Building Your Personal Brand

A article written by Sherrie Bakshi can be found on the PRSA website: Building your Personal Brand. Bakshi speaks about the importance of public relations practitioners building our individual brand to help establish ourselves and our skills among our peers. This in return will promote the organization(s) and/or client(s) and services we produce. I agree with Bakshi's ideas. As public relations professionals, we more than any other business professional, know the value and also the consequence of a organization's reputation, performance and communication efforts. And of course we also know these aspects must be evaluated. So, why don't we start with an evaluation of ourselves? I would like to build a brand that is creative, timely, effective and of course one that meets the bottom line, that is solving the issue that my client has. Therefore I have to practice these habits in my everyday life so that those characeristics can be reflective in my public relations activities.

In the article Bakshi presents four suggestions on how to build your brand; volunteer your skills and knowledge to a local nonprofit, get published, seek speaking opportunities, and get involved in your local PRSA chapter. Of all the suggestions I enjoy public speaking the most. I LOVE public speaking. It's sort of a hobby for me and something that I think I'm good at. I enjoy having the ability to effectively articulate an idea or messege and entertain in the process. Through my college experience I have hosted pageants, emceed many lectures/seminars, read many bios and introductory speeches, facilitated a press conference and have done voiceovers for documentaries. All of these activities I feel have served as practice for strengthing my written and verbal communication skills. In many instances I have had to write scripts for myself and others.

After reading Bakshi's article I too have suggestions for students or whoever is looking to enter the public relations pool or simply build their personal brand. I suggest becoming a jack of all trades. I know in the communications industry there is now, more than ever, pressure to be a multimedia professional. This means learning and being able to perform all tasks of media. One should know a little about public relations, advertising, marketing, print, photgraphy, graphic design, film, and the lists goes on. Nowadays, we see all of these fields fused together through job responsibilities and projects. Also, some clients are looking for a one-stop shop. Having this wide knowledge will at minumum make you more competitive in your respective field.