Act Like a Brand, Think Like a Consumer: A Guide to Personal Branding

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When representing or working for a brand, it is often a communicator's dream to dig deep and analyze what value that brand brings to a consumer and how that brand differentiates itself from others. However, when those same communicators are asked to analyze their personal brand and what they bring to the table, their initial excitement often fades.

On February 18, social and influencer communications lead for Global Markets in IBM corporate communications, Brandi Boatner, asked a group of Newhouse PR students to ask themselves the hard questions in a workshop titled "The Brand Called You." The workshop, originally given to over 600 IBM employees, forced students to begin taking control of their own narrative and developing a personal brand that will help develop their personal and professional interests.

After a brief introduction of the current digital landscape and the challenges brands face in differentiating themselves in a saturated digital community, Boatner shifted the focus onto the audience members and asked students to answer the "four fundamental questions of branding" about a few well-known brands.

With ease, the students answered the questions and captured each company's brand perfectly. The next activity, however, stumped the students, myself included.

"What do you bring to the table?" Boatner asks an unsuspecting student in the crowd. "If we were having dinner, what is something uniquely you that you would bring to the conversation?"

Each student that was asked struggled to form an answer that was genuine and successfully captured who they are. While I (thankfully) wasn't asked by Boatner, I was quietly asking myself each of her questions. With each question asked, my mind immediately went blank, forcing me to struggle along with the rest of the crowd. I began to grow frustrated with each passing minute.

"What do I bring to the table?" I frantically text my roommate and mom in search of answers before being potentially called on in front of a room full of people. Fully expecting generic answers, their responses shocked me.

"Hailey is a very personable, smart, socially aware, inquisitive and well-rounded thinker," said my roommate Danielle Russo. "She brings confident and well-informed opinions and logic into conversations while remaining open-minded with a willingness to listen and learn.

"You easily adapt to different situations while bringing your unique ambition, empathy, and open-mind to each one," added my mother, Diane."You are flexible and determined to make a difference no matter who needs help. It's difficult to find all those qualities in one person."

I was dumbfounded by their responses, as at that point I only managed to write down my diverse interests in sports, fashion and beauty, country music and politics. I then realized that it was because of traits like "open mindedness," "flexibility," "curiosity," and "ambition" that led to me crave learning about each of these very diverse interests, making me who I am.

"It's so hard for people to see themselves how you see them, but you just need to dig a little deeper when thinking about who you are," Boatner concluded the activity.

The workshop ended with some advice on how to cater your personal brand and interests into social content that will benefit you professionally. It is suggested that 70% of the social content you post should be industry relevant, 20% of what you share should be about who you find influential and 10% of your social content should shape and support your unique interests and personality.

In a saturated digital environment, posting content that is related to your interests and future professional endeavors is important when trying to stay relevant and competitive.

After the workshop ended, I spent several hours reflecting on what I want to be remembered by, what I can bring to the table, and how I'm going to post content that will benefit my brand and future.

With some help from Boatner's questions, input from friends and family, and some good old-fashioned soul-searching, I decided that going forward I am going to make sure that my open-minded and empathetic nature shows, my curiosity and inquisitiveness drives my creativity, my ambition and determination helps me help others, and unapologetically express my diverse interests (no matter how wildly different they are) to whoever is willing to listen.

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