“People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories, and magic.”
-Seth Godin
Businesses try to build brands to make them memorable, encourage customers to buy from them as well as support their advertising and marketing efforts. While a business brand is the identity you create for your business, a personal brand is something you build around you.
So, what is a personal brand, and how can you build a good one online? Let’s find out!
What Is a Personal Brand?
Identify Your Personal Brand
Find People and Goals That Align With Your Personal Brand
Get Yourself Out There
Keep up the Effort
What Is a Personal Brand?
Your personal brand is basically your story. It encompasses everything you stand for, who you are, your strengths, and how you use them to bring value to the targeted audience.
You can tell your personal story in multiple ways, such as creating a personal website, talking about yourself on a podcast, or making video content for your audience.
Developing your personal brand is an amazing way to be different in today’s saturated market since it lets people understand you. You can stand out in a sea of similar-looking people by telling your unique story, connecting with your target audience, and sharing your personality.
This can help you in a lot of ways, whether you’re trying to connect to the right people or land a new job. It also creates a template you can use in the future for other projects and platforms.
Identify Your Personal Brand
When working for larger companies, people often tend to blend their identity with those of the organization. To differentiate yourself, you need to ask yourself these three questions:
· What Makes Me Unique?
Think about how you’re different. Factor in things like your background, race, culture, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, caste, class, and religious beliefs. Also, think about the qualities you have, which might be lacking in others around you.
· What Are My Values?
Ponder over the things you stand for. Whether it’s in your community, domestic, or even at a global level, there are bound to be a few things that concern you. Some examples include equality, climate change, human rights, health, and sustainability.
· What Can I Contribute?
Given your education and experience, ask yourself what you bring to the table. You might be an amazing graphic designer or can create content that resonates with the audience. Maybe you’re a storyteller, who can talk about things that the audience is already frustrated about. The point is to know what you can contribute to help others.
Find People and Goals That Align With Your Personal Brand
Now that you understand the main focus of your personal brand, try to find ways using which you can achieve your goals. Have a look at some of the tasks your team is carrying out. See if any of the tasks align with your goals.
If they do, try to find a way to actively participate and become a part of them. The size of your company doesn’t really matter. Be more vocal about the skills you have and ask if you can be a part of some of the more public-facing projects.
This can help you become more visible as well as help you show off your personal branding to more people.
Which brings me to my next point.
You need to have people around you who share the same interests as you. Not only will they support and inspire you, but also offer new perspectives and even challenge your ideas, which can help you refine them.
With social media, this has become extremely easy. You can easily find like-minded individuals by joining a community that best aligns with your interests. Many companies have Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that focus on creating a safe space for different people. This can also be a great place to get started.
Lastly, you can get started on building your online presence by sharing videos and articles that you like and align with your goals. This will help you connect with new people to expand your circle.
Get Yourself Out There
Now, this can be done in a lot of ways depending on the type of personal brand you’re trying to build.
Before we talk about the types of content you can share, let’s take a look at some of the things you need to focus on when making content.
· Talk About Numbers
People love knowing the exact number of something. Rather than saying something like “Most Americans today have a smartphone”, you can research and give an exact number. For example, “More than 96% of Americans have a smartphone in 2024.”
This helps you build credibility and authority, which in turn makes you more trustworthy. It will also help make your content more engaging for the audience.
· Leverage Trending Content
It seems like trends can change overnight. While this may seem like a disadvantage, it’s actually a great way to generate an endless stream of content.
Let me explain.
You can use any trending memes in your content or creatively incorporate them so that your content relates better with the audience. Not just that, you can put your own spin on memes in a way where they reflect your personal brand better. A lot of people also use national days to make content.
· Recognize Other Creators
Make sure you recognize other people on social media, whether it’s a friend, colleague, client, or even your team’s small achievements. Share useful content created by others to encourage recognition.
This way, you can create feel-good content that will result in a lot of engagement. It will help you gain more audience, as well as help you get out there. When you share content with others, make sure you add your own perspective as well.
· Choose a Relevant Platform
There are a lot of ways using which you can create and share content. Some of them include:
Ø Facebook: It’s great for creating and posting any type of content, whether it’s text, images, videos, news, or livestreams. Others will be able to comment on your posts which will further improve engagement.
Ø X: This is one of the most powerful tools you can use if you’re a startup founder who’s looking to build an audience. While it’s mainly a text and image platform, its main focus has shifted to other forms of content as well.
Ø LinkedIn: This one’s an absolute must for any professional trying to build their brand. Think of it as Facebook for professionals. Make sure you interact with others who share the same interests as you.
Ø Instagram: Instagram is mainly a visual platform, so posting photos and videos with descriptive text is absolutely essential to building your branding strategy.
Ø Medium: This is a great platform to use for reading and writing articles. Medium allows anyone to create content, which can help you establish yourself as an industry expert without getting into the hassle of setting up your own blog site.
Ø YouTube: If the content you’re making involves creating videos, YouTube is your best bet to put out short or long-form videos.
While on the topic, a lot of social media platforms allow users to livestream. Platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, and Facebook are great ways to talk to a live audience. Try streaming and interacting with your community through a livestream.
· Make Quality Content
No matter the platform you choose, it’s important to keep quality in mind. If you’re writing content, you can use tools like Grammarly, Copyscape, and Hemmingway to make your writing better. If you’re making video and image content, edit those using tools like Adobe Photoshop or Premiere Pro.
For live streaming quality content, having a good camera and a solid internet connection is a great idea. You can activate HD features on your smartphone’s camera which should be more than enough for social media live streaming. Plus pairing it with a reliable internet ensures a smooth streaming experience, where you can answer the viewers’ questions side-by-side. For this, we suggest checking out Xfinity internet plans for optimized streaming through multiple devices and the overall viewing experience.
Keep up the Effort
Now, this is the most important step. There’s one thing that a lot of new creators looking to build a personal brand lack.
Consistency.
Making new, original content requires time and effort. However, if the perspective you offer is unique, thoughtful, and well-researched, it’s going to gain the audience’s attention.
You’re going to get feedback, whether it’s positive or negative. Let the feedback drive you and constantly try to find new ways to create something stronger the next time. Finally, as you get to more people and gain visibility, you can expect more opportunities to grow your personal brand.
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