This article is useful for entrepreneurs, freelancers, digital marketers, small business owners and anyone that want to ‘Go Digital’. If you want to gain more visibility, increase your fan base and get more clients you must build personal branding seriously.
Building personal branding can increase the success of your business, by maximizing the reach of your business and generating more opportunities.
Read on to understand the importance of Personal branding, some tips and strategies to build an awesome personal branding that works for you.
Table of Contents
What is Personal Branding?
“A personal brand is your representation of who you are and what you stand for”- Liz Deering.
She states that, “Your brand is your personal promise to the world”. It is a way to build your online reputation by representing you as a person and what you stand for.
It is important to understand that your personal brand is all about a unique YOU! Your values, vision, mission, experiences, skills and belief are an integral part of your personal brand. They are unique and different from others even if in the same industry or business.
Whether you are working on your own personal branding efforts or just getting into the personal branding business to help others, it is important to understand the best ways to create a personal brand.
To build personal branding is not an easy task, but one may achieve it in a variety of ways. This post takes a look at 5 ways to build personal brand to help you stand out from the rest of your competitors.
What are Some Examples of Great Personal Branding?
As an example, Taylor Swift has a personal brand built on the idea that she’s a different type of celebrity. She does not like to be in the spotlight and tries her best to stay out of the public eye.
Some other examples of personal branding include:
- The New York Times’ Mark Bittman’s “The Minimalist”
- Ryan Miller, founder and CEO of e-commerce site Shopify
- John Vars’ “John Varvatos: The Man Who Made Men Wear Clothes”
You will notice that they all have distinct identifications and are known for one thing they did better than others.
Why is Personal Branding Important?
Personal branding is important because it allows you to stand out from the crowd and establish a unique brand that is easily recognized. Building personal branding helps you to gain customer loyalty, which in turn will help your brand grow.
An example of personal branding for being authentic and true to oneself and her viewers is a well-known talk show host ‘Oprah Winfrey’.
Personal branding is also important to have a unique name that people know you by. If it’s hard for people to recall your name or find information on your brand, they might not know more about you.
7 ways to build personal branding:
Some great ways to build personal branding include the following:
1. Getting Out There in front of others
Ensure presence across major platforms where your prospective audience is already present and partner with organizations that have a high social footprint.
Examples of these opportunities are Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. They keep you company as you expand. LinkedIn is a great platform to start with. These are great social platforms for sharing personal or professional content. When you start gaining visibility and people start following you, you must follow those connections back. This way, you will keep them interested in your offerings.
Work towards posting your content on your website and sharing the links on such social sites. This will help generate valuable links back to your website. You want to use these social channels to leverage offline content to drive traffic directly to the website.
We recommend you also learn about Content Marketing to effectively communicate about your services or offers.
2. Becoming A Thought Leader
It’s best to write about your niche. It makes you a valuable thought leader since you are constantly talking about your industry and content is a dime a dozen. Start by writing, interviewing and publishing your content regularly. It will help build a loyal following and a brand for yourself.
This practice is awesome for several reasons. Firstly, your followers will help spread the word around, which in turn can help drive sales. Pretty sweet!
Secondly, people will notice your consistency and as a connected voice. People are more inclined to pay more attention when they know who they are buying from. Lastly, content marketing is an investment for your business. Content marketing helps you establish a reputation as an authority in your space. This reputation helps you get featured in news feeds, and people are more inclined to buy and share your offerings.
3. Publishing Articles And Blogs
Publishing articles in your niche is another great way to build personal branding. You will begin to build trust with your clients and readers. Most people look for an author to connect with rather than a group of anonymous contributors. Also, your content in your niche will allow you to teach your readers and build authority.
There are millions of potential niches on the Internet. Each niche represents specific knowledge. Select a niche based on your knowledge, passion and user search intent. Be proactive and create valuable content for your audience.
Creating educational, entertaining, and valuable content will make your audience follow you, and they will keep coming back for more valuable content.
Your articles will help you develop your brand and establish yourself as a thought leader.
