Did you ever Google your name? What came up? Nothing! Or were you content with that picture you found of yourself after scrolling 20 pages on the image section, which was uploaded on Facebook God knows when?
If you just nonchalantly shrugged at the question and rolled your eyes at it, then it looks like you have not spent much time developing your personal brand.
When you Google Kylie Jenner, the entire first page is completely devoted to her online presence. You will see her business pages and her social media pages and various websites where articles about her are published. You don’t even have to click on any of the links to understand that her brand is related to beauty and fashion. This is because she has devoted her time and efforts to building her niche.
In the ever-evolving market space and the new look at me syndrome, it is both helpful and necessary to stand out when applying for a job or even starting your own company.
A personal brand is for everyone.
Creating a personal brand at first sounds very intimidating and will require a lot of time and effort. It won’t happen overnight of course. But once you do it, the benefits are endless. The trick is to find out exactly where you need to spend time for the expected results.
Reasons why you need a personal brand.
It helps you break the clutter and stand out.
A personal brand is a great way to demonstrate your mastery in a particular field.
You might have better knowledge in the field of economics than Dhruv Rathee, but if someone Googles your name and Dhruv Rathee’s name, then he will look better than you because of his personal brand and professional online presence.
A personal brand gives you a chance to showcase what you know and why you know it, and will help you set yourself apart from others looking for the same opportunities but haven’t developed their online presence.
Opportunities know where to knock.
A strong personal brand will lead a lot of opportunities your way. Be it a job interview, or promotions, partnerships, and more, the recruiter will turn to you because of your strong brand presence.
Building a Personal Brand is like building a staircase to reach new heights.
Gives out a sense of credibility.
It is a very natural tendency of a human to not trust people they don’t know. Building a personal brand will put a piece of you out on the platform for them to scrutinize and understand. An employer is more likely to trust someone with a reliable online presence than someone who showed up out of the blue for an interview.
So how to build a personal brand?
If you think just uploading about yourself online will do the job then I sense a bit of a problem here. Starting about a journey without knowing the destination is a bit risky no matter how appealing it sounds. And well not even knowing where to start is also intimidating.
So, what to do?
Listen to your heart with a dash of expert advice and you are good to go.
Here’s a list of all the proven steps that can push you to develop a brilliant personal brand.
Start by finding your niche
What is your intention behind personal branding? To start defining, developing, or building your personal brand, first decide what you want to accomplish with your branding strategy. For example, is your intention simply to present yourself better or more clearly in the world? Or do you have a specific business strategy in mind for building your personal brand?
Add personality to your brand
The first step (finding your niche) is about your own skills and potential market value.
The second step is about what you personally bring to the table. It’s about your point of view which will help differentiate you from everyone else who talks about those same topics
Be genuine
There’s an easy way to have an original personal brand—and that is to be genuine and authentic. Be yourself, but know your stuff! Your goal in personal branding is to build your audience. And your audience is likely to be people who have similar interests, desires, and goals as you. Share from the heart. Tell your story.
Be consistent
Because your personal brand is built around your core values, it is essential to be consistent about how and when you show up. That means consistency in your messaging, your overall branding (like logos, color schemes, etc.) and even when you are posting your content.
Being consistent is very similar to having a narrow focus—it’s much easier to get recognized for one topic if you consistently create content and brand voice around it.
Choose Quality Over Quantity
It’s far better to have 1,000 loyal followers than to have 100,000 people who aren’t 100% clear about who you are.
Conclusion
Personal branding isn't something that happens overnight and it's not something that you should leave up to chance. You need to take control over your personal narrative and make sure that you know exactly what you want to share with your online audience.
Remember that personal brands don't exist in a vacuum. Focus on building relationships with other influencers in your niche. You might even want to work with one or more of them on a joint project. Once your personal brand begins to take off, you'll be more visible online. You can leverage your network, become more identifiable in person, and make your business stronger.
So, what have you done to create and promote your own personal brand?
