Please write a concise and to the point summary of the topic in your own words.

"The Concept of Personal Branding" The concept of personal branding is not unique; it is derived from the same basic concept of product development and promotional strategies transformed into personal development and self-promotional efforts. Personal branding is considered to be an emerging new concept in the practice oriented marketing literature (Zarkada, 2012); it had been well practiced by various professionals on various grounds such as sportsmen, politicians, businessmen and musicians (Shepherd, 2005). The definition of personal branding is based on communication, for instance -how the personal brand is being communicated and presented to others by showcasing attributes of the individual self which will differentiate the personal brand from others (Arruda, 2003). According to Shepherd (2005), the importance of having a personal brand is well recognized due to the increasing pressure of globalization and emerging social media. Shepherd also argued that, the principles of personal branding do have similarities with the fundamentals of product marketing and branding procedure. In the process of personal branding, individuals are mostly engaged with self-marketing (Shepherd, 2005). However, Shepherd (2005) described personal branding from an employment viewpoint and described the potential benefits of obtaining personal brand building strategies to gain superiority in the job market. Clare (2002) described the importance of differentiate oneself from others through personal brand building in order to achieve professional goals and competitive edge. Mccorkle (et al, 1992) described the primary objective and importance of self-marketing to highlight recognized skills to accomplish professional goals. However, these studies were primarily based on the concept of personal branding to achieve professional goals and didn't mention the motivation of self- marketing or personal branding to achieve personal or social goals. If we consider online communication platforms or social network platforms as a market and the users of online communication platforms as brands, individuals are practically getting involved in the process of creating and promoting their personal brands which would serve as a potential for accomplishing relational goals. Labrecque, Markos & Milne (2011) have argued that the virtual space provides different platforms for individuals to self-brand their own identity. According to the authors, online personal websites and social media profiles can be well manageable by anyone without any prior technical knowledge