What Does Branding Yourself Mean?
A Comprehensive Guide to Personal Branding
Your personal brand is essentially your identity or image in the professional world – it represents who you are as a person and how other people perceive you.
Having a strong personal brand can be incredibly beneficial, since it allows you to market yourself effectively and set yourself apart from the crowd.
While building your personal brand comes with its advantages, it also carries certain risks, including the potential to alienate people or inadvertently misrepresent yourself.
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Unlocking the Power of Personal Branding: The Living by Lex Case Study
How do you create your own personal brand?
There are many different ways to establish and develop your own personal brand. Some effective strategies include:
Creating and maintaining a professional online presence.
This can include building a website or social media profile, joining relevant industry-related groups, and creating valuable content that showcases your skills and interests.
What do you think of when someone mentions a famous brand name?
Perhaps a specific product or service comes to mind, maybe an immediately recognizable logo, or a catchy slogan. Maybe all of the above?
So then when people talk about having a personal brand, what does branding yourself actually mean?
In some ways, it's similar in that by creating a personal brand, you're striving for that same, high level of familiarity, credibility, and professionalism.
You want your personal brand to eventually become as easily recognizable as some of the other big brand names out there. The key difference is that by branding yourself, you're offering a “product” that nobody else can: you.
Why Is Branding Yourself Important?
In this day and age, it might seem like everybody wants to be somebody.
If you've ever visited the Instagram or Twitter page of a company, entrepreneur, or influencer, the app is likely to suggest a list of other accounts offering similar products, services, and/or content.
This can seem overwhelming both as a prospective consumer or as a potential competitor and so that's where having a strong personal brand can come in handy.
Successfully branding yourself will help you to stand out from the crowd and potentially avoid getting lost in the sea of thousands of other people wishing to do the same.
By creating a positive image for yourself and building your credibility, your audience will trust you and your reputation.
Eventually, with a strong enough personal brand, people will come to you for you, regardless of what you're offering.
Here are a few Examples of Personal Branding Done Right
Gary Vee Personal Brand Strategy:
One of the best examples of a personal brand is that of entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuck, also known as “Gary Vee”.
His success story is well-known in the marketing world and can serve as a great example for anyone looking to build their own brand.
He started by building a family business around selling wine, and eventually grew it into a wildly successful online store.
Today, Gary Vee has become known for his expertise in digital marketing and social media, and he frequently speaks at conferences and produces popular content through his website and YouTube channel.
His success is proof that creating a strong personal brand can help you achieve your goals in the business world, and his strategies provide a great roadmap for anyone looking to do the same.
Some of the key principles of Gary Vee’s brand strategy include creating valuable content that showcases your skills and interests, maintaining an active online presence through social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, and partnering with other thought leaders in your industry to build credibility and exposure.
Whether you’re looking to establish your own personal brand or simply learn from some of the best, Gary Vee is an excellent resource to keep in mind.
Chris Do The Futur Brand Strategy:
Another notable example of a personal brand is that of designer and entrepreneur Chris Do, founder of The Futur.
In addition to running his own design studio, Do is also an instructor at the Concept Design Academy in Pasadena.
His personal success story has made him well-known in the creative industry, and he now works with clients all over the world to help them build their own personal brands.
Like Gary Vee, Chris Do has become known for his expertise in a particular area (in this case, design) and frequently produces valuable content that can help others learn and grow in their careers.
He is also an active social media user, using platforms like Twitter and Instagram to connect with his audience and share valuable insights on a regular basis.
Like Gary Vee, Chris Do also focuses on providing valuable content to his followers as a key strategy for establishing a strong personal brand.
Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or simply looking to learn more about the world of design, Chris Do is an excellent resource to keep in mind.
Whether you’re looking to build your own personal brand or simply learn from some of the best, he can help provide guidance and advice on how to achieve success in any field.
Personal Branding Begins With You Knowing Your Vision
First things first – you've got to know and understand your vision or personal brand inside out before you can expect others to jump on board.
What are you setting out to achieve?
Are you selling a product or are you providing a service?
What makes your product or service different than the countless others being offered in your industry?
A clear, focused understanding of your objective or mission statement is a crucial first step in developing your personal brand.
You may be skilled and experienced in various areas and want to offer a wide variety of goods, but more often than not, specializing in one area first is the stronger approach to building and maintaining a dedicated clientele or following. It can be difficult to attract a fan base if whatever you're offering is all over the map without any clear direction.
If you think of most successful companies, internet celebrities, or influencers, many made their start by initially focusing on one type of product and producing it before anyone else in their field or executing it extremely well.
Preferably both. When branding yourself, there's always a risk associated with branching out to different products or content-types, but you're more likely to minimize that uncertainty by establishing a loyal clientele first.
You Have To Know Yourself To Brand Yourself
Once you've figured out what your brand or vision is, you'll want to do some self-reflection.
Why are you offering this product or service?
What makes you different than everyone else equipped with a similar skill set?
Why should people come to you? What makes you, undeniably, you?
Hopefully you'll discover that some of your answers to these questions are closely related to what you consider to be your personal strengths or passions (ideally, both).
When both your skills and interests align it allows you to be genuine and tends to make the process of branding yourself easier and more enjoyable.
That's not to say it's impossible or even ill-advised to create a public persona that differs from your true personality; just keep in mind that you will have to maintain this image across social platforms and that this can be difficult when faced with challenges.
Acknowledging your weaknesses is just as important as determining your strengths.
What are your opportunities for improvement and will they hinder your ability to achieve your vision?
If so, what steps can you take to work on these shortcomings?
Understanding yourself well enough to differentiate and distinguish yourself from your competitors is important in your journey to successful personal branding.
