Your personal brand is the unique and differentiating value that you bring to any given situation, team or project; however, it goes well beyond just that. Your personal brand isn’t just your greatest and unique strength. It is your promise to those with whom you interact of what specific unique and differentiating value or strength they can count on you to deliver consistently.

While presentation is undoubtedly important to your overall impression on others, whether it be how you dress or how you design and maintain your online presence, presentation simply supports your personal brand. Your promise is inevitably the backbone of your personal brand and the key to the success of your personal branding strategy.

If you’re not 100% sure what your promise is or you would like to fine-tune your current personal brand, consider asking yourself and/or your career stakeholders (family, friends, coworkers, clients, supervisors etc.) the following questions:
• Why would you choose to work with me? What would you seek from me that you couldn’t get elsewhere?
• What words would you use to describe the feeling you get when you work with me?
• What do you consider to be my greatest strengths? For which ones would you seek me out over others?
• If you had to choose one word or phrase to describe me, my contributions and/or what you consistently expect and receive from me, what would it be?

Once you have collected the answers, compile a list and identify any overlaps and similarities. Depending on your career goals, choose the unique strengths and qualities from your list that you believe you can deliver consistently and that you take pride in offering in your contributions. These will become the foundation of your promise. Based on these strengths and qualities, come up with a professional, yet creative and memorable word or phrase (i.e. your personal brand) or use one from your list that really encompasses what you have and promise to offer.

Use the following template to effectively present your promise to others:
I consider myself to be [your personal brand word or phrase] for I believe this to most effectively represent my proven ability and promise to [your list of the unique and differentiating strengths and qualities that you are promising to deliver on a consistent basis].

I offer my own as an example:
I consider myself to be a Generation Y Brand and Marketing Generator for I believe this to most effectively represent my proven ability and promise to bring endless energy and passion to my work, instill motivation in my teams as both leader and contributing member, propose new and creative ideas and solutions and deliver immediate and lasting results in diverse environments and industries.

In my case, I identified my unique strengths in creating energy, relationships and ideas and chose the word “generator” as my personal brand and promise. It has been very effective and helped me not only brand myself across all of my career outputs, including my online profiles, resume, cover letter and interviews, but also helped me get the job.

This promise statement is especially effective when answering the age-old interview question, “Why should we pick you?

Chris Perry is a Gen Y Brand and Marketing Generator, a Career Search and Personal Branding Expert and the Founder of Career Rocketeer, the Career Search and Personal Branding Blog.