As a real estate agent, you represent something more than the company that employs you – yourself. After all, you’re the one who faces clients and deals with their needs on a daily basis. Just like the logo printed on your business card, your personal brand should be well maintained in order for clients to perceive you in a positive light. No doubt you’re already working on this with friendly conversation and trustworthy insights during open houses, but there’s more to do. Here are ways to manage your personal brand and create something that’s unique to you.

Get to Know Yourself
You can’t portray the image you want if you don’t know what it is. Take the time to sit down and write down the qualities you want to embody, as well as the ones you don’t want. Consider which ones you already own and play them up as your strengths. For the traits you want to have, make a clear plan how you’ll work on incorporating them into your personality. This list of qualities should serve as your edge. They are distinguishing factors that set you apart from your competition.

Develop Your Values
Most companies have core values that determine the personalities of their brands. Follow the example and develop a set of solid principles for yourself. Are you always timely? Do you prioritize transparency? Or would you rather highlight how you stay current on market trends? Once you decide on these values, don’t keep them a secret – let clients know what they are and how they define your personal brand. That way, clients will have concrete evidence of what you can provide to them.

Deliver Consistently
After you’ve defined who you are and who you want to be, stick to that. Your core values should be guidelines for how you do business. If you promise to be punctual, always deliver on that promise. If you have a bad day, as everyone does now and then, and for some reason don’t live up to the standards you’ve set, admit to it. Acknowledge what you’ve done, apologize for the less than stellar service, and offer a solution to ensure it won’t happen again. Clients might be more understanding of a mishap if you take full responsibility for it, rather than explain it away with an excuse.

Maintain Online Accounts
Social media is no longer just for you and your circle of friends. Assume that potential clients can see every post or photo on any account, and that you can’t delete anything permanently once it’s out there. Protect your image by only showing posts that you would deem appropriate in a professional setting. Also, set your Facebook privacy settings so that you must approve all friends’ posts before the public can see them, in order to control the type of content associated with your name. To be more proactive, consider creating a professional Facebook page. There, you can focus on information relevant to your business, such as helpful articles and current events in real estate. For example, CENTURY 21® has some valuable resources you can share, from mortgage calculators to a real estate focused blog.

Welcome Feedback
No one’s perfect, so don’t expect that you will be. However, you can still strive for perfection by regularly looking for ways to improve. For this reason, feedback serves as an invaluable asset to target your weaknesses. There are a few ways to ask how you’re performing as an agent, depending on who you’re asking and in what type of situation. Feel free to ask other trusted agents on a casual level how you’re perceived in the field. For clients, try emailing a questionnaire after you’ve helped them with their real estate needs, but always ask their permission to do so first.

Get started today on developing your personal brand with clear qualities and maintained values. You may find you have a more positive perception among clients because of it.

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