Know the Audience You Want to Attract With Your Personal Brand
Next, you'll want to ensure that you know your audience just as well as you know yourself.
Who are you providing this product or service for and what demographic do they fall in?
Do they really need what you're offering and if so, why get it from you?
As you might have noticed, a lot of these questions go hand in hand with the questions you asked about yourself.
This is because what you have to offer should match the wants and needs of your target audience.
Once you've got a good idea of who your ideal target audience is, you need to determine the best method to reach them.
Social media apps and websites are going to prove to be essential tools to branding yourself, but more on this in the next section.
Knowing your audience is crucial not only because it will help you have a better understanding of the needs of your clients, but it will also have an affect on how you interact and promote your personal brand to them.
Maybe the product or service you're providing is meant to encompass all demographics and that's totally fine. This just means that how you connect with your audience will have to be reflective of that fact as well.
Social Media: The Greatest Tool to Branding Yourself
Ah, social media – so deeply intertwined and embedded into our daily lives that it is almost impossible to function without it.
Some will say that social media can be both a curse and a gift, but in regards to personal branding, you'll find that social media is an invaluable and almost mandatory resource.
It's never been easier to reach thousands, if not millions, of people.
You've done the research and determined your target audience, now it's time to connect with them, but where do you start?
There are more social media sites now than ever before (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Reddit, etc.) so it's important that you're using the correct ones.
Each social media app or website comes with their own unique features and with it, comes a different type of audience.
Coupling your vision with the demographic of your target audience, you need to determine which social media sites you want to appear on. Is your vision or message best suited on Twitter? Instagram? LinkedIn?
Does that align with the audience you're trying to reach?
You might wonder why you don't just sign up for them all – wouldn't you reach more people that way?
That may be true, but you also need to ensure that you have the resources to maintain your image and personal brand on all of them.
Once you start acquiring followers, are you going to be able to connect, communicate, and interact with them all?
It'll prove worthwhile to do the research and focus on the couple of social media websites that are going to provide the biggest reach and impact for your personal brand, rather than casting a wide net hoping that something sticks.
For starters, you may want to analyze data collected by Sprout Social regarding social media demographics to inform your brand's strategy.
Now, earlier we mentioned that social media can also be seen as a curse.
The same way that your positive qualities and traits can reach thousands of people in an instant, any negative experiences or interactions that you may have with your audience can too.
It goes without saying that this will be damaging to your personal brand so it's always wise to exercise caution.
If you're like most of us, it's very likely that you are already on multiple social media websites.
Is your current online footprint representative of the personal brand you want to create and does it convey your values and objectives?
If so, great! If not, you'll want to clean that up so that you're properly showcasing the image you want to across all channels that you own.
Create and Maintain Consistency Within Your Personal Brand
You've chosen the social media websites you want to use and have created your online presence – now what?
Your posts or uploads should be carefully curated to fit your personal brand and catered to your audience.
Think of creating a schedule for your posts; this will help build familiarity and accountability.
If your audience can count on you to upload a new video or blog post say, every Wednesday, then you've given your followers a reason to check back in with you. Check out one of our previous posts on making money blogging specifically.
Give your fan-base a routine and they will appreciate the familiarity, helping to strengthen your personal brand. Not only should your upload schedule be consistent, so should your image across different social media websites. If someone finds you on Instagram and wants to check you out on Twitter, they should know what to expect when they get there.
Sure, the content might be different, but the overall image, theme, and personal brand that you have created should be consistent.
Another thing to consider when branding yourself is that your personal brand and image exists offline too.
If you're interacting with members of your audience in person, your image and values should be consistent here as well.
Make no mistake, a negative experience offline can very easily make its way online, once again damaging the personal brand you're working so hard to create.
Connect With Your Audience and Keep Your Personal Brand Updated
You should be ready to connect and communicate with your audience, even from your very first few followers.
Having timely responses and respectful interactions will help keep your audience engaged and coming back for more.
People love being acknowledged and given the time they deserve so make those responses personal and special (as best you can). Obviously, with a much larger audience it can become impossible to respond to everyone, but dedicating time in your schedule to connect with your followers will help.
Knowing that a company or brand is accessible and responsive is always a good thing so keep that in mind when it comes to branding yourself.
Make sure to keep your audience updated by keeping any links in your profile or bios current. Imagine clicking a link only to find that the page is no longer available.
This doesn't present a good image, especially if the link is to one of your own pages. It'll seem as if you don't really know what's going on and haven't been properly maintaining your personal brand.
Collaborate With Your Peers – Branding Yourself Shouldn't Be a Solo Effort
The same way that you dedicate time to connecting with your audience, you should also be considering collaboration with your peers and/or other professionals outside of your field.
Not only will this help build engagement and widen your prospective audience, it'll lend to your credibility if other respected individuals can vouch for you.
With that being said, aim to be somewhat selective of your collaborations while also keeping in mind that your peers are the ones you're going to be building your personal brand alongside.
Don't burn bridges before they're even built. Remember that with collaborations you should be thinking about what you have to offer just as much as what you're able to gain from the partnership.
The Most Important Key to Successful Personal Branding: Be Yourself
As a recap – be yourself. Be genuine.
Focus your interests and hone your skills and use them to provide your audience with something they can't get anywhere else. Make sure you're passionate about it too.
This will keep you motivated and aid with the longevity of your personal brand. Embrace social media, it'll become your greatest tool to branding yourself.
Create a consistent image and work to maintain it.
Remember that if you want to ensure your online footprint is exactly the way you want it, you'll need to continuously monitor and edit how you're showing up to the world.
Engage and connect with your followers, without them your personal brand will not succeed. Not all of your peers are your rivals; work with them, grow with them. When all is said and done, don't forget that your biggest strength is being you. Use that, because nobody else can.
