Personal branding is a word that is essential to any business. It’s not about fame or having a fake audience; it’s about what makes you, you. It is a way that can make you stand out from others and makes you easily identifiable.
When you Google your name, what comes up in the search results? If nothing pops up, it is crucial that you put some time into building your brand, mainly because your name hasn’t left an online footprint. In addition, developing your brand can bring high praise to your business or career. People trust a person rather than a whole brand in the online world, so creating your brand is essential.
Before you start working on your brand, you should keep in mind that people should remember you for something you’re good at, and you should also be self-aware of what you add to your conversations and how you communicate with your target audience.
Why is Personal Branding Important?
When creating your brand, you essentially are building an online reputation. When people start to know who you are, you can make a strong impact and build meaningful relationships among your potential customers.
A personal brand carries authority because people will know your experience when it is attached to your name. When you have a solid personal brand with your followers, it speaks for itself.
When creating your brand, you must attract positive experiences and avoid creating negative ones. Avoid involving yourself in scandals or any shady activity. Great names come with even greater responsibilities, which means creating a positive light when someone hears your name.
When you build your brand, you should always decide the area of expertise you want to be recognized for or choose something that closely defines you.
How You Can Improve Your Personal Brand
Networking is an essential practice for building your brand. It would be best if you always were willing to meet new people and share ideas. When you want to create a successful personal brand, you should be comfortable being an open person with good communication skills and entrepreneurial competence.
Some great ways to expose your brand include collaborating with other publications by writing guest posts, participating in podcasts or interviews, and other online exposure. This will allow you to reach a wider variety of people.
It is also essential that you build credibility, nurture your clients, always listen to what your followers are saying, and stay ahead of your competition.
On social media, follow other personal brands in your niche and identify success stories, so you can apply them to building your brand, which will help you in the long run.
Opening yourself up to new people and making your audience loyal and new is a great way to improve your brand. Sure, they want information about your business and what your business can provide for them, but knowing you and who you are, the face of the brand, will make a huge difference.
Personal Branding Tips You Should Know
Building and improving your brand can be difficult. The world, especially the online world, is constantly changing, and you always want to stay on top of things. Here are some personal branding tips that everyone should know if they’re building their brand.
1. Be Visible and Easy to Reach
Your audience wants to be able to reach you. That’s why being visible and easy to reach is crucial to building your brand. Your brand should always be with you and follow you wherever you go.
When you decide to start branding yourself, you must be present on the web, create your social media profiles, and have your website and blog. You should never shy away from the web and then believe that people will be able to find you if they search hard enough.
A personal brand means that you will have to be in the public eye. You need to constantly be present online, at events, and network with people. Show that you are a physical person and not just a person that sits behind the screen. Building an audience and start building and expanding your online presence.
2. Make Yourself Approachable
Personal branding is not just about you; it is also about your audience and other people’s needs. In addition, a personal brand represents trust, information, expertise, and most importantly, a friendly face. When you miss even one of those, there is a higher probability of failure.
You should always be approachable, make it easier for people to connect with you, and be open and honest when they have a question for you. Make yourself approachable at any event, conference, or simply on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
You should never ignore your audience because their needs are beneficial to networking for you and your brand and their audience. Instead, give personal examples when you can, and always make sure that you take every conversation as an opportunity to grow and learn more. You never know what you might learn.
3. Set Up Your Value Proposition
A value proposition is when there is a promise of delivering value, something that makes you appealing to your audience. What is it that makes you unique? Why should somebody want to work with you?
Having a brand is a big responsibility. You need to be very careful with whom you associate yourself, especially when starting. You should also be cautious with what you say, how you appear online, how you speak when you are at events, and what information you share with your following. So being trustworthy is key to creating value for your brand. Not only that, but you are your business.
You should always think about what makes you unique and find out what makes you different from the rest of your competitors. Then, positioning yourself with a powerful and unique value proposition will allow you to stand out from the rest of your competitors.
Remember that while appearance is important to your brand, your statement is important. It doesn’t have to be long, just a short line that can describe you well. This can include strong descriptors, such as awards or accolades.
