Tips For Personal Branding In Finance

I have had the honor of working with personal finance professionals on the path he business expansion and brand growth. In doing so, it came to my attention that there is a need to discuss how to brand yourself through blogging. If you are in an industry such as accounting or finance, it can be hard to set yourself apart from the crowd. Very little can separate candidates for roles in these industries when it comes to experience and qualifications. This is why many finance professionals are looking at marketing and branding principles to differentiate themselves. This also provides more control over their online and offline reputation. If you are thinking of cultivating your professional personal brand, read these branding tips.

Creating A Personal Branding Action Plan

Taking the time to create an action plan is a great way to ensure your personal brand takes the shape you want it to. Marketing plans will specify the short and long-term goals of any business and they will evolve over time. This is something that you need to apply to your brand and your job prospects.

You have to set goals and deadlines for achieving them. When you do this, you need to have a good balance between long and short-term priorities. An example of this will be cleaning your social media account and ensuring your LinkedIn profile is up to date and fleshed out. You also need to ensure your privacy settings are in order. You should also look at creating a calendar of key events you should attend in your industry because they are the best place to network.

For your long-term branding, you should look at creating a website and populating your blog with posts related to industry news and trends. You also need to commit to being more active on social media. Regardless of your goals, you need to ensure they meet the SMART criteria which are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Sensitive. Your progress will need to be checked and updated every 2 to 3 months.

Avoid Over-Blogging

Taking your personal branding seriously is important and you will want to differentiate yourself from the competition. This can be done through blogging, but you need to be careful. Professionals in the finance industry will often over-blog and spread themselves too thinly over all their platforms. Having a finely tuned personal website is best and will give you an edge over other candidates.

However, you should not worry about writing hundreds of posts. It is recommended that you only publish 2 to 3 blog posts per month. This is particularly true if you want to provide insights that are well researched and correct. You should also look at contributing posts for your company blog and other authoritative news websites. This is a way to diversity your post distribution and share your knowledge with various audiences. It will also make you into a more authoritative online figure.

Add Personality To Your Work And Remain Current

Financial markets are always changing and you need to stay current with all the latest trends and news that affect your sector of the industry. You have to commit to following the key financial publications on social media and set up some Google alerts. This will help you focus on search terms that are related to your job. Keeping up to date on everything in the industry will show that you are knowledgeable about your field and that you are paying attention. It also shows that you are versatile and adaptable which are sought after skills.

When it comes to writing new material for your blog, you should not be afraid to let your personality shine. You should also experiment with some different writing styles. Financial news can become dry and injecting some of your personality, humor and originality can make your posts a bit more engaging and easier for people to read. This is something that you should also do with your website. Of course, your website should not be too casual, but you do not want to be too formal and lack any personality. Doing this will help you differentiate yourself from other job seekers as you show a bit of yourself to the recruiters and anyone else reading your blog posts.