Your personal brand is a representation of you and your work.
In this guide, we’ll go over 10 ways to build a strong personal brand so you can build your career and company online.
Personal branding is about how people perceive you and what they think when they hear your name. It’s becoming increasingly important that your personal image fits into a brand that appeals to potential customers, industry followers and other brands in your space.
If you aren’t already, it’s time to start building your personal brand! Let’s look at 10 ways that you can get started:
1. Create a Professional Website (and Blog)
A professional website is a great way to build your personal brand.
It’s important for people to feel confident about working with you, and having an attractive website will show that you take pride in your work.
Here are a few things to consider when building your personally branded website:
- Include your contact information on the site so visitors can reach out to you easily
- Make sure that it’s easy for visitors to find recent examples of your work by adding your latest accomplishments.
- Use photos of yourself where possible – this gives potential clients another personal touch point when considering whether or not they want to work with you.
- Link your website to your social media channels and use social media content walls where possible.
A blog section on your website doesn’t necessarily need to be written, but you should consider creating some kind of regular content to keep followers updated on your progress.
The more content you create, the more visitors will see your skills, expertise and value.
And, if you’re really smart, you can then repurpose that long-form content and make use of it on social media.
2. A Personal Logo That is Unique to You
A unique personal logo can help your personal brand to stand out, as individuals will recognise it when they see you online.
You can make a free logo on Canva, pay for something more professional from a site like 99Designs or try custom branding with an agency.
There are many free options available if you’re looking to keep costs down – including using free Google fonts or those already installed on your computer!
Remember: a personal logo shows people how much value you offer at first glance. It’s worth investing in some good design skills so that other professionals take notice of what makes YOU different.
The more time and effort you put into developing a strong personal brand, the more you’ll stand out from the crowd.
3. Develop Your Own Voice
Your own voice should be a distinguishing factor of your personal brand.
If you’re serious about building your personal brand, you need to separate:
- Your messages
- Your delivery of those messages
…from other personal brands in your industry.
A big part of that is being different to everybody else.
If you’re repeating or regurgitating what everybody else is saying, you simply aren’t doing enough to build your personal brand online.
Be brave, use your experience in your industry and share your knowledge.
This should be an important point of personal branding but sadly, it’s often neglected by those who claim expertise in the area. If you strive to stand out from the crowd, develop your own voice.
4. Be Consistent On Social Media
Social media plays a big role in personal branding, as it’s the ideal place to share your accomplishments and distribute your brand. This is why it’s important to have a consistent brand across all of your social media channels.
If this means creating an Instagram account for yourself instead of using Facebook, do it! There are many benefits to having more than one personal branded social media page- just make sure they fit into the overall theme.
I’d recommend using consistent brand colours, post formats, font styles and personal logos. This will ensure that your audience always recognises your brand’s posts on social media newsfeeds.
Tip: A great way to increase followers on these platforms is by following other users as well as liking and commenting on their posts periodically. This will help build rapport and goodwill between your community.
5. Stay Up-To-Date With Industry Trends
Staying up to date with industry trends will be crucial to your personal brand’s success.
Trends change, so make sure you’re aware of them.
Tip: Use tools like Google Trends and stay active on social networks like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram to find out what’s popular right now.
There is always going to be a lot of competition – if your personal brand isn’t up-to-date with current events, you will miss out on clients and opportunities.
Check out your competition and use inspiration from your community. There is no shame in replicating a content idea from somebody else, just be sure to give credit where it’s due!
6. Keep Your Online Presence Updated
New content is the key to visibility, so make sure you are always adding it – blog posts, videos, podcasts or social media updates are ideal to keep followers interested in your personal brand.
The best way to increase your visibility on online platforms is by making yourself a valuable resource for others. By providing quality content and becoming an engaging member of various communities; more people will be able to find out who you are and what’s important in your life!
Buffer recommends that bloggers post once every two days (48 hours) up until one week for optimal success with their strategy: “Post often and post consistently.”
Although the “post often and post consistently” strategy may not work for everyone, it’s important to remember that there is no perfect formula. Consider your personal situation before choosing how frequently you want to publish content online.
