How to create your personal brand – 6 steps

A company brand is a concept that has been around for a long time, and as a result it’s probably safe to assume that everyone is familiar with a few. These days, however, a brand is not only reserved just for companies, a lot of people have their own brands – sports stars and celebrities are prime examples. But it’s not only famous people who make the most of a personal brand. Thanks to the digital age, it’s rather simple for people leave their mark on the world with their own personal brand. A lot of people tend to create their brand by accident, which means they’d probably have a hard time replicating the results. If you’re looking to intentionally create your brand, but aren’t sure where to start here are 6 steps you can take to get your brand off the ground.

Know thyself

One of the first things any company does before they begin branding and selling their product is to ask, okay so who are we and what do we do? The same reasoning and soul searching should happen with you when creating your personal brand. You need to reflect on the type of person you are, the skills you offer and what kind of message you want to deliver. Once you answer these things about yourself, you’ll be one step closer to creating your personal brand.

Define your audience

Once you know who you are and your “vision” it’s time to send out your message. But, before you can speak directly to your audience, or potential audience, you need to know who they are. If you’re a professional seeking a job, your target audience will probably be a company, if you’re an entrepreneur your audience will probably be investors. However, if you’re building a personal brand you should think bigger, think outside the box and try to build up a community of people. Building your network will help you to deinfe your audience.

Inspect your online presence

Take full stock of what your online personality is like – you can’t improve on a situation unless you know what aspects need improving. The first step would be to Google yourself, see what comes up and see what matches to your personal brand. It’s also a good idea to set up regular alerts for your name and any mentions that appear on social media. Brand tracking is one of the most important processes a company will do – because it’s great to build your brand but you also need to be responsive to anything that is being said.

Build your online presence

If you haven’t already now is the time to increase the size of your digital footprint. We suggested before that you should take stock of your online presence, if you did a sweep and came up empty-handed you need to rectify that situation by setting up a few social media profiles. Once you’ve created your online profiles (in particular social media profiles), it’s time to start filling them in. Make them overflowing with relevant information about you and your brand, use keywords and stay on message. You should also consider joining online groups to see what thought leaders are saying. It’s also a good idea to look at building your own personal website. There are plenty of free out-of-the-box solutions that you can use.

Be seen, be heard, be read

Everything is coming along nicely. You have your message, your ideal audience, you social media profiles and maybe even a website. But there’s a piece missing – you have no engagement or followers. Despite what you might have heard, just because you build it, doesn’t mean they’ll come. You need to get out there, write engaging articles, share relevant content. Participate in industry events. Really engage with your audience and be active. If you’re confident enough you can arrange to give speaking engagements. Do as much as you can, just so long as you are seen, heard and read.

Be yourself; everyone else is taken

Authenticity is the final piece of your personal brand puzzle. Be authentic and true to yourself when developing your personal brand. Don’t waste your time pretending to be something or someone you aren’t. People can normally sense when you’re trying to deceive them and nothing will make people ignore you faster than finding out you’re a fraud. So avoid all those unfortunate hiccups and just be yourself, because everyone else is taken.

This simple 6 step guide should hopefully get you on your way to developing your personal brand.

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