According to Giriharidas,"the personal-branding field or self-brand traces its origins to the 1997 essay "The Brand Called You," by the management expert Tom Peters. Contemporary theories of branding suggest that brand ambassadors do not need to have a formal relationship with a company in order to promote its products/services. In particular the Web 2.0 allows all individuals to choose a brand and come up with their own strategies to represent it. Biro believes that "everyone owns their own personal brand. Companies and leadership must see the value of this concept for a successful social workplace recipe. If a brand ambassador chooses to represent the company and/or its brands, the individual should do so in a transparent way. Self-branding is an effective way to help new businesses save the hassle of hiring brand ambassadors, training them and then realizing they are not good enough for the company. In addition, it is an effective tool in order to target a niche audience and allows one to take sole control of their own brand representation. On the other hand, branding one's own product/service creates an instant connection with the audience and helps the brand stand out in comparison to other known brands that use popular celebrities or hire brand ambassadors. Reis propagates her branding mantra, "think about other people. Think about the impressions you are making on friends, neighbors, business associates. Think about your brand. Creating a personal branding strategy is an effective way to attract audience attention. She gives the example of Marissa Mayer, CEO Yahoo. According to Laura Ries, Marissa is successful because she has what most people don't – "she has a brand."
Self-branding also known as personal branding is a way in which an individual may promote or build their reputation. Wheeler also highlights how sending an email can contribute towards an individuals personal brand and how personal branding has become important over the past few years due to the increase of self-employees individuals. The importance of personal branding increasingly rises due to modern audiences often trusting people as opposed to corporations. This falls down to the fact that audience members tend to believe that corporate organizations only have the final sales of product in mind as opposed to the publics interest instead. Furthermore, a personal brand is also a clear indication of who you are and what best features you can offer, showing employees or clients what they could expect. The promotion of a personal brand is also essential in order to create and build a successful network of contacts, which in its self can lead to more business and future clients as well.
Source: wiki
