AFS India Family members are often found busy excelling in their lives, getting acknowledged by promotion at the workplace or recognition for their diligence. They are always stepping up towards creating a better world around them. Their success is AFS’ success. We at AFS believe in the power of outreach. We believe that your diligence and commitment should be bolstered by positive and subtle outreach that encourages others to take positive steps forward for themselves and their organizations. While the internet will take you through a whole bunch of ideas on marketing yourself, I feel it should be an aftermath to your hard work and should flow with subtlety to everyone who aspires to bring about a change. Here are five simple ways out of many; you can explore to create a brand for yourself and your impact.
- Use social media: Everyone is on social media; YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. People have turned successful social entrepreneurs through social media and have created large virtual families for themselves. Use the platform to share your achievements and stories of change with your network of friends, colleagues and like-minded people to multiply impact. They key to building a successful presence on social media is through distinctive content and engagement. Think of what you want to accomplish, set your message, and start building your content, voice and image.
- Write opinions: Writing gives you the opportunity to share your story and impact in a format that reaches out to a large set of stakeholders. AFS India publishes newsletters, puts impact stories on various platforms and uses social media to promote the hard work. Though it is a compelling way to showcase your journey, you must pay attention to the message you wish to send out. You can also begin writing blogs or sharing articles with newspapers and other print media.
- Network: AFS provides a great opportunity to network where you can meet people from various backgrounds. In-person networking is the best way to showcase your work and achievements. It is important to ask yourself – “How can my story of change lead to many more stories of change?” AFS provides you a platform of interaction with different people, myriad of cultures, diverse age groups and professional backgrounds, different opinions and ways of looking at the world. Use the platform well to grow personally and professionally and add value to your skill set.
- Share! Share! Share! Whether it’s your talent or skills, you need to be open to share it. You may want to do a webinar on how you achieved success in a field, want to facilitate a workshop on a unique topic which you mastered or you may want to help others learn the things you’ve learned. Sharing is another way to build your brand and help others to find their dreams and goals. Reach out to your network and see if your message resonates with them and they are ready to help you brand and market yourself. Tag people who could be keen on hearing about the topic. You can become inspirational to others and inspiration is a great driver of social change.
- Finally, have a plan to move forward. You need to identify your goals, set your priorities straight and create an engagement plan for the future. You need to keep on thinking what’s next, what do I have to do to reach from point A to B, who I need to get in touch with to deliver my message across the network, etc. One needs to be organized so as to move forward in life and be the Changemaker!
Now, there are many other ways you can build your brand and market yourself, you need to figure out what works best for you. AFS India provides a huge platform to showcase your success stories, achievements, accomplishments and your changemaking journey. Just take out time and find how you want to reach out to us – whether it’s by making a video, writing, sharing photos or anything unique. We’re here to hear your story, and help you showcase the #AFSEffect.