It is important to maintain consistency while posting your content on your blogs. Also, maintain brand guidelines throughout the website and social media platforms. If you have people following your articles, you can start conversations and meaningful discussions. It is one of the best ways to get their views and feedback.
4. Sharing Photos & Videos
People love connecting with others rather than interacting with brand logos. Share your life events using photos and videos and moments from the workplace and events too.
It is fun, people usually love it, and it can give you an edge over your competition. You don’t need to worry about taking the best selfie.
Remember that photos and videos are visual aids, and it can make your followers and others take a bit more interest in you as a brand.
5. Setting Up An Online Presence
You need to create an effective website presence for your business. Ensure your site engages your audience and gives them the quality information that they are looking for. Your website becomes your online identity where people visit to get some information about you, even before they start interacting with you.
Also, as important it is to go digital and establish your online presence, remember to keep the site updated with the latest information.
6. Listening To Your Audience
.Listen to your audience. Learn more about their problems, their goals, desires and needs. This way you will understand their requirements better and deliver the information they need.
You will soon notice, the right prospective client is brought in contact with your business at the right time, he becomes your customer and brand advocate for a lifetime.
7. Staying Engaged With Your Community
Find information on your topic and share lots of information with your community. Honestly, this is the most important thing you can do when you are trying to establish your personal brand.
Your intention must be to help the community genuinely and providing them with valuable information that makes them interested in you.
The best way to increase engagement is to establish groups, forums, and/or other forms of communication. Create ways for your community to interact with you. Forums such as Quora and Reddit are great places to start and help out people looking for answers in your niche. Start interacting with them and offer great help by answering their questions.
Tips to Build Personal Branding
What are the most useful tips to build personal branding? There are many, but here are the most important ones:
1. Identify your niche.
It is most important to begin with identifying your niche where you have interest, passion and has user search intent.
2. Stick to your niche.
If you try to provide value to everyone for everything, you will not be anyone for anything. Instead, gain expertise in your selected niche and help people in only that specific area. You will find it easy to establish yourself as a specialist. People will recall you as an expert when they want relevant information or services.
3. Make it personal.
People want to connect with you and not just wit your company logo or product. You’re not in the business of selling products or services, then make it personal, make it about you.
4. Find your voice.
What do you like to write? Do people know what that is? Are there certain things you love to talk about and other things not so much.
Choose a name or title that reflects your personal brand. If you are an entrepreneur, then choose something like “Entrepreneur” or “CEO” rather than “John Smith.”
5. Be consistent with your brand.
You cannot build a quality brand without consistency. Many marketers are trying their best to master the art of marketing and growth in the digital age. And they tend to ignore this all-important element – consistency. Use the same name or title for all of your social media profiles, business cards, and emails. This makes it easy for your followers to find you out on different channels.
6. Use a Strong Brand to Build Trust In Your Customers and Prospects.
Every marketing campaign has one thing in common: every successful marketing campaign relies on delivering quality products, services, or information.
But people will not buy anything until they trust you and that trust can be built with a strong brand name that is consistent across all channels and mediums.
7. Use your brand to establish credibility.
According to Forbes, “The brand you’ve built will do the work for you” when you’re pitching your startup.
Help people and brand yourself as someone who goes above and beyond to help others and fulfill their expectations. It helps you stand out on social channels and in person and beat the competition.
8. Get a professional headshot taken.
This is your first impression of you, so make it memorable! Your headshot should be professional-looking, and must be a true representation of your personality.
9. Develop a professional bio.
Develop a professional bio and make it available for others to know more about you in professional sites like LinkedIn.
10. Build a brand that people want to be a part of.
Create a unique personality in your branding, so it’s easy for people to know who you are and what to expect. Try to come across as a professional yet friendly person that people want to be a part of.
11. Always be on your best behavior!
This will help you build a positive brand that will attract people and help you get ahead in your career.
Keep information on your social media updated with your work and a hint of personal life. This makes people interested in you profile and makes them follow you. Sharing updates on your personal and professional life helps in increasing credibility and trust.
Similarly, earning reviews and testimonials on social platforms can help others trust you more and increase in your follower or fan base.
