Specifics of Personal Branding for a Public Relations Specialist

Abstract

A personal brand helps to establish professional contacts, find a job easier and move up the career ladder faster. In Russian research practice, very little attention has been paid to the problem of the personal brand of public relations specialists, and our work is trying to partially fill this gap. During the study, ten in-depth interviews were conducted with top PR specialists. The interview had questions about the brand, professional ethics and solidarity to look at the issue from different angles. The study found what a personal brand is for speakers, what advantages it gives, what skills you need to strengthen it and what mistakes prevent its successful development. As the results showed, a personal brand most often means a set of associations or characteristics, professional or personal, linked to a certain person. Among the main advantages were fame, an increase in the cost of services, easier entry into a project or a new job, increased networking and a sense of confidence in negotiations. According to participants, a specialist with a strong personal brand should analyze the situation well, react quickly in a crisis and think strategically, openness and sociability are also appreciated. Among the potential mistakes were the introduction of conflicts into the open field, procrastination during a crisis, violation of corporate or professional ethics and the omission of interesting promo events. Most of the participants spoke negatively about the level of professional solidarity, which can be explained by a wide range of tools and competencies in PR, different levels of professionalism of PR specialists.