In addition, you want to tell your story, which you can do by adding a description to the ‘all about me’ sections on your social media profiles. Using your social media for personal branding will help you create connections with your audience, and it can also help take your career to the next level.
4. Show Who You Are Online – Unfiltered
It can be easy to see people on social media that only show the good side of things, putting on a fake smile or using filters to make everything seem ok. However, no life is perfect, and it is important to showcase that. Therefore, your social media presence should showcase your life as a personal brand, and just you being you.
It is also important that you don’t use your social media platform as a sales channel. It is ok if you send an offer or two, maybe once a week, but you don’t want to shove ads down your follower’s throats. That can quickly result in your audience muting your content, so they don’t see it or unfollowing you altogether. In addition, social selling needs to be well-thought-out because there are already many ads and commercials on social media; you don’t want to add a load of other ones.
The 80-20 Social Media Marketing Strategy is a rule you should follow to not overwhelm your followers or so they don’t get sick of seeing your content pop on their feed.
This rule means 80% information and 20% commercial. You can showcase information to your audience in a variety of ways. Create a podcast, integrate yourself into conversations, show people your opinions, and show them your true self and your authentic voice. It is imperative that you present yourself as an expert but also are personable because people love the human touch behind every brand.
Showing who you really are will present your followers with a friendly face and showcase you as
an authentic person. For example, show what you do on the weekends, what you do during your evenings, your hobbies, etc. People love to see what the people they follow are like behind the scenes of their business and brand. Therefore, it is essential to think of who you are and decide what you want to show to the world.
5. Maintain a List of Contacts and Create Friends in the Industry
Not only are you creating your brand, but you are also growing your list of contacts and keeping those contacts in mind for future collaborations.
Create a database of everybody you come into contact with by creating a spreadsheet with all the information you need. This includes who that person is, their social profiles, email addresses, where you met them, area of expertise, and the potential opportunities and collaborations you can create together. Having all of that information right at your fingertips and all in one place will make it easier for you to contact people. You can also use this tool to import any free email marketing tools and start promoting your campaigns.
Whether you have a list that you want to import or you want to create a list of contacts from scratch, always remember to update it from time to time. An updated list of contacts can open up many opportunities for you and your brand. For example, you can collaborate with popular content or try a guest posting or invite certain contacts to write a guest post for your blog, the list goes on, and the opportunities with the right connections are endless.
6. Always Learn to Grow/Evolve and Keep up with the Trends
When creating your online brand, it is essential to ensure that you produce quality content and provide value to your followers. You can provide quality content to your followers if you have the expertise and know the industry well. For example, read the news in your industry, keep up with trends, and keep an eye on your competitors to note some directions for your brand.
One option is to search and follow trending hashtags about your industry on social media. This will easily allow you to stay in touch with the trending information and what information is going around. One website that you can use is BrandMentions which can give you real-time alerts on any new resources that may appear online about any topic you want to watch.
You can also keep up with the trends by subscribing to some resources and news websites that showcase important information in your industry, and you can get all of that information right to your inbox. Following people on social media channels that have inside information about your niche is also helpful and will ensure that you have a reliable source on your hands.
Once you build expertise and know the information you are receiving is correct, you will be able to position yourself as a leader. This will allow you to jump into any conversation and know what you are talking about, boosting your brand and career.
7. Make the Audience Part of Your Journey
The work is not over when you become a trusted source of news and information. Becoming that source of wealth and knowledge will only draw more people to you, meaning your work is never done. When you are at this stage, you can include your followers in your daily activity and make them a consistent part of your journey.
There are many ways that you can always make your followers feel included in what you do. For example, ask them to respond to a survey if you are performing research. Or, if you are a speaker or participant at an event, ask your audience to come when trying to find new ideas to write about in your blog, and ask your followers for insights about what they want to hear more about.
The most important thing to remember when you are building your brand, don’t try to create your brand just to say that you are a brand and then do nothing about it. That is probably the quickest way that you can fail your brand.
Following these tips is an excellent way to create your personal brand and build a successful brand online.
