Here are 4 easy steps to build a personal brand
What’s your most valuable tool in business? The one thing that’s guaranteed to separate you from your competition is your personal brand.
Whether you’ve built one consciously or not, we all have a personal brand. Your online profile is now the first impression you make, personally and professionally, before you’ve even put a foot in the door.
While some people are happy posting the first thing that comes into their head, if you’re serious about business, you need to be strategic about your personal brand.
Building a personal brand takes time so get started on your personal brand with these 4 easy steps.
1. Get your profile photos and bio sorted
The first step is to check your photos and bios are up to date across all social media platforms.
Make sure your profile photos reflect a setting that suits your business. Profile photos don’t have to be professional headshots. Just leave your holiday photos for your private accounts. And if you haven’t updated your photo for a while, take a new one.
For social media platforms that use a header (Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook) it’s a good idea to use this area valuable page area for logos, a memorable statement or a header image that shows you in action.
As for your profile bio, the key things are to clearly state who you are and what you do. If you’re not sure what to write, have a look around at people you admire and how they describe themselves. Take notes about length and format etc, just don’t copy what they write. This is obviously not cool.
2. Secure your personal website
If you’re building a personal brand, you’ll want people to Google you. A good way to start ranking in search engines is to buy the domain for your name and build a personal website. This is especially important if your name is common. (Think about how many times you’ve tried to Google someone and ended up trawling random profiles in the hope of finding them.)
Buying the domain is the easy part. This takes two minutes. The value is in creating a personal website that looks professional and backs up your personal brand values.
3. Choose one platform to build a loyal audience
Instead of trying to be the funniest person on Twitter or uploading weekly videos on YouTube, commit to one platform and go all-in. Which platform you choose depends on your industry and where your target audience hangs out. If you’re in a visual industry, see you on Instagram. If you want to build a profile as a knowledge-based expert, LinkedIn and Twitter would be better.
4. Make a habit out of it
When you spread yourself too thin on social media it’s easy to run out of steam. Consistency beats enthusiasm. Better to post once a week for a year than to spend two weeks posting twice and day and then…. nothing.
And what do you do when you get to the end of that first year of posting every week? Keep going. Building a personal brand is a journey not a destination. There is no finish line. As you evolve, so does your personal brand.
See this post for more tips on personal branding, why and how to go about it.
