New Year - New personal brand in Singapore

Many people make New Year's resolutions which are well intentioned but fall away. If you want to achieve your business objectives in Singapore in 2015, you should focus on developing your personal brand on LinkedIn and keep it going throughout 2015. It's now more important than ever.

People buy people in Singapore. Always have, always will. That's why the phrase "it's not what you know, it's who you know" is as true now as it was 100 years ago. Today they are buying your personal brand. Think you don't need a personal brand, think again.

Here are 13 reasons why you need a personal brand in Singapore in 2015:

1. You already have a personal brand in Singapore – if you don't control it, it's being controlled for you by other people. Brand perception is out there of you, you can manage it or you can let others take it away from you.

2. If you want a new job in Singapore, then your personal brand will dictate whether you succeed or not. The first thing an HR director does is look at your LinkedIn profile. No photo, no summary page, and no update job title/experience and you won't even get an interview.

3. If you want a promotion in your existing company in Singapore, you will stand more chance of getting it with an enhanced personal brand. If your competition for that senior role has more recommendations on LinkedIn, has more connections on LinkedIn, and their profile altogether looks better, they will beat you to that position.

4. If you want to keep that client in Singapore, then you should focus on your personal brand – if you're not and your client is being wooed by another service provider and their personal branding on Linkedin is better than yours, then you may just lose that client.

5. If you want to win that client in Singapore, you must enhance your personal brand – if you don't and they look at your LinkedIn profile and see nothing impressive, no thought leadership, no connections, no company page, then social selling rules dictate that you will miss out and not even know about it.

6. If you want to impress the media in Singapore and Asia Pacific in general, then you must show that you are a thought leader and demonstrate your accomplishments through LinkedIn.

7. If you want investors in Singapore, then you need to give them reasons to invest. People invest in people just like they employ people or buy from people because of the person. If you have a fully rounded personal brand on LinkedIn that looks impressive and is backed up with substance as well as style, then you are more likely to 1) get investors approaching you and 2) be welcomed with an open door when you approach the investors. Why should someone invest in you if you can't invest in yourself personally?

8. If you want to reassure Singaporean shareholders and keep them informed as to what you're doing and how well you're doing, then having a personal brand that is full of confidence and updates on LinkedIn is key.

9. If you want to be an event speaker in Singapore in any kind from speaking for a company event to speaking at a conference, then you need to give the organiser of that event the confidence to employ you. If your personal brand on LinkedIn contains no speaking engagements or details of when you chaired an event successfully or recommendations from other event organsiers, then why should a future event organsier employ you? Add pictures, videos of you in action and list all the events that you have done and are doing. Confidence is everything in event speaking, for the organisers as well as the speakers. That confidence comes from a confident personal brand.

10. If you want to blog for a media brand in Singapore, then you have to demonstrate that you have the credibility and following to make a publisher allow you to blog for them and be exposed to their audience. They have to want you to publish for them. List out your writing experience and blogging experience on your personal brand on your LinkedIn profile.

11. If you want employees in Singapore where there is virtual employment or you want to keep existing employees, then you have to have a personal brand worth following. All great leaders have great personal brands. Now that has changed from the battlefield to social media, especially in a business context; LinkedIn. In a competitive world you need to impress and inpsire your employees that it's worth staying with you and you need to impress future employees that you're worth following. A great personal brand can tick so many boxes when it comes to this.

12. If you want to be recommended and referred to by others in Singapore, then you need a personal brand on LinkedIn worth showing to other people. Remember your LinkedIn personal profile never sleeps, it's being viewed 24/7 from people all around the world.

13. If you want to be headhunted in Singapore, it goes without saying that you need a great personal brand on LinkedIn that contains all your achievements, awards, associations, companies you have worked for, promotions you gained, and innovative things that you have done. If you don't, then there are plenty of other people on LinkedIn who a headhunter can move onto that will show all their achievements and give reasons why they should be picked because of the way that they have communicated their personal brand on LinkedIn.

In summary, you are in charge of your own personal branding in 2015 if you wish to achieve great things in the business world. LinkedIn is the first place that this starts. If you don't look after your own personal brand, you are more likely to fail in your ambitions and your competitors are more likely to win. Your choice.

Happy New Personal Brand in 2015!