We are living in times when anyone with access to the Internet and social media has a chance to build an audience, start attracting people to their business, and become an influencer. And that’s exactly what a lot of us are already doing. If you are on your way to developing a personal brand, you’ll definitely like this article. Keep reading.
Why do you need a personal brand?
For those who in doubt, it’s important to understand the benefits of having a strong personal brand.
If designed and executed properly, personal brand development tactics will result in the following things:
The authority and respect
Having a personal brand helps create authority and trust with your audience. If you are a freelancer or looking for a job, your personal brand can also serve you well. You can quote and mention your content in business life. Undoubtedly, a marketing manager with a good performing blog is much more likely to get a job or seal a deal.
The undeniable expertise
All your achievements are always going to be online, and you won’t need to prove your experience and expertise to anyone.
The ultimate attraction
People will more likely want to buy a product from a real person rather than from a faceless company.
The network
When you have a personal brand, you can easily explain to people who you are, what you stand for, the values you embrace, and how you can help. This way, you can grow a huge network faster.
The influence you make
Being an influencer today belongs to the most effective ways to bring your business to a higher level. Through building a personal brand, you can achieve a level of trust and connection with your audience that is otherwise impossible.
The personality of yours
People will associate everything you do with your personality. This makes it easier for you to build certain things without explaining why they are this way.
The price of your service
Personal branding can significantly influence the price you can set for your product or service. The more developed personal brand you have, the more people trust you and are ready to pay more to buy from you.
The content control
When you have a well-established personal brand, it can guide you toward the type of content you should share with your audience to make an impact and get the desired results. Often, influencers can promote content that doesn’t match their niche, but the audience still likes it because of the person who shares it.
The full visibility
The more people know and follow you, the more chances your content gets to be seen (because people will share it).
You might also like: “What Is Branding And Why Is It Important For Your Business Growth.”
How to create a personal brand?
Now that you understand the benefits let’s take a closer look at the essential steps you should take if you want to develop a strong personal brand.
Step #1: Understand your personal brand definition
At this stage, try to find answers to the following questions.
Who you want to be for the world
How do you want to look in the eyes of your audience? Are you a serious business person or a cheerful travel blogger?
image sources: essentiallysports and time
What work you want to highlight
Think about your interests, passions, and core values. Decide what brings you joy, what you are the best at, and what you want to show the world.
Which personal skills you can use
Take some time to think about your strong skills (e.g., great problem solver, strategic thinker, relationship builder, coach, etc.)
Step #2: Define the personal branding target audience
It’s almost impossible to serve people effectively if you don’t know who they are and what they want. When working on your personal brand strategy, be sure to cover the following questions.
Who are these people?
What are their age, gender, education, relationship, interests, occupation, income, challenges?
What do they want?
What does your audience want their future to look like? What are their goals?
Why can’t they get it?
And, finally, try to figure out why they haven’t been able to reach these goals.
Step #3: Build your personal brand strategy
Decide on your offer
If your goal is to create a profitable personal brand, be sure to decide what you are going to sell to your target audience. This might be anything from coaching to fashionable purses with your name on them. Just ensure that your offer helps people solve a specific issue or achieve a specific result.
Create the “home page”
Find a place for your content. This should not necessarily be a website. You can create a blog page on a blogging platform, a personal page on social media, etc. However, bear in mind that when compared to your own website, social media is less reliable since you can’t control their algorithms and politics.
Optimize the “home page”
Optimize your website and social media pages to match them with your brand. Add logos, use your unique color palette, create a compelling “About” page, and so on.
Build a content strategy
Many aspiring entrepreneurs make a common mistake when they try to convince people they can help. Instead, they should create compelling content that actually helps.
Work on your personal brand PR
For example, you can write for various magazines and online media in your niche.
Collaborate with influencers and other blogs
Find the right bloggers, build relationships with them, experiment with content, and people will talk about you.
Create and attend offline events
The Internet is a place where everyone can make their dreams come true, but this doesn’t mean that offline strategies don’t work anymore. If you want to succeed, you must be able to sell your product/service to people who aren’t connected to the Internet daily.
Educational workshops are one of the most useful events held by influencers. No matter if you are good at arts or fitness, you can always teach your audience something new.
Create a community around your personal brand
The community of like-minded people is a resource. It works for your reputation. And it helps find new clients and partners, launch new products, find new niches, collect information, and improve service. You can create such a community in a private Facebook group, on a separate website, or even offline.