7. Collaborate
A big part of your personal branding journey will be teaming up with others in your industry. Collaborating with other bloggers, influencers and brands will make you more visible to a larger audience than just your own following.
If your strength lies in creating awesome video content for your personal brand, it would be beneficial to reach a new audience by collaborating with a popular podcast.
Tip: Collaborative offers and ideas are always more successful when you have something valuable to offer. Leverage your brand’s assets with the right people and you’ll grow!
Start by reaching out to people who have similar audience sizes to you. As your personal brand grows, you can reach out to those with bigger audiences too.
8. Maintain a tight focus
Your personal brand needs to be focussed on what you’re best at – that’s what you’ll be known for.
The social media world is a crowded one, and it can be difficult to get noticed if your personal brand isn’t focused on the right things.
Tip: Establish yourself as an expert in your field by publishing content that shines a light on your strengths. From there, people will start seeing you as someone who knows their stuff and might follow or share with friends.
A personal brand should always have focus because this is how people know what they are getting from you at all times – so make sure that this focussed message resonates throughout everything you do online.
It’s great to share personal milestones and accomplishments that are separate from your brand’s messages – followers love to see the human side of the brands they follow – just make sure that you do this sparingly.
Remember, social media content is created for your audience, not for you. If they’re following your personal brand, they’re not doing it to follow your personal life.
Leave the personal stuff at the door (95% of the time) and maintain a tight brand focus.
9. Manage Your Expectations
Rome wasn’t built in a day. If you’re starting from zero, be prepared to manage your expectations.
Large channels take years to build (just ask the people who own them), so don’t expect to reach their levels overnight.
For those of you who are starting with a small following, it’s important to understand what is realistic and achievable.
Your personal brand will grow at the rate that YOU dictate. No one else can do this for you.
It starts with understanding your audience –
- Who cares about or has an interest in the information that you share?
- What topics bring them value?
- How much time do they have available each day/week/month?
- How often would your target audience like to see content from you?
Once again, these numbers vary on an individual basis. But as long as there is some consistency between your goals and expectations, growth should happen over time.
10. Tell Stories
People love to follow stories online, and they’re always woven into the most popular content channels.
If you can find creative ways to get your personal brand’s story out there, then it will have a much greater chance of gaining traction.
This is an especially good idea for those who are just starting out in business because they’ll need all the help that they can get from their network and outside sources.
Use stories that:
- Focus on where you were to where you are now
- Show how you overcame obstacles
- Feature personal stories from people in your network
These will help build your credibility and relatability as well as showing that there are real, tangible results for the work that your personal brand does.
If you’re stuck, here are a few more ways to use storytelling:
- Share testimonials from customers who have been impacted by your product/service – show their before and after. Tip: Use review questions to guide their answers towards the before and after state.
- Document changes over time, e.g. before-and-after photos of weight loss, physical transformation treatments, etc. (note: be mindful not to exploit other peoples’ stories without their consent)
- Create case studies with actual data on what worked and what didn’t so others can learn from it.
- Be honest – many personal brands try to hide their weaknesses, but often, those who succeed are the most prepared to share theirs.
10 Ways to Build a Strong Personal Brand
Building a personal brand is vital to modern-day marketing, business growth and career development.
The ten tactics in this guide will help you achieve a strong personal brand online. Let’s look at them one last time:
- Create an attractive, professional-looking website and blog
- Make a personal logo that is unique to you
- Develop your own voice – don’t copy what other people are saying
- Be consistent with the way you present yourself on social media
- Stay up-to-date with industry trends so you’re always in the know
- Keep your online presence updated by adding new content regularly
- Collaborate with other brands
- Maintain a tight focus
- Manage your expectations
- Tell stories
If you are not currently building your own personal brand or if it’s been a while since you last posted fresh content for your personal brand, now may be the time for an update.
Telling people what sets you apart from everyone else can make your company more memorable and appealing to potential customers.
Are you following these tips? Let us know with one comment below about how any of these have helped improve your personal brand.
