Personal Branding
You spend time developing content, networking, and sharing your ideas with the world. Personal branding is important whether you are looking at your own name online, or you are focusing on your business/brand reputation.
Personal Branding includes, but is not limited to the percieved image, weltanschauung, reputation, persona, and knowledge contained within an individual or an organization, leading to an indelible impression that is uniquely distinguishable.
Personal branding is just as important online as corporate branding. Your digital footprint can either build or break you.
Personal branding is the practice of you marketing yourself and your career or bold ambitions or services or products or identity as a brand- the ongoing process of establishing a prescribed image or impression in the mind of others about you (brand, individual).
Your personal brand is the mark you leave on the world. It’s shown through the actions you take, and the persona you portray. If you’re successful, your brand will leave an impact long after you’re gone.
Developing Your Personal Brand
1. Figure out who you are
In order to build a personal brand that accurately reflects your personal and professional identity, you first need to know who you are. Be introspective, and create a list of your personal strengths and weaknesses. Ask yourself:
●In which areas of work do I excel?
●What motivates me?
●What characteristics have others complimented me on?
●Which projects have others had to help me with repeatedly?
●Which roles seem to drain my energy?
●Which projects can I spend hours on without feeling overwhelmed or tired?
2. Determine what you want to be known for
Your personal brand is more than a reflection of who you are today; it’s a roadmap of where you to go. In addition to understanding your existing skills and competencies, assessing your strengths and weaknesses as they relate to whichever industry or career you want to break into next.
3. Define your audience
Before you start crafting your personal brand, you also need to determine who you’re trying to reach. The sooner you define the audience, the easier it will be to craft your story, because you’ll better understand the type of story you need to tell and where you need to tell it.
4. Research your desired industry and follow the experts
Go online and find out if they have blogs, or where they contribute their thinking. Look for people who are successful and examine what they’re doing. In building a personal brand, your goal is to stand out—but you can’t rise to the top without taking inventory of who’s already there.
5. Ask for informational interviews
As you start forming a list of companies you aspire to work for and industry leaders you admire, consider reaching out to these professionals to ask for an informational interview.
When you meet with these individuals, ask questions that can help you garner new insights about your desired field, such as:
●How did you break into the industry?
●What steps would you take if you were to make the transition all over again?
●How do you see the industry evolving?
●How do you stay up-to-date with industry trends?
●Are there any professional or trade associations I should join?
6. Embrace networking
As you cultivate your ideal personal brand, it’s important to network regularly and effectively to grow your professional circle.
Connect with peers and industry thought-leaders by going to formal and informal networking events.
The more connections you make—and the more value you can provide in your interactions—the more likely it is your personal brand will be recognized.
7. Grow your online presence
With so many different social media tools available today, your online presence will likely look different depending on the medium you choose. While your story should match across all platforms, once you know where your targeted audience is most likely to turn, you can redouble your efforts in telling your best story there.
LinkedIn
Twitter
Facebook
Snapchat
Instagram
WhatsApp
Telegram
Pinterest
Shapr
To grow your own personal brand, you can write a personal brand statement.
A personal brand statement sets out who your audience will be, the value you want to give to your audience, and why people should follow you (your Unique Value Proposition).
Why is Personal Branding Important?
Personal branding is important because it helps give a person more credibility.
Personal branding can let recruiters find experts like you with ease, especially if you’ve been blogging brand yourself.
If you’re trying to land a higher position at a new company, you can showcase key data such as the number of followers you have, how much traffic your website gets or other vital metrics which can give you a competitive advantage over other candidates.
Follow these steps to improve your personal brand.
●Research and create your personal branding statement: Define your audience at this stage and audit competitor that may exist for you.
●Build a personal branding strategy: Plan how to engage with your target audience and define what success will look like for you in two months, nine months, two years.
Monitor your personal brand engagement: Promote positive participation and have a plan of action for negative remarks.
●Develop your personal brand: Aim to share your personal brand through social media, networking, outreach, and speaking opportunities. Consider blogging, vBlogging, Podcasts and other ways that you could promote your personal brand in a way that your audience will consume the content quickly.
●Have a communication plan: Controlling your presence online can be time-consuming so this plan will help you with negative backlash and help you to easily provide information to partners that you will work with down the line.
●Measure your success regularly: Set some KPIs for personal brand success so that you know you are heading in the right direction. Celebrate even small wins to remain motivated to achieve more.
A few valuable KPIs include:
●When a sale converts through your blog
●When you are asked to speak at an event or on a podcast
●When someone refers you to a potential client
●When a publication reaches out to invite you to guest blog
●When people start mentioning you online, on social media, their blog or other important media
More Personal Branding Tips
1. Be Authentic and honest
When it comes to self-branding, being authentic is essential. But what the heck does that mean? It means be yourself. Everyone’s got their own quirk. Maybe you randomly burst into song in the middle of a conversation.
2. Blogging
Blogging for personal branding is one strategy used by many of the top influencers. Why does it work? Well today, you might be a nobody with no voice.
