If you scroll through your social media feed, you will realize that there are a lot more thought-leaders, experts, and speakers popping up and sharing their thoughts all day long on their social media channels.
While this has been taking place for a while, it’s now something that people are aware of, and they're learning how it can help them "humanize" their business.
This is a little something called personal branding!
So, what exactly is personal branding?
Your personal brand is how you promote yourself. It is the expertise, experience, and personality that you want everyone else to see about you.
Personal branding is often an important part of marketing for any brand because prospective clients are choosing to work with you - because you're YOU.
And no, you don’t need a huge following to have a personal brand. In fact, if your personal brand is on-point and thoughtfully executed, that’s how your following will grow!
Let’s go through the different things that you'll need to establish and bring together to define YOUR personal brand.
Mission
The first thing you should establish for your personal brand is WHAT exactly is your mission? What is it that you stand for? What do you want to achieve through your personal brand? What message do you want to get across? What do you value? This often deeply coincides with your business's mission, so that can be a great starting place.
Once you have the answers to these questions, you will have a clear direction in what the business of YOU is all about. It will make it easier for you to create your business plan and will also help you establish your content strategy.
Voice
Depending on who exactly your target market is, you must pick a voice that resonates with that market. For example, if you’re in the self-development space and you want your personal brand to take a “no BS approach” to things, then you can pick up a voice that is more transparent and straightforward. Ultimately, you want to be as authentically true to yourself as possible in a way that still is relatable to your audience.
Once you’ve mastered your voice, make sure to keep it consistent on all of your platforms and throughout your marketing communications.
Visuals
For your audience to recognize you as they scroll through their social media feeds, it’s important that you establish a visual identity for your personal brand. This includes a color palette, fonts, and photography style -- and stick to them! Once these aspects of your visual identity are chosen, you must stay consistent as this will train your audience’s eyes to easily recognize you.
Once you have all of these items established, you’re ready to go on and grow your brand! Truly, my best piece of advice is to not be afraid to be authentically you. At the end of the day, people choose to work with you and buy from you...because you are YOU!
If you’re looking to get started with your personal brand but need clarification or are hesitant, let's chat a bit. I have a few strategies I can share with you to make easing into your personal brand possible.