Personal Branding – make sure you do it right
Are you the one who stands out and believes in reinventing yourself as a brand? If so, you are on your pathway to personal branding – a transition period to nurture yourself regardless of the current job role or seniority level. Recognizing your niche, in order to foster the search demand, injecting personality traits, developing your individual identity and adopting a social networking strategy are the steps you might be indulged into. But having an understanding of the underlying phenomenon of personal branding is what makes you get distinguished.
Personal branding is the articulation of one’s best version intending to leave a lasting impression into another person’s mind. Adopting a strategic approach to crafting personal branding ensures that the right message is effectively communicated enrooting the pathway towards success. The concept has become highly significant in the business world regardless of the nature and size of organization yielding a tremendous return on investment and optimizing the process of lead generation.
Personal branding cannot be confined to an organisational level but in recent times, individuals have adopted it to position themselves in the highly competitive market. On an individual level, it is not limited to unleashing the opportunity to boost one’s relevancy but on a wider scale, it is focused on creating value while demonstrating natural leadership abilities. Every individual is a brand in himself but the need of the hour is to reinvent it proactively and utilize it to open doors for the business.
Headshots are one of the widely adopted techniques for personal branding which has gained a recognized place on LinkedIn and other online media platforms. Professionals and businessmen who have good headshots on their online platforms and print media gain attraction 14 times more than other individuals. A professional headshot is recognized as a force which fosters the chances of creating opportunities and boosts variant prospects for their business. The analysis of an existing body of knowledge or researches has clearly validated the fact that personal branding plays a vital role to develop the individual’s career trajectory as well as fuels the organizational growth and chances of sustainability in the market.
Personal branding proves to be a fuel for the growth of businesses. Whether you’re a professional or businessman and you’re serious about your personal branding, you need a premium business headshot that communicates who you are and what you’re about. Even, your employees who represent your brand, need professional headshots too.
Understand that people WILL judge you and your key employees based on the appearance of your online photo when they Google you. Consciously or unconsciously they will start forming opinions about whether you’re trustworthy and likable, whether they want to do business with you or attend your presentation or consider for a job opportunity. So it’s worth doing it right.
Now, how can you do it right? The following are a few tips:
Seek Professional Help:
Don’t settle for a homemade snapshot, and do NOT, under any circumstances, use a webcam or mobile photo you’ve taken of yourself or your employees.
Put yourself in the hands of a real pro. If he’s really good, he can help ensure the final product lines up with who you are and the brand you’re trying to project.
Is your business/corporate headshot up-to-date? Are your employees’ headshots representable? Or are you still using pictures from years ago?
Whatever you do, just make sure you do it right. This is not the time to skimp. You’ll regret it if you do.
Najam Saqib
Freelance Photographer - Najam Images
I Najam (Nudge - em) that means Star, am so eager about capturing images that there is nothing less than marvellous that turned Najam Images into reality. A place to turn your aspirations into images and let you and your loved ones shine like a star.
My most loved professional equipment, and adaptability to squeeze in any location makes my photography a work of art I proudly own and humbly present.
Outside of work and photography, I enjoy exploring outdoors and being passionate about nutrition and health. I also like networking with people from different interest groups and with different opinions. I like to get out of like-minded comfort zone and into a zone where I am going to be able to learn, grow and make a bigger difference.
Come and get your precious moments carved by my lenses and entrapped in the prints and frames to shine on your walls till you make new lovelier ones and keep adding to the love and concern your whole life’s struggle revolves around.
You made the right choice coming here. Welcome!
Wow, you have won me over! The portraits you have shown in your article make one believe ‘oh, this person is really professional!’ ‘This person knows their stuff!’ and ‘I trust this person’ which will prompt all readers to do business with the person. Hitherto I have concentrated on WORDS for all personal branding needs of my own but using the business-person’s FACE to also prove to potential customers who you are and what you’re like really is ‘show and tell’ in action, rather than just ‘tell’ (which is all that words can do). I will re-read your article and take on what you say. Thank you!
Thanks a lot for your kind words. Yes, it’s a fact that people underestimate their own photos and think they are not photogenic. Whereas, photogenic is another name of being comfortable in front of the camera. It’s photographer’s responsibility to make you comfortable in front of big noses that also make you photogenic in final results.
As an editor, I also need to give you some feedback on the text in your profile which shows that, in addition to your skills with imagery and photography, you are a true wordsmith. Beautifully written text which has been perfectly edited and proofread. Great stuff.
Thanks again. I don’t write much, maybe, bit self-critical. But now I will do especially after this feedback by you 🙂
That is fantastic. That and your above comment prompt me to realise that whether it’s not thinking your ‘face’ is good enough, or not thinking your ‘writing’ is good enough, it’s all just a matter of being less self-critical and more confident about your own style of looking, or writing. Because it is yours and nobody else can do that.