What is Personal Branding and Why it is so Important
In Public Relations, you are your own
greatest asset. You are the face of your agency and clients whether you are
pitching the media or attending an event. If you can promote yourself, your
boss and your clients can trust you to build and promote their brand.
Personal Branding is the process by which we
market ourselves to others. It is using the same principles that you would undertake
to build a brand’s presence to build yourself as a brand.
We do it for our client’s every day. We
position CEO’s and designers as industry leaders using their talents, knowledge
and expertise. Why not do the same for yourself?
Start by imagining you are your own brand.
Focus on your strengths, skills and expertise that add distinguishable value.
Then do what you do best and publicise it. Get a website, update LinkedIn, blog
– relentlessly inform others of what you are doing. The ultimate goal is visibility.
Personal branding will give you an edge
whether looking for a new job or pitching to a new client. If you are
qualified, show people you are.
At
this point, it’s established that personal branding is important for a number
of reasons. It provides a clear focus for personal development while
establishing yourself as a thought leader. It also works wonders for career
success, allowing individuals to pursue whatever it is that they’re passionate
about. The mutual relationship between career success and personal branding is
a truly unique dynamic that, when understood, has the potential to launch a
person to new heights
Brands
often work tirelessly to leverage social media in order to boost online
visibility and revenue. They want more clicks, more likes, and they want to
create a positive user experience.
But
what happens when a brand is a person instead of a company? When it’s just you,
you need to take a different approach to growing your brand through social
media. Since over 90% of customers trust information from people they know when making a purchase decision,
building personal connections might be the most effective way to develop trust
and authority with your audience.
Here
are nine ways you can use social media to make that happen.
1. Find the Right Groups
Facebook
and LinkedIn both offer great opportunities to join groups focused on specific
topics or industries. If you can find groups that line up with your area of
expertise, then you’ll be able to share that experience and build authority around your personal brand. Industry groups are good bets, but they
might already be overcrowded with your competitors. Instead, think outside the
box and find other groups where you’re likely to find your audience.
Join a chat, group or community
to reach out to others
How will you make a connection with others?
Sharing consistently to social media will help draw others to you and
and your brand. Along with this, you can take a proactive approach to social
media engagement by getting involved with your community.
some of my favorite advice on this aspect of personal branding -
·
Connect the
people in your network to each other.
·
Surround yourself
with top-notch people.
·
Don’t let awe
stop you. Have the confidence to reach out to the best.
·
Study the
network of successful friends and leaders in your niche and follow their lead.
·
Ask for advice
from everyone you stand to learn from.
·
Give as much as
you can.
·
Ask your
connections if there’s anything you can do for them.
·
Ask a lot of
questions and listen.
·
Tell people
you’re excited to hear their stories. They’ll be glad to share them.
·
Make yourself
available to your peers and organizations.
This is
a great list of tips. And there’re several practical ways of applying these
tips to your social media personal branding.
Surround yourself with top-notch people. This one goes hand-in-hand
with studying the networks of those you admire. Using tools like Just Unfollow, you
can see the connections of anyone on Twitter—and you can follow these
connections with just a few clicks.
Find mentors. Ask for advice. Give as much as you can. Does this sound a bit like
a group or community? Facebook Groups, LinkedIn Groups, and Google+ Communities
all offer an element of connection in this way.
Make yourself available to your peers and organizations. Joining Twitter chats and
Instagram hashtag campaigns can help draw you nearer to a community.
2. Keep the Image Consistent
Across all of your social profiles, you have
to maintain a certain consistency with your brand. When people want to learn
more about you, they may search for you on a number of social outlets.
Presenting yourself in a consistent manner helps you control their perception
of your personal brand. You can damage an otherwise impeccable reputation if
one of your profiles shows up with content or images that don’t represent you
well.
To take things one step further, three factors you might consider in creating
a consistent design look for your brand.
1.
A
professionally designed logo
2.
A
pleasing color palette
3.
A
limited menu of fonts
Do all your social media profiles look consistent?
It’s so helpful when these profiles match up. Keeping a consistent
profile helps others find you easily, and it helps cement a picture of you in
the minds of others. The fewer variations you have (ideally you’ll
create one consistent look), the easier it is to be memorable.
Here are
a few steps to getting started. First name and last name is the standard. Do
your best to avoid nicknames, shortened names, etc., unless you use the
variation consistently.
Use
the same profile photo across all channels
As you
build your personal brand, this will be a great way to make a memorable
impression on others. There’s
a helpful recipe to
get your profile photos synced up between channels. Every time you change your
Facebook profile photo, your Twitter profile photo changes, too.
3. Engage Regularly
Building
a brand takes a lot of effort, and
it should be treated like a job. Every day, you should be sharing and producing
content. Adjust the frequency and types of content based on the audience
presence.
We
already post a lot on the social accounts for Web Profits, but I still make time to post on each of my
personal social profiles.
“A
once-weekly Twitter post or monthly Instagram photo are not going to accomplish
much, if anything,” writes Michael Noice,
founder of Entrepreneur Coach. “For this reason, it's best to focus on two or
three carefully chosen social networks and try to be active on them, rather
than posting sporadically to a half-dozen.”
How will others get to know you and your brand?
Making yourself easy to find is the first step toward a great
brand. The next step: Sharing your enthusiasm and expertise with others. For
every four staple updates, share a different type of post for variety
4. Diversify Your Content
I recommend crafting a communications strategy for your personal
brand that includes an editorial calendar and a diverse content plan so that
you won’t resort to publishing the same types of articles every single day. Be sure to include images, videos, articles, and even questions. I see a lot more reciprocal engagement when I change up the type of content that I post daily.
Another benefit is that this diversity prevents you from oversharing your own content. Even if your own content is fantastic, your followers will appreciate when you source and share authoritative content from other people.
5. Study Influencers
Connecting
with and even collaborating
with influencers is a smart way to build your personal brand and get yourself seen, but it takes
time. You have to develop a relationship with influencers before they’ll want
to work with you.
Note the types of content top influencer share and how their followers respond. Try to build your own following by
using their strategy for inspiration.
6.
Give as Much as You Can
If you want to create a
memorable brand, you need to give people a reason to remember you. While I’ve
grown my personal brand considerably in recent years, I still like to reach out
to contacts directly and ask them what I can do for them.“This personal connection makes the customers feel that you care about them, and that they are more than just revenue to you,”
You’re not trying to sell or pitch anything. You’re legitimately asking if there is anything you can do to help them. Give away some of your time, your advice, and any other resources you have available to help your connections.
When you first start out, make it a habit to contact at least one person every day with an offer to help.
Can a person manage separate profiles for work and Personal?
Separating work and personal seems like a great option to consider; however, things get a bit complicated if you’re hoping to keep the same name on both accounts. When people search your personal brand, it might make sense for all appropriate information to come up under the one name—therefore a separate alias could be best for a non-work social profile.
