Introduction To Personal Branding: What It Is And How To Do It!
Looking to create a strong personal brand but don’t know where to start? Here is an introduction to personal branding to help position ourself in your industry.
Hi Trish Davies here and by landing on this page you are interested in creating a personal brand. Over the next few minutes I am going to give you an in depth introduction to personal branding.
A personal brand is your public persona. It is the image that you project to the world. It is the collection of associations and memories that people have about you. It is the sum total of your activities, both online and offline, that reflects who you are.
In other words, it is the natural end result of the decisions you make while building your personal brand.
The process of personal branding involves building your brand through a number of deliberate and purposeful actions. These actions are aimed at creating a unified brand image that reflects your true self.
For example, if you are an extroverted person who loves to party, then your personal brand will naturally reflect this fact. You will advertise yourself as fun-loving, sociable and outgoing.
This is because a personal brand is not about hiding your true self; it is about being true to who you are.
Introduction To Personal Branding – How To Develop A Personal Brand
The first step to developing a personal brand is to figure out what your personal brand is. To do this, you need to take an inventory of your assets and liabilities.
What are your assets?
Your assets are what make you who you are. They are the things that make you unique.
Think of your most valuable assets. What are they?
For example, if you are an extrovert with a great sense of humour, one of your assets might be your sense of humour. If you are an introvert who is always eager to help others, your assets might be your helpful nature.
Your assets can also be things that make you appear extroverted or introverted. These are things that you cannot change, such as your personality type or your height. However, you can change your assets to better reflect your true self.
What are your liabilities?
Your liabilities are the things that make you susceptible to being judged on your personal brand.
For example, if you are an extrovert who has a messy lifestyle, then your liabilities might be judged on how presentable you look. If you are an introvert who is reserved and modest, then your liabilities might be judged on how friendly you are.
Your liabilities can also be things that make you appear extroverted or introverted. These are things that you can change, such as your clothing style or the way you speak.
How To Build A Personal Brand
Now that you know what your assets and liabilities are, you can start to build your personal brand. The first thing you need to do is to create a brand image for yourself. This is what your personal brand will look like.
To create a brand image, you need to consider what your personality type is and what type of person you want to be associated with.
Here are some questions to help you get started: They all start with “what are my”
- Passions
- Hobbies
- Interests
- Values
- Goals
- Character Traits
After you asked yourselves these questions follow up with the next two. Then you will have an authentic self-perception of yourself.
- What is my image?
- What do I want the public to think of when they hear or see my name?
Strategies To Build A Personal Brand
There are many ways to go about building a personal brand. You can do this by making conscious decisions or by accident. The first way is to make conscious decisions.
You can choose which social platforms you want to spend your time on and which ones you want to ignore. You can choose the people you want to follow and the content you want to see. You can even choose what news you want to read and watch.
If you want to make an impact on the world and have your name out there, you need to build a personal brand. This can be done by accident.
Here are some ways your brand can grow on accident:
Accidentally Build a Personal Brand – If you do not know how to build a personal brand, then it could be that you have accidentally built one. This is what happens when you are true to yourself.
You build a personal brand by accident when you consistently put your heart and soul into your online presence. This is what happens when you are your true self online.
You will be surprised to see how many people you meet in real life because of social media. People tend to meet each other more often than they would like to believe.
Introduction To Personal Branding – Personal Brand Platforms
Build & Maintain A Great Blog – Nowadays, it is not unusual to see people with millions of followers on social media sites. What is uncommon, though, is to see people with great blogs behind them.
A great blog is like a conversation piece. It is something you can use to display your personality and share your thoughts with the world. It is a great way to build your personal brand.
Build Relationships – The more connections you have in life, the more connections you have in business. Building relationships is the best way to get recommendations from people you trust. People are more likely to vouch for you if they know you and like you.
Build & Maintain An Influencer Network – Influencer networks are great ways to build your personal brand. There are thousands of networks out there, but not all are built equally.
Some influencer networks are better than others. It is important to find the right one for you because not all influencer networks are created equal.
A high-quality influencer network is like a hand in the hand. It gives you a lot of power and, at the same time, shows your audience that you trust them enough to provide value.
5 Critical Steps To Building A Personal Brand
Step 1: Integrity
The first step to building your personal brand is to have integrity. You can choose to be yourself on social media sites, but you cannot be fake to all the people that you meet in real life.
You can have integrity in one of two ways:
- Be true to yourself – This is the most important thing to remember when building a personal brand. If you are being yourself, then people will know exactly what to make of you.
- Keep your word – This is important when building any brand. If you make a promise, then you need to keep it. It does not matter if it is online or in real life. If you make a promise, then you need to follow through.
Step 2: Education
The second step to building your personal brand is to keep learning. Knowledge is power. If people know more than you about a certain topic, they will associate you with authority on that topic.
You can have integrity and be well-informed at the same time. All you have to do is to research things a bit and present your findings in an accurate and concise manner.
Do your research by visiting websites, reading articles and books, and watching videos. You can also participate in online discussions and take part in Q/A sessions.
Step 3: Expertise
The third step to building your personal brand is to be an expert. It is important to have certifications and credentials to back up your expertise.
You can display your expertise in different ways. If you are a business owner, you can include links to your certifications and licenses in your website. If you are a blogger, you can add citations at the end of your post.
Step 4: Relationships
The forth step to building your personal brand is to build relationships. You can use social media to build real-life relationships with people.
You can do this by becoming a member of social groups on social media sites. Joining social groups on social media sites makes you more approachable to the public.
People will feel more comfortable approaching you with questions if they see that you are part of a social group.
Step 5: Reputation Management
The fifth and final step to building your personal brand is to manage your reputation. Your reputation is the sum total of all the things people think about you, both good and bad.
Your reputation is important because it can make or break your personal brand. If you build a great reputation, then people will want to work with you.
However, if people see negative reports about you online, then they will be cautious before choosing to work with you.
I have shared with you an extensive introduction to personal branding. The next step or you is to take action on what I have shared. To help you with this step register for my free personal branding program called Build Your AU.
Register for the program here.
Helping you build your authenticity, authority and audience.
Trish Davies
Build Your AU
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