Personal brands have a range of benefits, including the benefit of lifting your reputation in your respective industry or career path. In terms of building a reputation, personal branding not only gives you a stronger profile across channels that demonstrates your expertise and skills, but it also increases the number of people who see your body of work. 

How Does a Personal Brand Lift Your Reputation? 

A personal brand lifts your reputation by increasing exposure for you and your work, demonstrating your skills and expertise, and expanding your network. Because personal branding is an intentional strategy for influencing the way people perceive you, it has a significant impact on your reputation as a professional.

Let’s look at the ways a personal brand lifts your reputation:

1. By Showcasing Your Skills and Expertise
2. By Increasing Exposure for Your Positive Attributes
3. By Expanding Your Network

How Does a Personal Brand Lift Your Reputation? - By Showcasing Your Skills and Expertise

One way a personal brand lifts your reputation is by giving you the opportunity to demonstrate your professional skills. Projects related to personal brand building like creating content, speaking in public, and creating products and services yield tangible examples of skills you possess.

• An example for a marketing professional: If a marketing professional’s personal brand goal is to grow their Twitter following and sell digital products, the things they need to do to accomplish that goal will have the byproduct of showcasing their marketing skills. For example, their Tweets will showcase writing and creative skills, courses and ebooks they create will further showcase those skills, and the act of selling products will demonstrate their ecommerce skills.
• An example for a student: Students need as much demonstrated experience they can get in order to land their first jobs or to build trust in their audience for launching their own business. Building a personal brand can offer tangible resume additions in the same way internships, school projects, and jobs can. Did you build a portfolio website for your brand? Did you grow your TikTok channel demonstrating your content creation and audience building skills? Did you sell digital products? These accomplishments look great on a resume or LinkedIn profile, and serve as proof of your skills.

While demonstrating skills might not be your primary goal, the actions you need to take to grow a personal brand have the incidental benefit of giving you projects and content that serve as further evidence of your knowledge and skills. These demonstrations of your abilities will help with network, finding jobs, and client acquisition depending upon your goals and career path.

Related: 7 Personal Branding Tips to Help Grow Your Audience and Influence

How Does a Personal Brand Lift Your Reputation? - By Increasing Exposure for Your Positive Attributes

The goal of reputation management is to ensure positive narratives are amplified, and that negative narratives are mitigated and handled appropriately. 

With personal branding being the act of intentionally showcasing positive attributes and raising awareness for them, a strong personal brand is a great asset for lifting your reputation. Building a personal brand involves not only shining a light on positive attributes, like your skills and accomplishments as mentioned above, but also growing the audience and network that sees those attributes. 

As more people become aware of you through your personal brand growth strategy and people see evidence of your work and credibility, your reputation will naturally elevate.

Related: Personal Brand Framework: 5 Steps to Defining Your Personal Brand

How Does a Personal Brand Lift Your Reputation? - By Expanding Your Network

Exposure is not the only way a personal brand lifts your reputation when it comes to the impact it has on your network. The other facet to consider is the quality of the connections a personal brand can yield. 

Building a personal brand can expand your network in several ways:

• Adding high quality connections - Becoming more active in your niche and creating content will make it easier for you to connect with peers in your industry. Being from your niche, these individuals will have an appreciation and understanding for your expertise and skills - this is invaluable, as these industry peers can become resources for learning, finding job opportunities, and business partnerships
• Reaching new audiences - Building a personal brand gives you access to new audiences as you build your brand across channels. For example, building a presence on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram will add different segments to your audience based on the user groups on those platforms 
• Customer acquisition - If one of your goals is monetization for a side hustle or becoming an entrepreneur, building a personal brand will give you a larger network of potential customers

Related: Personal Branding Tips: 5 Things Every Professional Should Have to Build Their Brand

Final Thoughts

The reputation that your personal brand creates is an important asset that can deliver benefits ranging from revenue to job opportunities. The way personal brand development intentionally highlights your positive attributes leads to network growth has a powerful impact on your reputation in your industry and the way peers, employers, and customers see you.

How Does a Personal Brand Lift Your Reputation? - Frequently Asked Questions 

How is a personal brand like having a personal reputation?

A personal brand and a personal reputation can be thought of as synonyms. The concept of reputation management and brand management have been around for years. Now that these principles are more commonly being applied to individuals and creators, the popularity of the term “personal branding” has grown. 

For example, personal brands and personal reputations can both be intentionally grown and influenced through practices like social media marketing and content creation. They also both depend on your audience’s perception of you. 

What does a personal brand do for you?

A personal brand gives you a range of benefits, including increased exposure to job opportunities, a stronger network, and the opportunity to make money by monetizing your brand.

Learn more about what a personal brand does for you: The Benefits of Personal Branding

How can social media be important to your personal brand and reputation?

Social media can be important to your personal brand and reputation because it serves as a channel for brand growth and exposure. You can use social media channels to create content, showcase your expertise, and network — all activities that improve your personal brand and elevate your reputation in your industry.

Check out these examples of personal brands that use social media to grow their personal brands and reputations.

How your personal brand can influence the perceptions others have of you?

Your personal brand can influence the perceptions others have of you by highlighting your positive attributes, skills, and expertise. Because personal branding is intentionally crafting a narrative that showcases positive attributes, it can help you build a strong reputation in your industry.

These personal brand attributes examples demonstrate how you can use your personal brand to positively influence people’s perception of you.

Bonus Personal Branding Tips and Insights

• Personal Branding Case Study: A Look at Gary Vaynerchuk’s Brand
• Tools for Personal Branding: Best Marketing Tools to Add to Your Personal Branding Toolkit
• Personal Branding Tips for College Students
• Personal Branding Tips for Young Professionals
• Personal Branding Tips for Introverts
• Personal Brand vs Business Brand - What’s the Difference? [Comparison + Examples]
• Personal Branding Action Plan - Checklist + Complete Guide for Starting Your Personal Brand
• Personal Branding Checklist - Essentials Every Personal Brand Needs [Free Guide + Examples]
• 20 LinkedIn Personal Branding Tips
• Personal Branding Myths Debunked: What People Get Wrong About Personal Brands
• Common Personal Branding Mistakes: Personal Brand Mistake Examples + Tips for Avoiding Them
• 10 YouTube Personal Branding Content Ideas
• 10 Content Ideas For Building Your Personal Brand On Facebook
• Personal Branding Challenges: Tips for Overcoming the Most Common Personal Branding Challenges
• Personal Brand Audit: Assess Your Personal Brand [free guide]
• Why Personal Branding is Important for Entrepreneurs