How important is your personal brand in professional success?

Nobody can deny that personal reputation is critical in the path of professional success. Definitely the most important factor is "who you are?" but it is equally important "how others perceive you?".

In today's world due to online tools it is lot easier to build your personal brand. Here are the top steps:

Step 1: Define your strategy

You need to answer a few questions. What do you love the most? What are you good at? Is there some gap in the industry which you can address? It is important that you work on your "strength that matters" i.e. the strengths which are aligned with some industry gaps. For example it is easier to do some good work in the emerging areas like Big Data, BYOD security than on mature fields like encryption provided you have the right skill sets. So, match the gaps and strengths.

Read more: Future Proofing - Protecting the "IT" Arena

Step 2: Execution

Following are some easy steps to build your brand.

1. Write Thought Leadership Articles

Write articles for on-line portals that relate to your area of expertise or industry. When you write the articles ask yourself 3 questions:

1. Are you saying something new?
2. Are you saying something old but in a new way?
3. Are you saying something which will help others to save time, money or effort?

If any of the answer is yes, then you got a nice topic. You can write guest articles at various places like Techcrunch, Forbes, CISO Platform etc. 

(Read more:  5 Best Practices to secure your Big Data Implementation)

2.Speak at Conferences/Webinars

There are various top industry conferences like Blackhat, RSA, Interop etc where there are call for speakers. Apply for those and get known as an industry thought leader. You can also participate as a guest speaker on CISO Platform online webinars.

3.Participate in Online Social Media

Participate in on-line forums / communities to share your expertise or passion and increase your visibility at the same time. You can use linkedin, twitter or more focused security platforms like CISO Platform . Twitter takes some time in terms of getting followers. Linkedin groups, CISO Platform are the places where you can get quicker visibility.

4. Nominate yourself for an Industry Award 

Nominate yourself for awards in your industry; winning an award will give you greater recognition across the industry. There are various industry awards which are specific to countries. Search for the industry award that is relevant to you.

5. Author a Book

Writing a book is a great way to establish your thought leadership. You can write your book on your own or work with a small group of co-authors you know. However it is important that you address a gap/need of the readers. You can be an author of CISO Handbook which is being written right now by a community of CISOs.

In today's online world you have better leverage than ever, to build your online brand. So just get started. Best of luck!

More:  Want to share your insights? Click here to write an article at CISO Platform