What is a personal brand?
A personal brand is a presentation and representation of what makes you the teacher you are. Essentially your personal brand is how you want to be seen by employers and the world. A personal brand showcases your expertise, passion, experience and who you are as a teacher and person. Essentially, a personal brand tells people what you want them to think when they think of you.
Why as a teacher do I need a personal brand?
A personal brand is an invaluable way of selling yourself to schools and putting your best foot forward. When done right your personal brand should do the following:
Build trust. Your personal brand should be able to instil a sense of trust in who you are and your abilities. This helps you stay top of mind when schools are considering which candidate to bring into the school
Sell your skills succinctly. A strong personal brand is a reliable way of building a solid reputation for yourself which is why you need your personal brand to show off how great you are at what you do
Demonstrate what makes you unique and why you are valuable. By embodying your passions, personality and what makes you unique, your personal brand will make you stand out from the crowd
How do I build my personal brand?
Now that you know what a personal brand is and why it’s so useful for teachers, it’s time to learn how to build and develop your own. Here are 3 easy steps:
Identify your passions. Make a list of what drives you and evokes powerful feelings within you, both personally and professionally. Knowing your passions and career goals will influence your decisions, where you want your career to go and help you develop a well-defined personal brand.
Find a platform. Now that you know your passions and goals the next step is finding the platform to showcase yourself. LinkedIn is the best place to get noticed by schools and other businesses, but don’t discount the other social media brands, schools look in all sorts of places for good candidates and the more you say about yourself the better. Just make sure you are saying the right things on all social media, your online presence can make or break you.
Build your network. Networking is so important in this day and age. Building a relationship with other teachers online, and joining and actively being a part of communities is the best way to grow your network. Look for people who share your interests, passion and goals and network with them to improve your trust, and credibility and to learn.
A personal brand is something that only you can develop and is the best way of selling yourself as an individual which, in the education sector, is a major part of finding work and advancing your career. Simply Education knows the education industry and we believe in finding educators their perfect job. Register with us to find permanent, supply and short-term work across the country and even gain access to our pool of CPD courses. Register now at simplyeducation.co.uk
