How to create a personal brand as a teacher

How to create a personal brand as a teacher

In today’s busy and digitised world, personal branding has become important for anyone wanting to build a successful career and get noticed. But what is a personal brand, and why is it relevant to me as a teacher going into the profession? 

A personal brand is YOU, how you talk and present yourself to the world physically or digitally, and how people perceive you. This can include your values, beliefs, professional achievements, hobbies and social media presence. 

So why would this be helpful in an educational setting?

Doing it right can open all kinds of doors and lead to success in areas of your life. Professionally, it can help you to get noticed, stand out from the crowd, attract better job opportunities internally and externally, and potentially lead to higher salaries. 

Social media can help you to attract new opportunities and connect with like-minded professionals. If done well, there is an opportunity to build community and make positive changes, if that’s your goal.

A great example of a strong personal brand is Ross Morrison McGill – The Teachers Toolkit, a successful blogger and teacher whose blogs became popular in the early 2000s. Because of his success, in 2007 he built a digital network of resources. After 15 years, the demand for his content has spread rapidly worldwide, seeing the platform currently hosting 100,000+ members who log onto this network.

We don’t all need to become internet sensations to be successful teachers, but, if you strip it all back, a personal brand can be a powerful tool to help shape your perception to your audiences closer to home: your students, colleagues and parents. When you are clear on your values, you able to connect with your audience easily, building trust and credibility. 

Identify your teaching values 

Imagine, your teaching values were: Care, Believe, Succeed (or whatever values you chose to adopt). These themes would be the thread in all your communications and how you present yourself: your LinkedIn bio description, social media posts, CV etc., so building that personal brand in all your communications verbal and written. In the classroom, educate your students about these values and why they should adopt them for cohesion and inclusion. Ideally, you would choose no more than 3-5 values that you stand for. 

So now you have identified your values what next?

1. Define your audiences

Decide who you want to reach. Who are you passionate about serving? Is it the students, their parents or your colleagues, maybe a mixture or all of them? What are the audience's pain points or needs that you can address? E.g. parents struggling to get their child to complete homework. Children struggling with mental health.

2. Define where your audience may be

How will you reach those audiences? Is it through email, the school’s app, or social media? Think about how, where and when to talk to them.

3. Be consistent

If you communicate on a certain day of the week, and time of the month be consistent so that your audience starts to expect to see your posts and communications that way you reinforce that trust and credibility.

A personal brand is so much more than your name and a face. It's the sum of all your experiences, skills, passions, and values. When you take the time to create a personal brand, you become a teacher who is clear on what you stand for, your qualities and your uniqueness. You have the potential to become more visible online as well to potential employers, potentially leading to your next career move and higher salary. So, what are you waiting for? Start building your personal brand today!