Job seekers, freelancers, and entrepreneurs tend to hear often that establishing a personal brand website is a wise pursuit. Why? Because everyone has a personal brand. Yes, everyone.
Anyone you have interacted with (professionally or personally) at some point has formed an impression about the quality of your work, your work ethic, your interpersonal skills and your character (on and offline). Your personal brand is out there meandering around whether you acknowledge it or not.
When was the last time you googled yourself? What images are associated with your name? How many of your social media posts are public vs. private? Is there media coverage of your work and accomplishments? Have you published any thought leadership on industry blogs or places such as LinkedIn? All of the information that anyone can find about you make up your personal brand.
Wouldn’t it be nice if all of those deets were easily viewed in one location? Personal brand websites are the perfect interactive business card and representation of you, what you are all about and what uniqueness you bring to the proverbial table. A personal brand website is prime real estate that offers a cohesive digital presence where opportunity is likely to come knocking.
Think of it as a visual version of your resume. Yes, paper or online resumes aren’t extinct, yet, but they are trending that way. 9/10 individuals attempt to look someone up online when considering hiring, doing business or well, just out of curiosity. It’s no coincidence that the best in any given industry tend to have their own personal brand site. This goes for executives and small biz owners as well as from whom we might expect like authors, entertainers and other highly visible personalities.
There are a multitude of elements to consider when building a personal brand website so hiring a third party who understands how to thread those elements together consistently (logo, design, font, imagery, copy, scale, navigation, color palette, and layout to name a handful) is worth every penny. Have someone else deal with the layers and nuances of web design that could bog a layman down and gain back that time to hone and refine what it is that you want the world to know about you, your why, your only-ness.
Here are a few articles to peruse that give shout outs to some really well done personal brand websites and why they are stellar stand-outs:
https://personalbrand.com/6-website-example-personal-brand/
https://collegeinfogeek.com/personal-website-examples/
https://medium.com/@strikingly/10-killer-examples-of-personal-branding-websites-81a6005bd1c4
