In A Digital World, Everyone Needs To Market Themselves; 7 Tips For You To Succeed

Why would you need to market yourself? And how do you go about it doing it savvily? Here’s all the info you need.

Marketing is not restricted to only Marketing Professionals in the current social media driven digital age. You may be wondering why I am saying so.

If you have a well-paying 9-5 job, why would you need to market yourself? Well, we know that entrepreneurs need to market themselves because they are creating their personal brand as well as the brand image of their organization. But why would a salaried person or freelancer need to market themselves?

Marketing is a necessary skill that can impact both your professional and personal life.

For example, I take this opportunity to share a little bit about myself. I was a software engineer who had over 3.5 years of experience in the IT world when I took a career break due to personal reasons. When I wanted to return, I was not considered seriously as a ‘career break’, and ‘woman with a small child’ are red signals for many HR people.

I got an opportunity to lead the Digital Team of a sports startup of which I was co-founder as well. Although I knew nothing about digital marketing, social media marketing and blogging at that time, I kept on pushing myself into entrepreneurs circles and various women entrepreneur competitions where I represented myself as social media marketer for three long years.

Today, very few people know that I was an IT professional and have a coding background. Most people know me for my blogs which have been published on websites like Women’s Web and social media marketing activities which I do for clients.

I created this image through networking with the right people, consistently working with a goal in mind and updating my social media profile with the right content, which gives the message I want.

I was part of the Top 30 women entrepreneurs by IIT Delhi’s initiative WEE Foundation, Q1 2017 batch. My startup was recognized among the Top 3000 startups of India by SmartFifty – 50 solutions to Transform India, organized by IIM CIP in 2018. So, you can see how effective marketing and consistent effort bear fruit!

How do you market yourself?

Moving onto the next part, how will you market yourself? There are seven steps to ensure that you shine:

1. Identify your niche and set the target: It is crucial to identify your talent, passion and goal as the initial step. After these are concrete, now analyze what is the gap in the current offerings and what you can offer innovatively. Slowly, you start to inch closer to your goal. Marketing yourself is a long and consistent process which bears fruit when you are clear about your end result and each decision is made with that in mind.
2. Seek recognition for your expertise: Showcase what you know by creating a knowledge base. Write a white paper, articles for leading magazines or start by voicing your opinions on relevant topics. Identifying thought leaders and people in related fields is also crucial. Learn by observing them and get noticed by sharing and commenting on their thoughts. Establish relationships and promote your work.
3. Share your wisdom: Establish yourself as an expert and build relationships with your audience. Your articles or blogs should be informative, well written, relevant and valuable for the maximum impact.
4. Build a community: Surround yourself with a network of like-minded people and work on building deeper relationships. When we have the right company, we get more value. For example, I am from New Delhi, yet I was the brain behind marketing designs for a visionary summit in IIM Bangalore, Drishti, held in Feb 2019. This was possible through including myself in the right community and establishing as an expert even from afar. My work was appreciated as I went out of the box in my ideas, marketing strategy and designs.
5. Be of service to others: Become a trusted adviser and help people through your work. You may have noticed many people provide mentorship to someone starting out in your field, some indulge in CSR activities on the personal level and some offer free webinars. Because what you sow is what you reap!
6. Be Social-Tech savvy:  Like, share and comment are the three basic social media hygiene practices which everyone should follow. Join Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and relevant virtual communities where you network with people. Sharing your expertise for free and establishing your image are two points being followed by people rigorously.
7. Protect and Build your Reputation: “Remember who you are” – is the message to the world. Hence protect your reputation and take every action, think through every conversation carefully.

Marketing yourself is not about thinking of marketing exclusively. It is the continuous process where you build a community, show your expertise and establish your Personal Brand and achieve your long term aim.

First published here.

Image via Pixabay

Nitika garg

Entrepreneur in Digital Marketing Domain. Has done Women Entrepreneurship fellowship from IIT Delhi, WEE. I

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