Brand... new me

Welcome welcome! It's another wonderful week here on the Strategize with Sav blog! This week we discussed branding and social media. If you were with me last term, you remember me discussing personal branding in my post That's on brand... Well, this week we are going to elaborate more on that.

BetterUp defines personal branding as the strategic and intentional process of curating a public image to manage people's impression of you. So basically, how do I want people to see me? Last term, I shared a few attributes of what I want my personal brand to be. Those were: creative, organized and approachable. Three solid attributes right? I thought so as well. I had a solid foundation on which to build my personal brand. Now I needed to take the next step in branding myself and network.

I recently went to the Public Relations Council of Alabama (PRCA) annual conference. At this conference there were speakers from many different backgrounds. We heard from a lawyer, someone who worked for the Alabama Farmers Federation, an event planner, and someone who worked for the VA hospital in Ohio. One of these speakers truly resonated with me and changed my perspective completely. Looking at that list, and knowing from my personal branding post that I have an event company you are probably thinking it is the event planner no doubt am I right? Well... it was actually the VA hospital employee. 

In his presentation, he spoke about public relations ethics versus your personal ethics. He shared a bit of his professional history, shared with us the public relations ethics code, and then shared his own personal ethics. Now, you may be wondering what this has to do with your personal brand and social media, well everything.

Ethics is defined as moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the conducting of an activity. The Public Relations Society of America gives a code of ethics for the PR professional to follow. They are advocacy, honesty, expertise, independence, loyalty and fairness. These are fantastic traits to live by, but they are not the only ones that are relevant. Our personal ethics are the things that are so important and valuable to us that they affect the way we do things. The speaker challenged us to define what our personal ethics are and to live by them. To draw that moral line in the sand and to not cross it. I listened intently to the questions fellow PR professionals asked, and I tried to really take note of his answers.

I left that session feeling empowered. Feeling called to have a time of self reflection and to determine what my personal ethics were. I spoke with the speaker during the break after his session and he gave me some tips on how to define my personal ethics. He also gave me his email address for if I had any future questions. I came home that night and started working on the readings for this class and once again that lightbulb went off. My personal ethics would play a huge role in my personal brand. My personal brand would be the outward expression of those personal ethics. So I reread my original personal branding post and I realized that, while my selected attributes were good, they were not well rounded and complete. Therefore, my personal brand was not finalized, and that was the reason I had found it so difficult to truly promote myself. 

So I remembered the tip that the speaker gave me.

1. Determine your purpose 

For me this was simple. I wanted to determine what my personal ethics were so that I could tailor my personal brand around them and promote my true self.

2. Make a list of your traits

I wrote down every single thing that I liked about myself. I am loyal, kind, driven, humble, faithful, family oriented, organized, etc. Then I wrote down every single thing that I disliked about myself. I am stubborn, emotional, a perfectionist, a people pleaser, etc. This list was quite extensive.

3. Create a set of statements to follow

This is where I sat down and went through that entire list and combined what I could to create my personal ethics. My guidebook to me. The list of statements that would drive my personal brand.

So, here is my personal code of ethics:

- All decisions I make will be for what best suits my family.

- I will take a humanistic approach to life and be kind and welcoming to everyone.

- I will be okay with saying no to things that do not serve me.

- I will be organized and prepared, but also flexible.

- I will listen with intention and not with a solution in mind.

- I will proactively create happiness in my own life through my outward appearance and attitude.

- I will work to continually improve myself.

I wrote my list and stared at it for a while. There is power in seeing things written down in black and white. This week I have started leaning into my personal brand a bit more on Facebook. I have applied these ethics and tried to promote a new version of myself to my Facebook friends. You would not believe how many people noticed a difference in me and commented on it. 

So many times we brand ourselves in a way that just does not completely fit with who we truly are. This is where social media can become a "highlight reel" if you will. So this week I posted a selfie every single day. I woke up earlier, I put myself together, and I actively put forth the effort to create happiness for myself. 

Here is an example of the difference in my posts for reference.

 

In the first post, you can see that I leaned heavily into the motherhood aspect of my personal brand. I made it my identity. Which isn't bad, but I have come to the realization that I will be a better version of me if I allow myself to access and express all those other attributes and traits that I have.

The second post is one where I have started living by my code of ethics and promoting that as my personal brand. The picture is warm and inviting, but it also shows people that I am put together and genuinely happy. The amount of feedback I received on that initial photo alone was astonishing. People say that I look happy, that I am glowing, and that bright colors and expressing my personality through my clothes really suits me. 

This amazing change and finding my true self happened all because I just happened to be in a breakout session at a conference where someone talked to us about our personal ethics. This week alone I have made more contacts professionally and for my personal business because people have noticed a change in how I promote my personal brand. 

Your personal brand is so important, but making sure that the principles that make up your personal brand align with your personal code of ethics makes all the difference.