Personal branding is about marketing people and their careers as a brand. Much like social media marketing, it’s an ongoing process of creating and maintaining a favorable reputation and impression of yourself in the digital space.
So how do you figure out what your personal brand is?
Your personal brand is essentially the story of you. It’s about choosing the unique parts of your personality, knowledge and skills you want to share with the world. Your personal brand is also about how you conduct yourself as a person. This refers to your attitude, the words you use, how you interact with others and the overall vibe you project.
Why Do You Need A Personal Brand?
In today’s world your personal brand is more than just your contact info on a business card. Since everyone is visible online, especially on social media, you need to create a good professional and casual impression.
Your personal brand can be a useful and essential to you professionally. Your digital portfolio or social media profiles can be used to market yourself to current and potential clients. It gives you a chance to make sure people see you in the way you want them to. It gives you an amazing opportunity to highlight your skills, knowledge, strengths and passions. It also gives people a chance to get to know you, thereby building strong relationships built on trust.
How To Build A Personal Brand
Personal branding is common among influencers on social media who build successful careers by creating relatable personas and through their association with popular brands. The image your brand portrays (as an individual or a company) is the key to being successful in the age of digital marketing.
Instagram and Facebook are two of the most popular social media marketing platforms available today. With millions of users signed up, they’re a great place to start building your personal brand. Here’s how…
- Find Your Niche
Finding your niche is about knowing what you’re good at – whether it’s serious stuff like being a marketing savant or fun stuff like being a hub of information about movies, music or comic books. You also need to have extensive knowledge about your chosen topic. Knowledge is essential for content creation because the more accurate and your content is, the more people will consider you an expert in your chosen niche.
- Create A Complete Your Profile
There’s nothing worse than an incomplete profile. What’s more is that social platforms tend to flag accounts that are missing key information as potential bots. Luckily there’s an easy fix. Make sure your profile is updated with all the necessary information like contact details, links to your website and digital portfolio. This will create a professional and trustworthy image.
- Create Mindful Content
Creating a personal brand is just like marketing a product. You need to create content that is relevant, fun and engaging. But always think of your content as a reflection of your professional attitude and overall personality. It’s best to avoid content and comments that may be misinterpreted as offensive or inflammatory.
- Pictures and Captions
Social media isn’t just about images. And text intensive posts can also be a bit drab, especially if the post is lengthy. The social media sweet spot is finding the right combination of text and imagery. Use good quality pictures and add a witty or inspirational caption. Try to unique as much as possible so your audience can relate to your unique voice and your brand.
- Interaction
To build a successful and popular personal brand you have to be social. Be part of the conversation by responding to comments on your posts. By interacting with your audience you increase your engagement and reach. A cool way to increase interaction is with a poll or question which will elicit a response from your audience.
- Add A Personal Touch
Content creation is sometimes about taking a fresh approach to the type of stuff you share with your audience. Don’t be afraid to occasionally share something personal such as a career achievement or hobbies. Social media is about making connections with people first. So sharing some personal information will give your audience a glimpse of who you really are. Just make sure the content is appropriate.
