Payal Sharma 

Personal branding refers to the marketing of one's brand or one's personal identity in any field. For example, if you are a language professional, then it can be a translator or interpreter. One can promote by developing and maintaining one’s identity in the business field as well as in society. It has gained its significance since the invention of the internet and the introduction of social media. Since then, this concept of presenting oneself on the internet, especially on social media has become a trend and it is indeed aiding people to find better jobs. These days, we can observe that everybody wants to promote themselves on a business level, but with so many crowds in the market, don’t you think that branding at a personal level holds equal importance? So, it’s all about visibility and one should know the ways to reach out to people more quickly and effectively.

If you establish a recognizable brand, then it can provide you more excellent opportunities like:
1) Find better jobs.
2) Land better clients easily.
3) Grow your professional network.
4) Acquire valuable feedback from clients.
 
To get started with personal branding, here are the seven steps to follow:
1) Identify your goals.
2) Identify your target audience.
3) Determine your unique characteristics.
4) Build your website.
5) Start blogging.
6) Become socially active.
7) Review and update your personal brand regularly.
 
Once you achieve the previous steps and know that now you have acquired enough skills and qualifications, then the next step is to start thinking of ways that make your presence more visible in today’s competitive market.
An effective way to achieve your considerable visibility in the business field and society is to develop your own professional identity i.e. personal branding and acquire entrepreneurship skills.

Essential factors needed to maintain your personal identity:
1) Identify yourself
State your identity clearly, what you do, who you are, each and everything about yourself, as your client should know beforehand about yourself. Briefly, points to be kept in mind:
• Name
•       Freelancer/translation agency
• Working language pairs: English-Hindi, English- French, etc.
• Services offered: translation/interpretation/ proofreading/transcription, etc.
• Updated CV
• Specializations in the field (don’t state more than 5)
• Rates: per word/per page/per hour
• Education in translation
• Work experience
 
2) Communication Skills
Communication between a translator/freelancer and a client is the most important part of maintaining your professional identity. As a language professional, one should set their terms and conditions, so that the client comprehends what to expect from you throughout the course of time. Some points to maintain effective communication are:
• Be the man of your own words
• Be accessible always or mention your availability time
• Reply instantly, even if you are busy, just let them know once
• Listen to what your clients want to say
• Ask, if in doubt
• If you find anything wrong, suggest better options
• Be open and frank to your client, if you encounter any problem while translating a text or you are unable to complete the work in the required deadline, then share with them and try to compromise on both sides.
• Avoid miscommunication with your clients, if something goes wrong, try to verify your mistakes and if it is your mistake, then do apologize and try not to repeat the same mistake the next time.
• Request feedback after completion of the project. It helps to recognize your ways, where you need to improve yourself and you have a record of your task done, which you can show to prospective clients.
 
3) Attitude - Professionalism
One needs to adopt a professional attitude and an entrepreneurial mindset to build and maintain one’s personal branding. This can be achieved through various means:
• Becoming a member of professional associations
• Start building websites/blogs
• Attend seminars, webinars, e-learning, stay updated about the happenings in the translation industry.
• Attend meetings/conferences related to translation
• Caring about your network, be it current or upcoming one
• Have a critical approach about what clients want and say
• Have a critical eye on search results, sources required in translation
• Quality is always better than quantity. If you have a lot to do in a short span of time, so it’s better to inform your client that you will get a little bit late, but do not rush your work. It can have a bad impression on the client later on.
• Adhere to professional guidelines/set of conduct towards your client always
• Be socially active on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
• Practice the rules of publishing any information or content of your clients on any social media.
 
To sum up, before getting started with personal branding, there are some key points to be kept in mind. After that, the following step is to know how to maintain your professional identity, so that you stand out from the crowd. The three major factors needed are; identifying yourself, good communication skills, and attitude in professionalism. It is the underlying consistency that helps to establish the external depiction of “You.” Strong personal branding is no longer a “like to have” but a “must-have.” Moreover, your work should be valuable enough to satisfy your client, so that you receive positive feedback from them at the end.
                                                                                 
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