If you are reading this article, you might be wondering how and where to start with your personal brand. If you are feeling overwhelmed, you are not alone.
As a professional brand manager, I have struggled for years to share my own brand image with the public. Personal branding is not only important in the business world, but in regard to your own self-development.
The more you work to learn more about yourself, your core values, and what makes you unique the stronger your personal brand becomes! Read on to learn more about personal branding, what it is, why it’s important, and why I’ve made the commitment to create and share my own brand identity this year.
What is Personal Branding?
Personal branding is the process of creating an identity for yourself and then promoting what you stand for and your experience with others.
The personal branding process allows you to decide how people perceive you as an individual and the expertise you share. The end result can increase confidence from a target audience that truly knows who you are from the authentic story you tell.
From experience at Outer Banks Media, I know the clients we work with that are the most successful have a solid brand identity and put in the extra work to share their stories online. They are vulnerable and typically follow the 5As of personal branding.
You can follow the 5 As of Personal Branding by being:
- Authentic
- Authoritative
- Aspirational
- Artistic
- Affinity (meaning they attract relationships between themselves, other people, and their expertise)
Oftentimes, individuals will use personal branding to cross-promote their unique skills along with their business. If you don’t know what values you hold dear or understand yourself, then your potential customers and peers will not know either.
Why You Should Build Your Personal Brand
Making a good first impression has always been important. In a world where your digital footprint follows you everywhere, you can make the right impression by building your personal brand.
As a brand creator by trade, how can I truly prove the power of brand identity if I do not have following the 5 A’s of personal branding for myself? That is why I decided I should build my personal brand to highlight my passion for all things digital marketing while sharing behind-the-scenes snippets of my real life in the process!
Benefits of a Personal Brand
A personal brand should give you a space to create whatever you want around your passions. The genuine experiences you share build trust with the people who know you, making them more likely to remember you when they need your products or services.
In my case, I want to create a blog to solidify my new brand image and start cross-sharing my writing and recipes on my website and on social media. Here are some of the other benefits of personal branding that will hopefully help me gain more attention online.
You Can Reach More of the Right People
Creating my personal brand made me sit down and think about how I want others to see my brand. Once I got over the idea of girls from my high school reading my posts, I was able to niche down on my target audience and create a content strategy for them.
My content strategy will ultimately help me reach more of the right people through search engine optimization. With keyword research, I can figure out what kind of questions people with similar interests may be asking and provide solutions for them with my personal brand’s blog.
You Can Prove Your Expertise & Reputation
One benefit to having a personal brand is your ability to prove your expertise and reputation. Personal branding can help build your reputation as it gives you the perfect platform to show off your unique skills while increasing the number of people who see your work.
Having a personal brand on social media or on the web is important for growing your reputation. Your accounts serve as your channel for unlimited growth and exposure.
Simply taking the time to create content showcases your expertise in your network and industry and builds credibility! Consistently being on people’s timelines will remind them of your skillset and build your trustworthy reputation as a steady stream of knowledge.
You Can Generate Leads & Opportunities
The world we live in is scary competitive! You have to have a strong brand to stand out amongst your competition and all the noise.
To generate more leads and opportunities for myself and Outer Banks Media, I have to put my unique skill set on display. Your personal brand should consistently share your knowledge and valuable experiences that set you apart from the crowd.
When people look for someone with the skills and expertise they are more likely to consult with someone who does not gatekeep their understanding. When you act as an expert in your field, more opportunities for collaborations and business projects will come your way.
How to Start Building Your Personal Brand
Now that you are like me, and understand the importance of a personal brand, you might be wondering how you can get started building your personal brand. If you are really like me, you will want to have a strategy in mind when you start launching your new image to the public.
Obviously, starting your new brand should take some planning. Over the next year, I am going to fully launch my personal brand online.
Before I get started I will want to establish my brand image. I want my brand to be guided by my core values, goals, and purposeful messaging. I also want a logo and themed website to really share and add value to my audience and integrate into my business goals with Outer Banks Media.
Let’s develop a purposeful strategy together! Check out our post next month where we discuss the step-by-step instructions for developing your personal brand and feeling comfortable with sharing your work with the public.