What exactly are you recognized for? What exactly do people point out about you after you have departed the room? How exactly can you influence your status to win that campaign or secure that new customer? For many years you have carefully concentrated on your personal brand, but what happens if you now would like to redesign yourself?
Things like this happen continuously. A marketing professional moves into retail. A technical professional wants to get into real estate. A financial expert wants to jump ship and become a sports coach. Your chosen path may look perfect to you, but exactly how can you encourage other people to accept your new professional identity, your brand, and more importantly, still take you seriously? Here you can find five steps that can be helpful in your efforts to reinvent (re-brand) yourself for the professional marketplace.
- What’s Your Destination?
First, you should establish a precise understanding of where you would like to go, and the expertise and skills required to get there. If you have been active in technology in recent years, you may possibly know everything about new marketing toys on the market, from Facebook to Foursquare. Yet can you successfully communicate that information to a non-technical crowd? Mastering the expertise you require will enable you to obtain the confidence needed to begin figuring out (and publicizing) yourself in your new individuality.
- Take advantage of Your Points of Difference
In marketing, this is called a USP – a “Unique Selling Proposition.” What is it that makes you unlike anyone else? That exactly is what people will keep in mind, and you can take advantage of. Conservative party hot shot Ann Coulter, the New York Times a short time ago revealed, has re-invented herself after dropping in popularity due to newer, sometimes more right-wing talking heads. Utilizing her one of a kind combination of the typical blonde vixen and conservative identity, Coulter today is using gay Republicans who appreciate diva-style blah-blah for her own position.
- Create a Narrative
You previously used to publish award-winning business articles, and now you would like the change to restaurant reviews? It is the human nature to have got many hobbies and interests, to search for new activities, and to like to establish new abilities throughout your life. Unfortunately, we have a very popular word to identify that serious quest: dilettante. It’s not fair, but to secure your identity you must build a consistent narrative arc that clarifies to people, in a pleasant, straightforward way so they won’t miss it, just how your past matches the present. You could say something like: I would always discuss the business side of market sectors, including food and wine, but I noticed my big-picture understanding of agricultural developments and business finances made me precisely the right person to write about restaurants from a different perspective.
- Reintroduce Yourself
Unfortunately, there are only a few people paying a lot of attention to you. That indicates their perceptions of you are almost certainly a few years outdated, but that is not their responsibility. With thousands of Facebook friends and fuzzy social contacts, we can’t expect everybody to recall all the information of our lives. Therefore we have to smartly re-inform our friends and contacts because, particularly if we’re starting a new business project, they exactly will be our customers and recommenders. This means a serious attempt to phone or email every person on your list is required. You must inform them about your new focus and, where applicable, ask them for their support, advice, or business.
- Demonstrate Your Worth
There’ certainly is a big difference between my understanding that you’ve started a new graphic design company, and believing that you’ll do a fantastic job for customers. I may possibly like you very much, however, unless I see evidence of your capabilities, I might think twice to risk my own reputation by sending you recommendations. And exactly here blogs, podcasts, videocasts, and other varieties of social media become important. It’s crucial to show to potential customers what you’re about. Give them the chance to test drive your solution or they may not make a commitment.