Believe it or not, everyone has a personal brand. Unfortunately, not everyone acknowledges the existence of their brand. The people that understand the doors a brand can open manage their brands proactively.
Your personal brand is so much more than creating a persona. Personal branding is about consistently projecting a genuine, authentic version of yourself. As a professional or someone on social media with the aim to make money, a personal brand may mean sharing your expertise, and values.
Why is personal branding important?
A strong personal brand can help you establish yourself as an expert. That can mean more leads and sales for your business.
A personal brand;
- Enables you to gain trust by consistently addressing pain points
- Allows you to consistently showcase your expertise
- Answers the question of what makes you different and why people should follow you
- Gives people confidence in your ability to deliver
Your purpose is connected to your personal brand
Your passion makes it easier for you to slide into your purpose with ease. Usually, your passion is the thing that comes a bit easier to you.
The problem with a lot of people on social media is, they try to create a personal brand for the sake of making money.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to make money but it’s important to root that need for money in something you enjoy. Otherwise, it will be difficult to stay consistent and authentic in the long run.
Benefits of a strong personal brand
- Builds authority, trust and credibility
The more you establish yourself as an authority in your niche, the more people seek you out. People naturally want to work with people they perceive to be knowledgeable. The more you build your authority in your area of expertise, the more people trust and recommend you.
- Creates opportunities
Time and time again, a strong personal brand has proved to attract opportunities. People start and build careers out of having a brand. Not only that but people also build wealth from having a strong personal brand. If you’re wondering if building a personal brand online is worth it? Yes it is.
- High perceived value
The more followers you amass, the higher the perceived value. Numbers are the new currency when it comes to social media, they prove a point. Numbers say, you are credible and other people trust you and hence the high perceived value.
- Your influence increases
When you consistently create content and solve problems within a certain niche, you build authority in that area. Authority creates influence. People are able to take your opinion more seriously because of the authority you have.
- Creates commitment
Building a brand is not about creating average content for average people and hoping they’ll somehow treat you like a gem you are not. Building a brand is about commitment to a way of being. If your personal brand is about productivity, commit to that and show up consistently as that brand.
- Improves your marketing knowledge tremendously
Smart marketers position their offers in a way that’s memorable and resonates with readers. If you’re selling coaching services to gen Z, you’ve got to understand how they like to be spoken to.
Personal Branding Process
Step 1: Discover what your interests are
Discover who you are, what your skills and interests are. FYI, you don’t need to be an expert. I find that the best way to build a brand is to document.
Step 2: Find out the smallest viable market you want to serve
It doesn’t make any sense to start by targeting a wide group of people. Start by targeting a small group. If you can’t succeed in that small group, what makes you think you’ll do amazing in wider niche?
Step 3: Figure your branding out; colors, fonts etc.
Branding and how your present yourself online is important. People are very visual creatures that’s why a cohesive brand tends to stand out more. Besides, your brand becomes memorable to people once they identify your style.
Step 4: Create content and market your brand
Final step is to create consistently and market your brand. It’s not enough to just create content, you have to market it as well. One thing you must understand is; Instagram, TikTok or any of these social media platforms don’t belong to you. Use those platforms as the first stage of your funnel but make sure to move them down the funnel with your call to actions.