First and foremost, why is a personal brand necessary? Three main reasons stand out. To begin with, a personal brand is an investment in your future. It may not yield immediate results, but it allows you to build long-term relationships with your audience and stand out in the market. A personal brand is also a tool to accomplish specific goals. With a well-established personal brand, you can discover new professional opportunities, increase your income, and scale your business. Last, but not least, a personal brand is an outstanding marketing tool. Raising awareness about yourself helps you attain more success when positioning your product in the market. This is why brands seek out famous individuals and influencers to build strategic partnerships. People are much more willing to buy a product that is endorsed by someone they respect or admire. If you are a creator, here are five tips to help you grow your personal brand. 1. Ask yourself, “Where am I standing right now?” Before you start writing posts on social media to develop your personal brand, you need to understand where you are currently positioned and how your competitors, as well as those you want to emulate, position themselves. For this, you need to conduct your own PR analysis, and consider both negative and positive mentions to get an accurate picture of your reputation. To conduct a reputation audit, you can use monitoring systems or search engines like Google to assess the number of mentions you have in the media. Consider the quality and sentiment of the mentions. After this, analyze your social media presence and engagement, by taking the following steps: Assess the frequency of your posts Examine the reach and engagement of your posts Analyze which posts resonate the most with your audience Identify the topics that generate the most interest and engagement Evaluate posts on professional topics Systematize and analyze the gathered information and use the insights to create a content plan for your social networks. When conducting PR analysis, be sure to pay attention to what is currently trending in your industry. An expert is not only someone who can share their experience but also someone who is up to date with the latest news and has a professional opinion on the subject. 2. Decide on your goals and objectives What are you intending to accomplish by developing a personal brand? Are your goals personal or business-related? For example, if you want to position yourself as an expert and sell an online course, you need to develop your personal brand as an individual. If you are the founder of a studio or company, your goal will be more business-oriented, and the brand of your firm needs to be worked on in parallel. There are two strategies for creating a personal brand: copycat and blue ocean. The copycat strategy is when there are many experts with strong personal brands in the same industry, and you try to differentiate yourself through price, speed, or unique approaches, but overall, your offerings are similar to theirs. The second strategy, blue ocean, is when you create a new industry and become a leader in it. In addition to goals, there are also tasks. While goals answer the question "What do you want to achieve?", tasks answer the question "What needs to be done to achieve the goals?". For example, if you are a fashion photographer, a good personal goal for you might be to increase the recognition of your personal brand in the fashion industry. A task in this case would be to create five mentions and publications about you as a fashion photographer in important fashion publications. Once you have defined your goal, it will be easier for you to build your entire communication strategy for your personal brand. 3. Identify the relevant communication channels and audiences Research your audience. But first, you need to define it. Who are your ideal viewers or readers? What are their interests, concerns, and aspirations? And most importantly, why are they subscribing to you? There are many tools to find out, from analyzing your social media page to directly interacting with your audience. Create social polls, interact with your subscribers in the comments and you'll get to know them better. Once you have a profile of your audience, you need to test a few hypotheses about which channels will work best for you. As a rule, social networks, participation in specialized events and media publications form the basis of individual PR. People often wonder how important it is to be present on different platforms. Diversification of content is important for several reasons: Expanding your audience Testing different hypotheses and understanding which platform works best for you Insuring yourself against one of your pages being blocked or hacked We recommend being present on as many platforms as possible, even if you don’t create unique content for each one. You can make one post and adapt it to each of the sites. So, if for Twitter it is important to have a concise message, on Instagram you need to emphasize the visual component. LinkedIn, on the other hand, is suitable for a long and detailed post. The main thing to keep in mind is that each site has its own algorithms. 4. Craft your brand Next, you need to define your brand positioning to set out your action plan for the next six months. Positioning is what separates you from the rest. A good brand positioning has been attained when your idea of what you do well matches the subjects in which people perceive you as an expert in. To accomplish this, answer a few questions: What do I do better than anyone else? What sets me apart from my competitors? What areas do I have expertise in? What are my values? What do my friends, coworkers, and competitors say about me? Then, ask yourself a couple of questions about your audience: What questions would my audience like to have answered? Why am I the right person to answer those questions? Your personal brand should reflect your authentic self. Your unique voice and personality are the foundation of your personal brand, so take the time to explore and understand yourself. If you're still struggling to understand your personal style, try starting to replicate those who you like and who inspire you. By studying and copying others you will begin to realize what is close to you and what is not, and step by step you will begin to carve out your own identity. 5. Get rid of biases So many creators and Influencers face a certain fear of talking about themselves, but self-promotion is an integral part of any business. In today’s digital realities, it is very difficult to grow as a brand without embedding yourself in the picture. If you feel like you can't say anything new, and that there is already plenty of information on all topics of interest to you on the Internet, you are wrong. Two designers working on a similar project will have completely different experiences. Similar may be theoretical knowledge, but it becomes unique when you back it up with your experience and how it works in practice. Very often people are too shy to talk about their achievements and directly promote their product. In this case, you need a self-analysis, which will consist of three parts: Build your portfolio Work on your self-confidence Stop comparing yourself to others It's often the case that we only remember our accomplishments when we're putting together a resume. Building a portfolio will help you understand what expertise you can share with others by backing that expertise up with real-life case studies. Also, a portfolio will boost your self-confidence, which is the basis for building a successful personal brand. Remember that you are unique, and comparing yourself to others often creates a strong fear of failing and hinders your development. Remember that 90% of the information that people share on social media is about their successes, but their lives might look very different behind the scenes. Embrace your journey! Final Thoughts Building a personal brand is a process that can elevate your career to new heights. Also, it can help you to create a business that centers around your values and desired lifestyle, and that keeps you fulfilled and energized, all while growing your income and sharing your experience and knowledge about those fields you love the most.