You can build your own blog. This personal branding strategy will require the most upfront work but will ultimately be the most rewarding. Or you can write guest posts on top blogs within your niche. This will allow you to build an audience faster but you don’t own any of the virtual properties.
3. Be consistent
Consistency is the secret sauce that winning personal brands have in common. Consistency isn’t only about posting on social media every day. It’s about unifying the brand look and messaging. Do all your social media posts look different or do they look the same? Some will tell you that you need to have variety with your content but truth is the more consistent you are the easier it is to grow a following.
4. Step out of the spotlight
When building a personal brand, you’ll realize that there is a downside to too much attention. It’s okay to step out of the spotlight every now and then to build yourself back up.
5. Become a Creator or Collaborator not a Competitor
Some build a personal brand by being controversial. This can sometimes backfire and result in a lot of negative publicity. The safer way to create a great personal brand is to become a creator. Whether you create your own online store, a unique product, or content, don’t underestimate how important creation is.
6. Be a reservoir of relevant knowledge
Branding yourself can be hard when you don’t have an area of expertise. Every influencer has his or her own niche.
7. Amplify Yourself
Amplifying yourself is where you take the essence of who you are and be confident with it.
8. Be Social. Be Open-minded
Take the time each day to interact with your followers on social media. Did someone tag you in a post? Respond to it. Was one of your articles shared on social media? Thank them. It’s important to humanize your personal brand.
●Trust and authority:
Having a personal brand helps to build trust with your audience, and position you as an authority and a thought leader in your industry.
●Attract more clients or build your tribe
Building a personal brand that positions you as the go-to expert in a specific industry or niche helps you to attract more of your ideal clients. When you’re positioned as an expert, it’s also easier for people to refer clients to you.
●Premium pricing
Having a strong personal brand helps justify charging premium prices for your products and services. Without a brand, you become a commodity that competes on price. And there will always be competitors that can beat your price.
●Create a lasting platform
Over time, your business will evolve. You may even start multiple businesses in different industries over the course of your career. Your personal brand stays with you as you move from one venture to the next.
●Build your network or tribe
When you have a personal brand that clearly articulates who you are, what you do, and how you help others, it makes it easier for other people and entrepreneurs to see value in connecting with you. You can leverage your personal brand to build your network, both online and offline, quickly and effectively.
9. Take inventory of your existing brand assets
To build a strong brand foundation, start by taking inventory of the branding assets that you already possess. The intersection of these assets is where you should build your personal brand.
Your skills & credentials: What skills have you acquired throughout your life? What training, credentials, certifications, or awards have you received?
Your passions & interests: What industries and topics are you most interested in? What are you passionate about?
Core values & beliefs: What are some of your most important core values? What do you believe in? What do you stand for? What do you stand against?
10. Choose your target audience
One of the biggest mistakes you can make as you build a personal brand is trying to appeal to everyone. In reality, not everyone is your ideal client. Identify a specific target audience and building a brand that is attractive to them.
Here are some questions to help you develop your perfect client profile:
●Demographics: what is their age, gender, education, relationship status, income, profession, etc.?
●Desires and aspirations: what is their desired future? What are their dreams, goals, and aspirations?
●Pain points and challenges: what are they struggling with? What is preventing them from achieving their goals?
12. Create an irresistible offer
In order to build a profitable personal brand, you need to have something to sell to your target audience. You need an irresistible offer that helps your audience solve a specific problem or achieve a specific result.
A lot of entrepreneurs make the mistake of creating a product or service that they want, only to discover that no one else wants it or is willing to pay for it.
This is why identifying your perfect client before you create a product or service is so important. When you know exactly who you want to help, you can create an offer that is the perfect solution for them.
Key elements of your personal branding foundation:
Once you’ve identified your existing brand assets, the next step is to start piecing together the key elements of your personal brand. These will help guide your decisions as you build your personal brand:
●Your brand vision: What do you want to be known for? If you became known as the world’s go-to expert on XYZ topic, what would that be?
●Your brand mission: Why do you want to build a personal brand? What is your purpose? Who do you want to influence? What do you want to accomplish?
●Your brand message: What is the key message you want to communicate? What message do you want to consistently reinforce in your content and in your marketing? If you could only give one piece of advice to your audience, what would it be?
●Your brand personality: What are some of your personal characteristics and traits that you can weave into your brand? Do you want to be perceived as very polished and professional, or perhaps more quirky and adventurous?
How to create an offer your clients will love:
The first step to creating an irresistible offer is to position yourself as a specialist and not a generalist. Promise your clients a very specific outcome, and design a specialized offer to help them achieve that outcome.
Next, find the overlap between what you love, what you do best and what your ideal clients want most. Then create an offer that sits at the intersection of these criteria.
What you love to do + What you do best + What your audience wants most = Unique offer
Here are two questions that you need to be able to answer clearly and succinctly:
●What do you do? Your answer to this question is your value proposition. What is the value that you provide to your clients in exchange for charging them?
●How do you do it? Give your process, product, or service a unique name. When you give it a unique name, it immediately stands out from any competing offers that promise the same result.
Keep recreating, reinventing and repositioning yourself. You are worthy! You are deserving of good things!!
