Personal Branding
What is personal branding?
Let’s say you are a professional and want to be recognised as a leading authority in your industry. So you decide to share your particular experience and expertise with likeminded people who have similar aspirations to you. It is imperative you need to establish your personal brand to achieve this new path.
“Your personal brand is how you promote yourself. It is the combination of skills, experience, and personality that you want the world to see about you. It is the telling of your story,” (Infuencer Marketing Hub 2019).
Basically,
it is how people view you, the impression you make or the opinions they form after
meeting you, seeing you on television, from researching your background,
following you on social media, viewing your YouTube videos, website or blog
content and so forth…
If you want to build your personal brand you will need to have a personal brand statement (Clark 2019). This is a one or two-sentence phrase that accurately sums up what you do and what you stand for (Clark 2019). It’s essentially your unique selling proposition, the thing you do better than any of your competitors (Clark 2019).
“Professionally, your personal brand is the image that people see of you. It can be a combination of how they look at you in real life, how the media portrays you, and the impression that people gain from the information about you available online,” (Infuencer Marketing Hub 2019). For example, company founders like Steve Jobs – Apple Inc., Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook, Elon Musk – Tesla, Bill Gates – Microsoft and Richard Branson – Virgin are influencers for their organisations.
Why is personal branding important?
It is completely normal to have views about other people and their achievements, their position in your
industry and what their reputation is as it will influence your interaction
with them. Vice versa, it is normal to be conscious of how others
may view you and to consider how you can relate to them. This is why personal branding is extremely important. By building your personal
brand will not only boost your career but you can form a connection with people
who have similar personal and professional backgrounds, life experiences and
common interests. To
achieve a strong personal brand you need to be relatable and inspiring to
others.
To help set yourself apart and succeed in your industry, you need to know your audience and what type of content that is of value to them. You should consider the experiences you have had in life, your successes and failures, what obstacles you have faced and how you overcame them, what inspired you to pursue your chosen profession, and develop a story narrative describing the path you took to get to where you are today. The story behind your journey needs to resonate with your audience. You should consider what online platforms to use to deliver your content to reach your audience and the preferred format. To ensure success, you should focus on an industry or niche you have expertise and an interest in. Importantly, provide content that is relevant to your audience and gives them genuine value.
How to use social media to build your personal brand
Your ‘Social Media Personal
Branding’ involves everything you do online and how you interact with your
followers. Every tweet you send every post you make on Facebook or every video
and photo you share on YouTube and Instagram contributes to building your
personal brand.
How to become the next Neil
Patel | My Personal Branding Secrets
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZvXcLJiYR0 [accessed 23 February 2020]
Neil Patel is an English
entrepreneur, influencer in marketing and a bestselling author.
Seven ways you can build your personal brand on social media include:
1. Create a Strong Content Strategy
- Regularly create good quality and appealing
content through your website blog, and social media channels;
- Engage with followers through responses,
likes, comments and shares; and
- Develop a social media content calendar to help you decide what and when to post and on what platforms.
2. Craft a Consistent Brand Image
- A great example of a consistent and well-built personal brand is Darren Hardy who is an American author, keynote speaker, advisor and a publisher.
Here is an example of what his personal brand website looks like: https://darrenhardy.com/
Here’s how his Twitter profile looks: https://twitter.com/DARRENHARDY
His Twitter and Facebook profile mastheads both have an image of him with his team and he is using the same profile photo and theme for each profile: https://www.facebook.com/DarrenHardyFan/
The same theme can be seen on his LinkedIn profile as well: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenhardy
A second example is Neil Patel who is an English
entrepreneur, influencer in marketing and a bestselling author. He uses
consistent branding across his website and all social media sites including his
image, colour and font type.
Here is his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl-Zrl0QhF66lu1aGXaTbfw
His LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilkpatel
His Twitter profile at https://twitter.com/neilpatel is exactly the same as his LinkedIn profile masthead:
His Facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/neilkpatel/
His website: https://neilpatel.com/
3. Engage and Respond to Followers on Social Media
- Respond through questions, discussions and comments
e.g. by asking what topics they would like more content on.
4. Join Social Media Industry Groups
- Network
with likeminded people and become a ‘thought leader’.
5. Connect with Influencers in Your Industry
- Identify and engage popular influencers to build your profile and reach new target audiences.
6. Become an Influencer in Your Industry
- Produce personalised blog and video content for your followers. Ensure it gives value to them.
7. Review your Personal Branding Strategy
- There is no point having 1,000 followers and only 200 of them are in your target audience. There is no chance the other 800 followers will be interested in your content and purchasing your product or service.
- Review your strategy periodically and adjust it if necessary.
Key tips to start growing your online personal brand:
- Have
your profile on social media platforms used by your target audience.
- Create
your LinkedIn profile and form connections with other professionals.
References
Clark, B. (2019) ’10 Personal Brand Statement Examples to Inspire You’ Career Sidekick [online]. Available at: https://careersidekick.com/personal-brand-statement-examples/ [accessed 28 November 2019]Darren Hardy Website 2020. Available at: https://darrenhardy.com/
Neil Patel Website (2020). Available at: https://www.neilpatel.com/
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