Marketing your business is one thing, but leveraging yourself is quite another. If you’re the “face” of your business, personal branding is your secret weapon.
Personal branding is the conscious and intentional effort to create and influence public perception of an individual. This is done by positioning them as an authority in their industry, elevating their credibility, and differentiating themselves from the competition, to ultimately advance their career, increase their circle of influence, and have a larger impact.
The process of personal branding generally involves finding your uniqueness, building a reputation on the things you want to be known for, and then allowing yourself to be known for them. Ultimately, the goal is to create something that conveys a message and that can be monetized in the world of business.
Some of the world’s most famous faces have successfully nailed personal branding without most consumers even realising it, and just one example is the tale of Reginald Kenneth Dwight. Raised by his grandparents in council housing on the outskirts of London, young Reggie quickly realised that if he was to be taken seriously in music, he would have to craft an alternate version of himself to present to the world. With the addition of a few outlandish costumes, a few short years later Reggie Dwight transformed into Sir Elton Hercules John: global superstar. While the two distinct personalities are still the same physical person, it’s Sir Elton that is considered to be a musical god, sold millions of records around the world and even earned a knighthood on the back of his personal branding.
While not levels of personal branding need be quite so drastic, it is a tool that can help just about market themselves as a key figure within their industry or sector, and can in turn help to essentially monetise your face, voice or knowledge – so how do you get it right?
Five Tips On Nailing Personal Branding
Considering the constantly evolving job market and our “look at me” cultural shift, it’s both helpful and somewhat of a necessity to stand out when applying for work or starting your own company. People want to know who you are behind the resume or website and what you stand for, which makes personal branding a notion that applies to just about everybody in the digital age – so where do you start?
Find Your Niche – Some of the most successful and very best examples of personal branding is when the topic in question owns their “niche”. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Instead, don’t be afraid to really dig into the specifics of what you’re all about in order for the right people to find you, and in turn connect with you.
Be Genuine – Let’s face it, not everyone is going to like you no matter who you try to be. Therefore, you might as well be yourself. While you can of course “tweak” the areas of yourself that you want to represent, some level of authenticity will go a long way when it comes to making the most of your efforts. After all, audiences are usually rather good at spotting a fraud.
Own Your Story – Nobody starts to get invested in television series halfway through Season Four, and the same goes for personal branding. Be raw, honest and transparent with your audience about how you got to where you are, as this will go a long way when it comes to humanizing your personal branding efforts.
Make An Impact – Are you on a soapbox on social media spouting useless facts, or droning on about your experiences with little to no value for your audiences? Try to make sure that you’re offering some form of insight to them that both empowers, educates, and ultimately makes an impact. Think about what you are proactively doing to “give back”.
Show, Don’t Tell – Personal branding is about showcasing the very best of your skills and experience to a wider audience. Lead by example, and don’t be afraid to show yourself “on the ground” doing what you do best. This may be on a podcast, using video based social media platforms, or even via workshops getting your “hands dirty” in your industry or sector.
Sourcing Help With Personal Branding
If you’re beginning your personal branding story or are perhaps looking for new ways to reinvigorate your online presence, then working off a top notch content library is essential. This is one of the best ways to “get seen”, promote and legitimate yourself online, and to add value for both new and existing audiences.
However, producing quality, consistent and on brand content takes time, effort, experience and resources – and you’re not alone if you can’t quite commit to that. Avoiding the use of keywords and content marketing all together may actually be doing your brand a disservice, but thankfully, investing in a solid content marketing strategy has never been easier.
Here at Content Hive, producing top quality video and digital content is exactly what we do best. We have itemised a list of digital content services, and allocated credits next to each of these. This means that each month, you can use your credits with us to produce digital content such as social media posts, blog articles, videos and even animated Instagram stories.
We believe that this model means we can produce high quality content in faster than normal delivery times. It also means that because you have a monthly credit, you are going to want to make sure you use these up – and so do we – meaning that your digital content is always consistent.
If you aren’t quite sure where to start on your digital marketing journey and would like to speak to a professional, why not book in a free discovery call with us at Content Hive today to discuss how we can get your brand buzzing online.
