your industry changed since the New Year? If there are any new industry news, inventions, services or developments that have transformed your field, your content strategy must reflect these changes.
I will use the banking marketing department as an example. You work in the bank’s marketing department. Right now putting mobile messaging (Facebook Messenger and text messaging) on your resume, will get you hired faster than online banking. Mobile messaging is new, cutting edge with less people. Online banking is a more mature market.
Social media strategy — this is a very big part of your brand. Here I am dealing with LinkedIn because it is the business social media. Review where your audience is. Check to see the activity and your participation in groups. If some of your groups have been inactive or your current career trajectory isn’t aligned, leave the groups. Quality over quantity is the rule. I have over 500+ connections but they are all relevant to my work history. You want a cohesive LinkedIn profile to attract the right people and propel you to the next level.
Now is as a great time as ever to spring clean your brand. Dust off your vision statement, photo, products and services, content strategy and social media strategy to rejuvenate yourself; and, make the rest of this year better than ever!
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Originally published at carlarjenkins.com on March 15, 2018.
