With the massive uptake of social media, the way we work is changing. More and more, companies are beginning to see the opportunities presented by the digital world. Entrepreneurs and professionals are seeing the benefits of creating and sharing their own content, interacting with their target markets online and leveraging their personal brands in dealing with clients.
Here are a number of trends cropping up in today’s modern work environment:
Digital personal branding
Statistics show that the majority of recruiters now use online searches as a primary means of checking out potential job candidates, and that what they find out online influences whether or not they will consider the person for a job post. Similarly, companies are taking more of an interest in employees’ online behaviour as social media affects business more and more.
Ensure that your behaviour online reflects the personal brand you want to build in real life. There should not be a gap between how you present yourself digitally and how you would act in a face-to-face situation.
Personal branding for companies
Companies are beginning to understand the importance of personal branding for their employees. In the past, many companies shied away from allowing their employees to develop personal brands. As the market has become more competitive, however, organisations are beginning to understand that people buy into their employees before they buy into their products or services.
If you have never considered your personal brand, now is the time to do it. And if you haven’t looked into the ways that personal branding can build your organisation’s business, start thinking about how you could use personal branding for your staff to develop a competitive advantage.
Team branding
Just as each person and each company has a brand (whether they’re aware of it or not) every team has a brand too. It’s the mental space that the team occupies in the minds of its stakeholders. Team branding is not just for internal functions; it also applies to business teams, sales teams and even sports teams.
By building a team brand you create an air of distinction for your team which can go a long way when you are competing for attention, budget and relevance within your organisation. Effective team branding results in recognition from customers and peers.
Information in pictures
More and more business professionals are starting to use images to convey information in a way that is visually more interesting than a list of facts and figures. Infographics are popping up everywhere, from PowerPoint presentations to annual reports and even in place of traditional CVs.
Perhaps it’s time to consider a visual resume instead of the plain old text-based CV. With digital tools like Kinzaa and visualize.me available, it’s easy to convert your skills and experience into a visual representation that’s far more interesting to peruse.
Donna Rachelson is CEO of Branding & Marketing YOU.
