Personal branding is the now and the future. It seals more opportunities and secures growth for your professional journey by helping others identify why you are the right choice.
It revolves around 2 elements.
- Creation
- Communication
You need to create a unique identity and communicate your value proposition to build reputation and trust. This in turn helps attract new opportunities along with unveiling your hidden strengths (which you might not know before).
But everything in personal branding starts from strategy. We don’t want to shoot arrows in the dark. Here are five steps to create a successful personal branding strategy. Let’s go.
1. Define your goals and audience
The first step is to clarify what you want to achieve with your personal brand and who you want to reach. Some possible goals are:
- To establish yourself as an expert or thought leader in your field
- To attract more clients, customers, or opportunities
- To grow your network and influence
- To increase your visibility and credibility
- To express your values and passions
Your audience is the group of people who can help you achieve your goals, such as potential employers, customers, partners, peers, mentors, or media. You need to understand their needs, challenges, interests, and preferences, so you can tailor your message and value proposition to them.
2. Identify your unique value proposition
Determine what makes you different and valuable to your audience. Your unique value proposition is the combination of your skills, experience, personality, and values that sets you apart from your competitors and showcases your strengths.
Some questions to help you identify your unique value proposition are:
- What are your core skills and expertise?
- What are your achievements and accomplishments?
- What are your passions and interests?
- What are your values and beliefs?
- What are your personality traits and style?
- How do you solve problems and add value to others?
3. Create your personal brand identity
The third step is to create your personal brand identity, which is the visual and verbal representation of your personal brand. Your personal brand identity includes:
- Your name and tagline: These are the words that identify you and summarize your value proposition. For example, “John Smith, The Marketing Guru” or “Jane Doe, Helping You Live Your Best Life”.
- Your logo and color scheme: These are the graphic elements that symbolize your personal brand and create a consistent look and feel. For example, you can use your initials, a monogram, or a symbol as your logo, and choose colors that reflect your personality and style.
- Your voice and tone: These are the ways you communicate your personal brand through your words and expressions. For example, you can use a formal, informal, professional, casual, friendly, or humorous voice and tone, depending on your audience and goals.
- Your bio and story: These are the texts that describe who you are, what you do, and why you do it. Your bio is a short and concise summary of your personal brand, while your story is a longer and more detailed narrative of your background, journey, and vision.
4. Build your online presence and reputation
Build your online presence and reputation on the platforms and channels where you showcase your personal brand and interact with your audience.
Your online presence and reputation include:
- Your website and blog: These are the central hubs of your personal brand, where you can display your portfolio, testimonials, services, products, and content. Your website and blog should be easy to navigate, user-friendly, and SEO-optimized.
- Your social media profiles and pages: These are the extensions of your personal brand, where you can share your insights, opinions, updates, and stories. Your social media profiles and pages should be consistent, engaging, and relevant to your audience and goals.
- Your online reviews and ratings: These are the feedback and evaluations from your customers, clients, or peers, which affect your credibility and trustworthiness. You should monitor, manage, and respond to your online reviews and ratings, and encourage positive ones.
5. Grow and maintain your personal brand
The final step is to grow and maintain your personal brand, which are the actions and strategies that help you increase your exposure, influence, and impact. Some ways to grow and maintain your personal brand are:
- Create and share valuable content: Content is the currency of your personal brand, which showcases your expertise, knowledge, and value. You should create and share content that is relevant, useful, and engaging to your audience, such as blog posts, articles, videos, podcasts, ebooks, webinars, etc.
- Network and collaborate with others: Networking and collaboration are the keys to your personal brand, which expand your reach, connections, and opportunities. You should network and collaborate with others who share your vision, values, and goals, such as influencers, mentors, peers, partners, etc.
- Learn and improve continuously: Learning and improvement are the drivers of your personal brand, which enhance your skills, experience, and performance. You should learn and improve continuously by seeking feedback, taking courses, attending events, reading books, etc.
Personal branding is not a one-time project, but a lifelong journey. The best part? You will find friends, build communities and establish unshakeable industry authority during your journey. By following these five steps, you can create a personal branding strategy that helps you achieve your goals and stand out from the crowd.