Do you have a personal brand? Chances are, you may have never even thought about it. But establishing and leveraging a personal brand can help you set yourself apart from the competition when it comes time to look for jobs. Your personal brand will reflect the values, skills and traits that make you a unique candidate, so you can sell yourself effectively and find a position that suits your needs, aptitudes and personality.

In the field of sports management, knowledge, skill, experience and personality are vital to success, and that’s why building your personal brand can help you get ahead as a sports manager. Your personal brand will allow you to take control of how others in your field see you as a professional – and as a person. You’ll get more attention from all the right people, and you’ll be better able to help the athletes you work with build their personal brands, too.

Control Your Reputation

When you build a personal brand, you’re basically selling yourself to potential employers, colleagues, and clients. That means you can take full control of your image and, by extension, your reputation. You’ll be able to highlight your strengths and showcase what makes you unique in the field.

When others see you as an expert in the field, you’ll gain control over not just your image but over how you position yourself in the field. Angling for a new job? Hoping to attract new clients? Interesting in speaking engagements or a book deal? Personal branding can help you get the attention you need to make these things happen.

Establish Yourself as an Expert

The first step in building a personal brand is to establish yourself as an expert in the field. That means you need to be knowledgeable about what’s happening in sports management, and you need to be talking about it on social media and on the web.

A great way to show your expertise online is through a blog, podcast or YouTube channel. Many experts choose to use a blog because the barriers to entry are low. You can set up an attractive WordPress blog for free in less than an hour, and you can create blog posts and other content for it yourself. Of course, you’ll have to be able to write decently well, but don’t stress; blog posts don’t have to be that long.

Don’t know what to blog about? Read the work of other experts in sports management and use the blog as a forum to respond to that work by discussing your thoughts about it. You can also blog about relevant current events in sports management, discussing your opinions of what’s going on in the field and speculating about the future. Put your graduate education to good use and blog about the benefits (or drawbacks!) of master’s in sports management requirements for entry-level and more advanced positions. Write about what you learned in your master’s program, or offer guidance to younger professionals who are trying to decide whether or not to pursue an advanced degree in the field. If you’re still in school, you could even use your blog as an opportunity to respond to class readings and discuss assignments or projects you’re doing for class

Build a Platform

Who’s going to read your blog if no one knows you have a blog? Well, your mother might read it, but
that’s about it. You’ll need to build a platform to promote yourself as an industry expert, draw traffic to your blog site and catch the attention of colleagues on social media. Use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media sites to build up an online following of fans. A good way to build up followers online is to contribute guest content to other blogs. Don’t forget to link back to your blog and social media profiles!

Success in sports management often depends on your personality and your reputation as much as on your skills and talents. Use the internet to build a powerful personal brand, and control how colleagues, employers and clients see you. The work you put into personal branding will pay healthy dividends as you gain more and more control over the trajectory of your career.