What is a personal brand?
Though it might seem confusing at first, a personal brand is at its finest, how someone is perceived by other people, be it in real life, on social media platforms, on their own website, or on their own blog.
A brand is created through authenticity, interesting and the core values of the person are instantly recognizable, as it is a continuous process, where the person creates their own company, their own content, puts their foot forward in becoming one of the industry leaders in their chosen field.
Personal branding takes many forms, and in this article, we’ll try to give some key points to create yours, where your own strategy and personal branding tips to keep in mind will create a strong brand and a lasting impression on the people you meet.
How can you create your own personal brand?
Each person has a unique identity with unique interests, so to create a business brand, it’s important first to find out something that interests you, something that you’re drawn towards. A personal brand can be basically anything if we think about it in this way, but there are some things all brands share: A place to create content, which can be a Linkedin profile and Linkedin page, an Instagram account, some Youtube videos, a place to write articles, your Twitter bio, your personal website, or anything else, but one thing is clear: a platform is needed to be seen online.
Be seen by whom, though? Each strong personal brand has a target audience, a basic online presence, and a personal brand statement which creates a personal connection to some people who become interested in the business and thus become potential clients.
Many personal brand examples come from people who raise awareness on diverse topics on social media, but there are many ways to do it, be if being a graphic designer, someone who works on a blog post, or any job title whose main task is creating content. Since everyone has unique skills, there are always more clients who might find the social media profiles to be interesting to them, thus leading to business opportunities.
Figure out what’s important to you for your personal branding strategy
To build a personal brand is to first think really hard about what it is that you want to create. You can organize some key elements to create a helpful resource, think of some prospective clients who might be interested or in need of your work, create social media posts to show exactly who you are, use a professional photo of your work or professional picture of yourself and stay up to date in your chosen domain.
Effective personal branding also has a social media presence being part of their professional life and of their brand strategy, but the things to ask even before that are: What is the most interesting thing to you? What skills and talents do you have? What energizes you? Are you better off working alone or with co-workers? What could be your personal branding statement?
Combine your vision with needs and opportunity
Now that you know what you find interesting, another one of the personal branding tips is to find a potential client, to whom to sell an elevator pitch, be it in person or online, through self-promotion on the media platform of your choice that we mentioned above.
This combination of what you want to do and what is needed by someone is a valuable asset to keep in mind for the brand framework, as it helps to find your audience, to become a business owner, and perhaps even create a physical appearance of your brand.
To do this step easily, it’s important to do some research first and see how other people organize their own brands, perhaps ask for some career advice from more experienced creators who already found their niche.
Personal branding tips to make yourself visible
Building a personal brand is a long-term game, but the first move is to become visible. Instead of being afraid of what people will think and say, outstanding personal brands create their own vision and then share it with the world, not because it isn’t scary but because they do it even though it is it scary.
Strong brands are committed to making themselves seen and know that even if it is an effective personal brand, some people will simply not find it interesting, but there will persevere until their branding reaches their audience.
Making yourself visible can be done in small ways at first, for example, creating a Youtube account, posting your content on Facebook, Reddit, and Instagram, talking to friends about what you’re doing and what interests you, then maybe creating a blog or website.
Some things to keep in mind
On some sort of editor’s note, everything we talked about above has a part in creating a successful business, but the main ideas to take home are: 1) really think about what interests, motivates, and fascinates you, 2) research what others have dome in the same domain or in similar ones, 3) start creating your content, 4) share your content either online, offline or in both ways and 5) start making connections to other people who seem interested in your vision.
If you keep these tips in mind, creating a personal brand stop seeming like a scary and unachievable goal, but becomes an interesting and rewarding thing to do. Good luck and effort on your personal branding quest!