Personal brand examples
Billie Eilish
We know Billie as an experimental signer who breaks all the limits and boundaries. Everything she does on the web and offline is on-brand with her personal branding strategy. Billie’s music, interviews, website, social media, merch — everything is bizarre and experimental. Some may think it’s weird to look and act the way Billie does, but the thing is the singer doesn’t do it for hype. Billie wants to show her audience that there is no need to follow the big fashion trends to be cool but shape your own style in everything.
image sources: nytimes and tmrwmagazine
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga has achieved huge success in the music industry very quickly, and much of this is due to her strong brand. Gaga’s brand makes her audience feel accepted, understood, and a part of something important.
Unlike many famous people, Lady Gaga stays in character all of the time. Even her co-stars say that it seems like Gaga sleeps in fishnets and heels. You might think that people know Gaga for her outrageous outfits that hold attention, but she has something more magnetic than her costumes. Besides, she is constantly changing her appearance but still stays Lady Gaga.
Her message to fans sounds like “Love yourself, free yourself, be whoever you want to be.”
image source: deviantart
Oprah Winfrey
When Oprah Winfrey moved from a small town to Chicago to work on the morning show, people said that her difficult nature would not allow her to build a successful career. However, pretty soon, her image began to take shape. Her style is now based on honesty and empathy, which draws viewers in and sets her personal brand apart from the competition. This woman made herself, turned her unknown name into a brand.
image source: weightwatchers
Sarah Jessica Parker
Day by day, more and more women strive to be strong and independent and encourage others to do the same. Celebrities can bring their message to the audience in a much easier way than ordinary people, not least through their attractive faces and a well-thought-out style.
But what should do those who don’t meet beauty standards? Let’s look at Sarah J. Parker, for example. Press and haters often said she was unsexy and ugly, but despite all of the attacks, Sarah’s character Carrie Bradshaw still inspires women of all ages not to give up when everything goes wrong and not afraid to have your own style.
Many times Sarah said she had very low self-esteem, but that didn’t stop the star from becoming who she is today. Instead of giving up, she treated all the bad stuff as a challenge. Perhaps, it was one of the reasons why Sarah walked down the NY streets in pajamas for her incredible lingerie shoot.
image source: fashionweekdaily
Oliver Sykes
Another great example of being true to yourself is Oliver Sykes, frontman of one of the most popular UK rock bands called Bring Me The Horizon.
Oliver is a musician who isn’t afraid to experiment and mix various genres even if fans believe it sucks. Later on, we can see how the band’s new songs receive millions of views and new fans overnight.
On top of that, Oliver is an active advocate for animal and human rights.
With his latest work called “Parasite Eve,” Oliver wants to attract people’s attention to the current state of the world. He shows that COVID-19 pandemic is a good time for us to pause and see how the world actually is. People die and get put in prison. Animals get treated as less than living creatures. The world shouldn’t work this way.
In addition to his songwriting and vocal contributions, Oliver also opened a vegan bar in his hometown, became one of PETA’s faces (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), and launched his clothing line supporting his personal brand statement of everyone being beautiful in their own way.
He says: “Ever since I’ve been a kid, I’ve been able to express myself however I wanted. Whether it be wearing my mother’s makeup or covering myself head-to-toe in tattoos, I’ve just always had that freedom to express myself however I want.”
image source: pinterest and instagram
Justin Trudeau
For the first time when a Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, wore colorful socks, people thought it was just a style feature. The second time, many interpreted it as a desire to defuse the atmosphere of serious events. But soon, the whole world began to realize that perhaps the funny fashion habit of a politician has a deeper subtext.
On June 25, 2017, Trudeau took part in a large-scale gay pride parade on the streets of Toronto, wearing socks in a “rainbow” LGBT print. You might think it’s again all about fashion, but there was one detail on his socks that the press paid attention to. The writing on his socks said, “Eid Mubarak.” This phrase honors the religious holiday that marks Ramadan’s end, the Islamic holy month of fasting, which coincided with Toronto’s Gay Pride in 2017.
This is how Mr. Trudeau hinted at the reconciliation of two important, but not quite understanding and accepting groups of the Canadian population.
image sources: rebelfashion and vogue
You might also like: “The Most Famous Examples of Personal Branding”
