Personal branding secrets to enhance your strategy

Creating your personal brand and a social media strategy can give you the edge over your competitors. Ella Orr shares how you can build it to strengthen relationships.

Your personal brand defines what you want to be known for and how you want to be talked about by others describing what you do. 

Whether you are running your own business or working within a company, you need a personal brand. You are selling products and services, but what makes you different from the competition is the unique and individual way you promote your offers. 

In the case of working as an employee, it’s beneficial to define your personal brand so you can use this to help stand out from the competition when it comes to going for the next promotion or finding another job. 

Having a personal brand will help raise your visibility and make you more memorable, which is becoming an essential asset in this highly competitive market. 

Misconceptions about building a personal brand

When I introduce the idea of having a personal brand to people, it can often be met with reluctance. There are several reasons for this. 

Firstly, many people regard personal branding as something celebrities, and public figures use to raise their visibility with the media and the general public. It has also become increasingly important for CEOs and other executives. 

However, if you do not fall into one of these categories, as many of us don’t, then there is a worry that you may be showing off or seeking recognition if you start promoting yourself as a personal brand. It often makes people feel uncomfortable about drawing attention to themselves.  

The second reason is people believe they haven’t done something worthy of having a personal brand. It is a common misconception as you don’t have to have gained recognition in something to justify creating one. 

Thirdly, many people have no idea where to start creating their personal brand, and they have no idea who to ask to support them.

Fostering powerful relationships

Having a clear and defined personal brand can help you to create the all-important know, like and trust factor with your target audience. It is essential to give gravitas to your marketing strategy. People buying from people may sound like a cliche. Still, it’s unusual for many of the products and services we offer to differentiate from those of our competitors unless we offer something completely new.  

However, we are all unique and individual, and those characteristics help lead someone to buy from us rather than one of our competitors. 

Creating content around your brand interspersed with content about what you sell will give breadth and variety to your social media activity. Also, ensuring your personal brand is evident on your website will help build an audience and trust in your offers. 

How to infuse your personality into your marketing

Your website is your most crucial marketing channel so use your personal brand to address your ideal client’s pain points throughout the website, not just on your About page. Your personal brand should be consistent and congruent in your brand visuals, voice, contact form and elsewhere so that your website visitors feel that a person and not a business are speaking to them. 

The rise in popularity of video on social channels makes this the ideal medium to create personable, value-driven content. Instagram reels, TikToks, Live videos, YouTube shorts, and LinkedIn lives are the most popular. 

• Consider a strategic approach to creating short-form videos or going live regularly. You can repurpose this content across all platforms. 
• Publish a regular blog post and channel through an email newsletter as another effective way of sharing personal brand content. 

How founders built powerful personal brands

Gary Vaynerchuk is held in high regard as one of the original personal brand advocates and has become a brand in himself. Founders such as Steven Bartlett, Ash Jones, Katy Leeson, and Carrie Rose are great examples. One of the best authors about personal brand is Mark Schaefer, who has written many books on this topic.

As an entrepreneur or small business owner, using social media channels can be the easiest place to start building your personal brand because of the opportunities to build brand awareness through content creation which gives your thoughts, ideas and viewpoints. 

LinkedIn is ideal as a professional networking platform. If you can build trust and authority with your peers, that’s a positive indicator that you are worthy of greater attention. 

Creating a strategy for your brand

As well as a consistent and congruent presence on one or two social media channels, you should have a place to send your audience to, such as a website, an email subscription landing page, YouTube channel, podcast channel or such. Start to nurture your audience and convert them into customers and clients.  

You can use your personal brand to elevate your business brand, highlighting products and services offered by the company and how they can help your clients. 

By creating content for social media posts, blogs, podcasting and such and engaging with client responses to your posts, you can increase your credibility and draw attention to your business brand. By interweaving personal comments and business views, you keep potential clients’ eyes on your offerings leading to possible sales leads.

Building your personal brand won’t happen overnight. It takes time, effort and commitment. However in the long run it is one of the most powerful ways to be visible, stay memorable and become known and influential in your industry or area of expertise. 

Find out how Ella can help you to build your personal brand and social media strategy on her website

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