You already know how difficult it is for your business to be known in the online world. Creating your brand and putting it out there, as well as, creating brand awareness and conversations can be tiring at best. Today, it is not enough to have a good logo and website presence. That is why I’m going to discuss how to create your personal brand.
Definition of Personal Brand
As you know, I love to first look at the definition of terms we discuss. You may be wondering, “what is a personal brand?”. Adam Heitzman’s article on Search Engine Journal defines personal branding as…
“Personal branding is the process of creating an identity for yourself as an individual or business. This involves developing a well-defined and consistent look, message, and presence online and offline.”
-Adam Heitzman on Search Engine Journal
How To Begin
Personal branding is more than logos, colors, and websites. It is all about sharing your life and business life with your audience. Personal branding is about sharing who you are and what makes you tick. Your audience wants to KNOW YOU before purchasing from you.
Your audience will come to know, like, and trust you through your personal branding. This is why personal branding plays a huge role in helping to develope your brand in the minds of your audiences.
An Example
Most of you already know that I am a woman of strong convictions and beliefs. I hold myself to honesty and integrity as I help my clients. What you may not know, however, is that I did not come to these beliefs until after I was married.
Truth be told I always valued honesty and although I understood integrity at an academic level I didn’t really understand why it was important to hold to it. Nor did I know why honesty was important until my life changed at the very core of who I was. That change was due to my becoming a Christian about 6 months after my husband and I were married.
This would affect every part of my life from that point on. This is an example of sharing something personal. You may not be ready to go that deep yet. Or you may think your audience isn’t ready for it but take it one step at a time.
Consistency – Here We Go Again
If you are a loyal reader, you know I talk a lot about consistency. There is no exception in consistency as you develop your personal brand. I think it is important to recognize that as we develop our personal brands we still must remain consistent if others are going to recognize our brands.
If our content is still king then consistency is the kingdom that is holding up the crown.
~Tammy
I thought it may be helpful to share my little secret to consistency. Yes, I’m giving away one of my little secrets.
Tips To Help You Be Consistent
- Set up a schedule and stick to it.
- Create content (in this case I’m specifically speaking of a blog article but could be podcasts, videos, and more)
- Create graphic templates that you can easily plug in the information each week (or however often you write blog articles). I use Canva most of the time. I create a template and then each week simply go in and add the needed content.
- Take copy from your article, video, or podcast, and pick out 5 tips to add to your graphics.
- Split the 5 tips out – 1 per day, Monday through Friday. Add each tip to one of your graphics (see the example below).
- Schedule each tip to appear on your social media channels, one tip per day.
Examples of Template and Filled Template:
Blog Tips Template (above).
Example of Blog Template Filled With Tip Information From My Blog (above).
This is a pretty easy way to stay current and consistent. It always helps to get a few weeks ahead so that if you are sick or go on vacation you will already have content scheduled well in advance.
Genuine, Real & Vulnerable
When developing your personal brand it is important that you are being genuine, real, and vulnerable at times. This does not mean that you are using your brand’s voice to create a personal diary online.
Sharing But Not Oversharing
Instead, it simply means that keeping your personal life out of your business life does not work today. Again, not that you overshare or share everything but it is alright to be a real human being that is relatable to your audience.
Audiences today really want to know your story and hear you share your struggles. People want to know the person or persons behind the brand they purchase from today.
This is not always easy and in fact, can cause a severe amount of stress. So let’s try to break it down and see if we can make it simple.
Sharing Your Life With Stranger
Start small and share a little at a time. Test the waters and the online platforms to see which ones you receive the most positive engagement from on your social channels. Begin with something about your day in your business.
What NOT To Share
Do not share a sales pitch but rather something more about you and your life even if in the business at first. Each day you can try to share a little more about yourself, personally. For instance, you may introduce one of your pets to your audience. If you do not have pets perhaps you can share why you do not (is it due to allergies, etc.).
Slowly begin to share a little more about yourself and why you started your business or brand. Is it because you needed additional household income, or so you could work from home, or you wanted to add to the sustainable way of life? As you open up you will begin to see others sharing with you as well. Eventually, it will be second nature.
Tips To Get Your Personal Brand Started
To get your personal branding started try writing about these things.
Things To Share When You First Begin:
When you first begin developing your personal brand these tips may help you get started.
- Something that happened during the day that surprised you
- Something that made you happy
- Share a disappointing business event (ex. a potential client who changed their mind or a deal that didn’t go through)
- Share a mistake you made in business this week
- Share a win that you are excited about
- Share a past hurt and how it affected you in business
- Share something new you learned this week
Always bring these back around to you and your personal brand. Not in a salesy way but rather in a way that explains how it helped you or your business. All Influencers had to start somewhere.
The more you are willing to share (again, not overshare) about yourself, your day in your business, and even your blunders or mistakes, the more others will share with you as well. By sharing, especially your mistakes, you are giving permission for others to be vulnerable with you.
Thank you for stopping by. I hope you will stop by again soon.
To Your Continued Success,
If you need help with your personal brand or marketing please take a look at my marketing coaching packages to see if it is a good fit for you.
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