What is a personal brand for teachers?

In this global and digital educational world, where you have a permanent footprint on the internet, personal branding becomes critical. Personal branding is the promised value of your teaching skills and experience that make you recognizable. It is a clear and loud voice telling your story, differentiating yourself from others.

Why a personal brand is important

Because it helps:

Stand out in a market

The teaching world has become very competitive.  And here your name can be essential for you professionally giving you the opportunity to emphasize your strengths and your talents.

Become influential

You are influential if you have a personal brand. Your influence assumes demonstrating your talents and expertise. Your talent as a teacher will be seen in a way your students see their importance. You will need to show them how to find themselves as a star in their story of success. They will become «creators» of their success stories.

It will be a guarantee for your success as a teacher. People appreciate the moments they spend with someone who makes them feel good about own life and plans.

How to brand yourself as a teacher

1. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Think about your strengths as a teacher. Some teachers are really good at developing relations with their students. Others are great at managing time and discipline. The third ones exceed the expectations of those who are preparing for exams. Your strengths will build the brand to help you stand out among the others.

People appreciate the natural and genuine personalities nowadays; they get tired of all the digital and standard content they have to deal with every day. Make sure that your strength turns into your competitive advantage.

2.Continuously learn and develop

A personal brand is critical for professional growth. It assumes committing to self-recognition and growth, promising the value that you as a professional have in your area. To ensure this value, you have to work hard on your skills and abilities.

You should continuously expand your ability, regularly update your expertise and increase your knowledge. Do not forget that the educational world is not only very demanding but also changing. To be able to successfully adapt to this world, you will need to regularly update your teaching skills.

3.Develop your communication skills

Teachers nowadays are a little different from teachers in the past. Nowadays teachers may be substituted with search engines if they do not provide emotional and psychological content in the lessons they conduct. People are more emotionally “hungry” nowadays, looking forward to the lessons that are fun and engaging. Those lessons where their personality is valued and recognized, where their concerns matter and their stories are taken seriously.

If you communicate well, you are confident because you are ahead of the game. Speaking up always counts as it comes to any job related to communicating with humans such as teaching. Do not forget about stressing the positives to initiate comfortable and safe relations with the students. This establishes a reputation which can handle the miscommunication. We should be able to take responsibility for our miscommunicated messages and content contributing to personal brand.

Make yourself visible

In this digital world, where we can get almost any information easily, unlike those times when people had to visit the libraries, read encyclopedias, ask professionals.

We cannot forget that humans are genuinely curious. Students want to know more about your personality as the distance between a student and a teacher has become much closer. Out of curiosity, your students can access your social media profile to see what you usually post or share, who your friends are and how your profile generally looks like. They want to know who you are. Unlike in the past when the respect for a teacher was unquestioned, nowadays your social activity which is easily traced and caught, will play a role in how you can develop your relations with your students.

Thus, to build personal brand:

1. Identify your strengths and weaknesses.
2. Make sure you are continually developing your professional skills.
3. Improve communication skills.
4. Make yourself visible.

Hope you found it useful and next time when you think about your to-do list as a professional teacher, personal branding will be there as a conscious step to take.