Discover the unique qualities that make up your own Personal Brand
You’ve probably heard the expression “branding yourself,” or maybe you’ve even used it. It’s become a buzzword for personal success, and for good reason: it’s a great way to make sure that people remember who you are and what you’re about. But there are lots of ways to build a brand, from getting a tattoo of your name on your forearm to making sure that everything from your business cards to your social media accounts reflects your personal style and values. In this guide, we’ll walk through 9 steps that will help you discover the unique qualities that make up your own personal brand.
1. Ask yourself why you want to build a personal brand
Before you start building your personal brand, you need to ask yourself: why do I want to build a personal brand? What do I hope to achieve by building a personal brand? How will it benefit me and others? Once you have answered these questions, the next step is figuring out what your goals are for your personal brand. You should think about what type of content you want to share on social media or in other places online; how often do you want to post; who are your target audiences and how can they benefit from this information.
2. Be honest with yourself
Whether you’re writing a marketing plan or setting goals for the year, it’s important to be as honest as possible with yourself and your personal brand. You should know your strengths and weaknesses; what you want to achieve; what you want to avoid; what lessons you need to learn; your values, goals, limitations and more.
3. Identify your target audience
Identifying your target audience is one of the first steps you must take in creating a strong personal brand. This may seem like an easy task, but it can be tricky if you do not have a clear idea of who you are speaking with.
For example, if I were to say “I am speaking to my audience,” what would that mean? What exactly am I trying to convey? If I were trying to talk about my brand, how would I approach it?
Let’s say for example that my target audience is young adults between the ages of 18–25 who are interested in fitness and health related topics. In order for me to build a strong personal brand, I need them (the target) know what they want and need from me as well as how they prefer their information delivered so that when they see something from me they will be able to make an informed decision based on whether or not this topic is relevant enough for them at this time in their lives.
4. Research your competition
A very important step to building a strong personal brand is researching your competition. What are they doing that you’re not? Why are their personal brands more successful than yours? To find out, look at what others in your industry are doing and see if there’s anything you can learn from their mistakes.
Finally, don’t forget about your audience! Find out what your audience wants from the people they follow on social media; then make sure that you’re giving it to them with every post. They’ll appreciate it and so will anyone else who sees those posts — and when they see how much effort you’ve put into making them happy by delivering valuable content, they’ll be more likely to pay attention when it comes time for them to hear about whatever product or service it is that your company has created.
5. Define your unique selling point
Define what makes you different from your competitors. The easiest way to do this is by asking yourself: “What makes me special?”
When we think about it, there are really only three possibilities:
- My skills and experience are better than anyone else’s in my field.
- I can provide something that no one else offers.
- There’s something about me that’s so unique or cool, people will want to work with me because of my personality alone (e.g., my sense of humor or fashion sense).
6. Create a mission statement and a value proposition
The next step is to identify your mission statement and value proposition. Your mission statement should be a short, clear statement of the purpose of your personal brand. It will provide a frame for how you want to be perceived by others. A good example of this would be: “I am an expert in social media marketing who enjoys helping people improve their lives through my work” or “I am an author who writes books that help people become more productive and successful in their lives.”
Your value proposition is a statement that describes how your product or service will benefit your audience by meeting one or several needs they have identified as important to them. For instance, if you are trying to sell books on Amazon, then there are many possible ways this could manifest itself. For example, you could state that buying one of your books will make the reader more productive
7. Determine the platforms where you want to be active
It’s important to note that just because a platform makes sense to you, doesn’t mean it will be right for your target audience. For example, if you know you want to be an author and write books, then blogging might not be the best choice.
The question of platforms is a big one, so we recommend creating an inventory of all the platforms where you could potentially participate (social media, podcasts, video etc.). Then choose three or four where your target audience hangs out and start there with small bets on each one until one begins resonating with people in real time.
8. Stay consistent and true to your goals
You might have a vision for your brand, but if it’s not rooted in what matters most to you personally, it won’t feel authentic or resonate with others as much.
So how do you stay consistent? Here are some tips:
- Be clear about what matters most to you. For example, if being healthy is one of your core values (and let’s say that it is), then make sure that everything about the way you go about living your life reflects this value — the food that you eat and cook; the exercise routine that fits into each day…everything!
- Stay focused on the big picture by keeping track of what’s important through daily planning. By doing this consistently and often enough over time, we can ensure that our actions align with our values and goals rather than fall prey to distractions or unexpected events along our journey as entrepreneurs or freelancers (or whatever else).
9. Treat it like a business, but realize it’s not all about money (or shouldn’t be)
You can’t just sit back and expect your personal brand to take off on its own. It’s not like your mom will start telling all her friends about how great you are, or that if you make one really good tweet people will notice it and start following you around. You have to work for it. And as with any business, there are two major factors that go into building your personal brand: time and money.
You may be thinking “I don’t have any money,” but let me stop you right there: yes, you do! Everyone has something they’re willing to invest in their future. Maybe it’s taking an extra class at community college so that when the job market heats up in ten years, your skills will be relevant again; maybe it’s taking a part-time night job as a bartender so that when people ask what sort of experience led you to become an expert on customer service (or whatever), all you’ll have to say is “working at a bar.” If there was ever a time where we should all be thinking about our long-term goals instead of just focusing on today’s problems — and getting paid for them — it’s now!
And here’s another thing about time: we’re all going to die someday; nothing lasts forever. So if we don’t invest some of our precious remaining moments into building ourselves up now, who knows how wasted those moments will feel later?
Building a strong personal brand takes time and effort, but it’s worth it. By following these steps, you can build yourself a strong personal brand that will help you stand out from the crowd. Just remember, you should think of it as a business, but realize that it’s not all about money. Also, it’s very important to take care of your brand because once you’ve created it, you’ll have little control over how people perceive it.