Whether or not your self-marketing campaign will run as successfully as the one in our example depends on a number of factors. Your personality plays a big role in this, but so does professional implementation of the steps involved in personal branding, a degree of natural flair and talent for self-promotion, as well as the current market situation in your industry.
If you do succeed in establishing your own personal brand, you can reap many benefits. You’ll gain a positive reputation and develop unique selling points that clearly separate you from the competition. Your increased network will ensure that you make more contacts from different areas within the field, while you’ll be able to draw on inspiration from others and inspire them too. Increased reach is also a huge plus: If you have more contacts and a larger radius of fans, others stumbling across you will see you as an influential person - which can only be of benefit.
But if you decide to change industry, this positive self-marketing can bring about some disadvantages. If you’ve done things right up until now, then a new job in a different field will mean you have to disregard all your previous personal branding and start from scratch again. It can take a considerable amount of time until you’ve established your new brand in search engines and networks.
Lastly, be aware that personal branding requires constant attention and a focused, rational, and measured approach. Any mistakes you may make (negative outbursts on Twitter, poorly thought-out Facebook statuses, poor quality content) can have serious negative repercussions, and the more successful your personal brand is, the larger the scale of the damage. Remember that everything you post – be it a comment, a picture, a blog update, or a shared link – will have an impact on your image and the way your audience perceives you. But as long as you’re careful, focused, and always refer back to your personal branding plan, your self-marketing campaign has every chance of making you into a big success.