Personal branding says a lot about who you are. A strong personal brand leaves an indelible impression in the minds of others.
There was a time when the term “branding” was reserved for businesses only. But, in the age of digital marketing and gig economy, it has become essential for everyone to embrace personal branding.
A personal brand is the combination of skills, experiences and personality that makes you, YOU. It is how you present yourself to the world. It is what you have to offer, and how you promote it.
How To Build Personal Brand
- What you offer
The first step of your branding journey is to identify what you have to offer, what it is that sets you apart from the rest, and ‘why’ someone should work with you. Your Unique Selling Point, or USP, is what will set you apart and create your niche. What follows is building up that niche and establishing yourself around it so that in future your identity — whether as a person or as a brand — becomes associated with that niche.
Developing a great personal brand doesn’t happen overnight. It’s imperative to be able to communicate your purpose and mission to your audience in a genuine way. It takes time, consistency, hard work and long-time focus.
2. Define your audience
One of the fundamentals of marketing and building blocks of personal branding is knowing your target audience — not only who they are, but also what makes them tick, what their needs are, what resonates with them, and what you can offer that can help them solve their “problem(s)”.
Narrowing down and defining your audience will give you a better understanding of the kind of profile and content your audience wants to see and get access to, in other words — what truly adds value. It will also make it a lot easier for you to create content that is aligned with your personal brand, and make others perceive you the way you want to be perceived. Finally, it will hone in your efforts and make it count, both from a time-spent standpoint and from a financial one.
To define your target audience, you can start by answering these 3 questions:
✅ Where are they from? This will help you decide what language to share texts in.
✅ What are their interests? This will help you understand what can capture their attention.
✅ What are they searching for? This can help you understand what need(s) they have so you can provide “the solution”
If you don’t know where to find this info, or how to start, a tip is to review your current followers, and people who like, comment and engage with your content. Usually, you’ll be able to extract some common interests or patterns amongst them.
3. Tell a story
The human brain is wired to better understand and retain information when it’s presented in the form of stories. Telling a story is a way to build trust. Every brand wants you to trust what it stands for. When you tell a story to your target audience, in the process, you create a bond with them. A powerful story is likely to be remembered and shared, and will turn your audience into your best viral advocates.
That’s why, when you are telling a story, it’s important that it has a purpose and that it’s relevant. The purpose of stories is to put information into perspective, not replace it. So, every story has to fit into the context. The key rule of storytelling is giving your audience an emotion to connect with. Purposeful stories reach the listeners’ hearts and minds and move them to actions.
Here are some tips to help you get started with effective storytelling:
✅ Who are you?
Make sure others understand what you stand for, what your mission and vision is — this is what they will relate to.
✅ What makes you stand out of the crowd?
Showcasing your unique strength can help you establish yourself as an expert in your field.
✅ Messaging & communication
Be consistent in your communications — it will help you build brand recognition and brand recall.
✅ Perseverance
Building a brand is like raising a child — patience is key. It takes time, effort and perseverance.
✅ Let others do the talking
This cannot be stressed enough — when others reshare your story, you know you have been successful in establishing a brand identity.
✅ Be honest
‘Fake it till you make it’ — a common advice given by brand consultants — don’t fall for it. Remember, when your audience becomes your viral advocates, it means they have started trusting you. This is amazing. Now your job is to make sure that trust is not broken, because once broken, it is very hard to build it back.
