Success statements can emerge from anywhere and at any time, as proven by one of the recipients of the TikTok Awards 2023, Erika Richardo. Despite still being a student at Universitas Prasetiya Mulya, she has already received a prestigious award from one of the world’s renowned social media platforms. This success is closely tied to her activities in the Management Business undergraduate program on campus, which imparts various essential skills leading to success even while still a student.
One key factor contributing to Erika Richardo’s current success is her ability to build a personal brand. For Erika Richardo, personal branding represents an individual’s image that can be recognized by many people. It involves portraying oneself as cheerful, intelligent, and humorous, characteristics that make a person memorable to others or the audience. With the prevalence of social media today, personal branding is essential for influencers and content creators to be easily remembered by their audience. According to data released by Forbes.com in 2021, there are several important benefits of personal branding, which will be discussed below.
Becoming More Recognizable: Utilizing personal branding on social media allows anyone to become more recognizable easily within their field. Building a substantial fan base or followers with similar goals and values will make individuals famous. Personal branding transforms fans into promoters, directing other like-minded audiences, thus increasing their numbers.
Creating New Opportunities: Leveraging personal branding enables individuals to create new opportunities. Personal branding guides many people to recognize and understand what the individual does, acting as a magnet that generates new opportunities to achieve goals.
Freedom to Choose a Career: A strong brand will not accept what comes but will pursue what it desires. Individuals with a strong personal brand have significant influence and the freedom to choose the career they desire.
Boosting Self-Confidence: Implementing personal branding in daily life can enhance self-confidence. Increased self-confidence grows when there is awareness of living out one’s brand. As branding begins to yield benefits, recognition, and awards, it makes individuals more comfortable and boosts their confidence.
Furthermore, Erika Richardo emphasizes that people are more interested in something related or relatable. Therefore, it’s not just about the achievements or works produced but also about the ups and downs in enhancing personal branding. The impact is felt not only on social media but also within the campus environment. Erika Richardo gained the trust of being the best business campus in Indonesia, participating in various competitions and becoming more known to professors and fellow students. One of Erika Richardo’s works even reached overseas, exhibited in New York, and is highly commendable.
Erika Richardo’s success proves that personal branding is crucial, especially in the digital era. Personal branding can generate many positive outcomes, from connections, achievements, and behaviors, to reputation. To maintain personal branding, everyone must interact with the audience and stay updated in their daily lives.
Erika Richardo also advises newcomers in personal branding to first invest in themselves. This involves seeking knowledge extensively at a campus that supports students’ continuous growth and development, facing fierce competition, such as Prasetiya Mulya University. Additionally, one can inquire with people around them and continually learn how to enhance creativity so that many people can accept personal branding.