When does your brand become successful?
We have heard people ask questions like how to measure if the brand is successful or when does the brand become successful.
Though there is no concrete answer to this question, but there are some things that might help you.
Your brand becomes successful, when your product is simple, easy to use, and has a great value for the cost.
Successful brands tend to have unique and appealing qualities that make them worth the investment. You might consider how long you have been in business, where your customers are coming from, and what other brands are doing.
Performance upgrade and regular improvements in your sales, profits, and customer satisfaction are key indicators of your brand value. And an increase in brand value signifies the success of your brand.
The top 5 mistakes you should avoid when trying to build personal branding
1. Not knowing what your brand stands for!
2. Not having a brand that people want to follow and buy from.
3. Creating a personal brand that is too similar to other brands.
4. Building a personal brand that is too similar to your company.
5. Creating a personal brand with poor content.
Key Elements of an Effective Personal Brand
1. Personal Branding Includes a distinct Logo and specific color schemes
2. Personal branding should be done in the same category you want to build your authority
3. The visual elements of your personal brand can include sleek design with relevant information
4. For personal branding, your website is the key. Use your website effectively to speak about you.
5. Social media can be incorporated into website and linked to your profile or pages
6. A logo representing your name that is easy to relate
7. Using same profile picture and background cover consistently across all social media channels
8. Keeping the choice of brand colors consistent across all social channels and publications
9. Telling a personal story that is relatable across the channels can help establish a connection
10. Writing your own blog on a niche helps you establish credibility and trust among others
11. Answering relevant questions on public forums and joining in discussions can help you establish expertise
12. Providing relevant information and value to your followers and audience in exchange for their time is a key to get people to follow you.
13. Sharing highly informative and engaging content on channels where your audience dwell regularly and consistently
14. Client success stories, reviews and testimonials can help you establish strong trust signals
It is the purpose of personal branding to establish and build an image or reputation. To build personal branding means growing a recognizable personal reputation. And with an image and prestige building personal brand, one’s image can reach beyond their existing networking circles.
The benefits of creating a personal blog for Personal Branding
There are many benefits of creating a personal blog. Some include, but aren’t limited to, the following:
1. It allows you to share your thoughts and ideas with others; it is a way to express yourself
2. You can share your expertise and knowledge with others
3. It allows you to connect with other people who are interested in a similar topic
4. You can start a blog to share your interests with others
5. You can use it to show off your skills and talents
6. It allows you to interact with people that you might not otherwise have access to
Social media can be awesome online tool for personal branding. It allows you to create your brand and demonstrate different aspects of yourself that you might not have been able to showcase otherwise.
For example, you can use a social media platform like Instagram to show off your creative side. If you are looking for work, it is best to advertise yourself through social media and make sure that people know about your skills.
To use social media for personal branding, you need to put in the right amount of effort, be resent on the right social media channels and make sure that they reflect who you are.
What are some best practices to build personal branding?
It’s important to identify your strengths and understand how you want to be perceived by others while you build personal branding.
Performing SWOT Analysis on your personal brand can help you identify your Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats.
Strengths: Your strengths are the areas that you have the most expertise. This is the area where you can give people the most valuable advice, and it is your niche as well.
Weakness: Comprised of both short-term and long-term weaknesses, these weaknesses are the cost to your brand. Since you don’t have expertise in this area, consider including them in your action plan to improve over time.
Opportunities: These are the external factors that are beyond your control; however they are helpful as they work in your favor. The latest trends and external factors that enhance your core strength are your opportunities. To benefit, consider assessing the available resources and opportunities and consider upgrading your skills and knowledge to stay ahead in the competition.
Threats: Finally, threats are those external factors that are beyond your control. Changes in the industry trends, technical skills and knowledge being obsolete are some examples of potential threats to build personal branding.
With SWOT analysis, you are better equipped to build personal branding. Ensure your brand works for you and not against you. This means not using a personal brand that is seen as negative and not using one that could be seen offensively.
We hope the information in this article is descriptive and helps you to get started with building your personal brand that represents uniquely you!
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