Ready to build your personal brand?
When you’re building a personal brand it’s important to think about who you want to be perceived as.
What’s your story?
A brand’s story is the story of why they are who they are and it is the beginning of building your own personal brand. What do you want people to associate you with? As your brand grows, what should they think about when they think about your name? What conversations are you looking to start?
With everything brand, this is the core. So as you begin your branding journey sit down and answer the following questions.
1. What is the end result you are trying to achieve with your brand?
When you start with your end result it’s easier to work yourself backward.
For example, I want to be known for being a digital marketing expert, I want to be the leader in the edtech space or I want to get more clients into my business.
Once you know what you are trying to achieve with your goal then you can ask yourself the second question.
2. What type of audience would fit into this end goal?
If you are trying to gain clients for your business it’s necessary to start thinking about who that client is. How old are they? Where do they hang out? Is it Facebook? Instagram? Twitter? How much income do they have? What interests them and how can you become a part of their daily conversations.
Once you know your audience and where they hang out then you can start thinking about how your brand will provide value for them.
As you build your personal brand, this value is created by developing a content strategy.
For our digital marketing example, an example of value could be creating free blogs like this one. Or maybe doing infographics and videos on social media. So it’s important to sit down and start developing a plan on what you will post and when.
It’s important to note that your content is only one part of the social media marketing journey. The other part is engaging. Be a part of the different conversations. Users online are really looking to engage so a big part of adding value is talking to your client and getting to understand their day to day struggles and being able to add direct value that relates to them.
Once you have your content strategy and you know how to relate to your audience. Build your very own community. This community of people will be your referrals. The easiest way to develop one is to create a Facebook group dedicated to your niche. As you build your personal brand, nothing beats the type of marketing that a community that trusts your brand can do for you.
3. Research and follow other experts in your industry.
In 2020 it’s safe to say that no matter the industry there are other people who have come before you.
It’s important for your business to get to know these brands and follow influencers in your field as this network of people will not only be instrumental but building rapport with other influencers might even give you access to their networks as well.
4. Optimize your personal website
When it comes to your brand. Your website if your home. This is the first place people come into contact with your business before they ever meet you. If your SEO is right then this is the first result that’s going to come up when people search for your name.
Read our previous article on tips on how to optimize your website.
5. Last but certainly not least, be consistent.
Across all of your content and social platforms make sure that your brand is consistent.
This is shown through things like your logo, colors, personality, and tone, and most of all content and topics. As you build your brand it’s important to take some time thinking about your brand in this context. What colors will you use, what will be the personality of your brand, fun? Professional?
When you want to build a brand you want to make sure that no matter where a person comes across your name they come across what your brand is all about and exactly what you stand for.
