Is your personal brand doing magic tricks on you or has it really disappeared?
As professionals and job seekers, it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day chaos of balancing work, personal lives, or job searching. But when life and careers get too busy, it’s easy to let your personal brand slip away into thin air. Before you know it, you’ve lost nearly fifty followers on Twitter and no one is reading or commenting on your blog.
If you’re worried about your personal brand disappearing, it’s important to understand the warning signs before it disappears completely. Your personal brand is a very sensitive tool for your career, so when you don’t give it the attention it needs, it’s going to disappear before your eyes!
If your personal brand is on the verge of disappearing or no longer exists, here are five signs to explain the source of your problem:
1. Low engagement from the start. When you first launched your personal brand, you didn’t take the time to interact with people in your industry and interests. You also didn’t reach out to people in your network nor did you share valuable content. Because of this, you were never able to build your personal brand and expand your networks. Engagement is key to a strong personal brand and if it lacks the value people seek, you’ll quickly see your networks disappear.
2. Your brand is a one-way street. Sure, you want your personal brand to be a megaphone for your experience and skills, but it’s not going to grow if you don’t interact with your followers. If your personal brand didn’t grow with your audience or promote conversation, then it’s a definite sign your brand became a one-way street. When this happens, your network can begin to shrink and your brand will disappear with it. This is why it’s important to listen to your networks, provide a helping hand, and share the content of others.
3. Focus has disappeared. Brands often disappear because they lack some type of focus. If you are scatterbrained with your brand, this could be a good reason why it disappeared. In order to revive your brand and its focus, it’s a good idea to start your brand over at square one. Ask yourself what purpose you want the brand to serve you and your career. Do you want to inform people? Do you want to make connections with people in your industry? Figure out how you can create a brand that will not only be beneficial for your career but will also be an asset for your network.
4. Your followers feel neglected. When you used to receive tweets or emails from your followers, did you respond in a timely manner or did you forget to respond? When you don’t take the time to respond to your followers, it can easily make your brand disappear. Your network will try to reach out to you, but if you don’t respond, they’ll assume that your brand is inactive.
5. When you try to revive your brand, nothing works. If you tried engaging with your followers and sharing content, but none of your efforts are working, then your personal brand has definitely disappeared. The people in your networks are very busy and are willing to take the time to build relationships, however once you forget about your followers, it can be difficult to win those relationships back.
Bringing life back to your personal brand isn’t an easy task. It will definitely take time and dedication. Although you will have to start from scratch, it’s the best way to relaunch your brand. However, make sure to keep these points in mind when you rebuild your personal brand so you can prevent it from disappearing in the future.
