Five steps to building your personal brand online
The term “personal brand” often leaves a bad taste in our mouths and, I get it! It can conjure up images of egotistical Apprentice candidates or maybe make us feel suspicious of others’ intentions – after all, why have a brand, when you should just be yourself?
In this blog, I’m going to explore what a personal brand is, why personal branding is growing in popularity among different industries and job types and lastly, how to realistically build your own online presence.
By building your brand, you will be able to stand out among other job candidates and demonstrate to potential employers how great of a fit you are for their company and job openings. The blog will cover how to build your personal brand and how to present yourself in a way that makes you appealing to hiring managers.
Building your personal brand: why does it matter?
Firstly, it’s a good idea to re-frame how you view the term ‘personal brand’. Rather than seeing it as contrived or fake, see it as your opportunity to talk about what you’re great at AND create new connections online.
By showing up consistently online, you’ll stand out among others in your sector/space. As we say in marketing: people buy from people. If you’re able to put across who you are online, you’ll be able to build trust with others!
In fact, during a recent networking call with a group of amazing marketers and brand-builders, we were talking about this very topic and there were some comments from the amazing Matt Davies (if you don’t already, follow him!) that stayed with me. Most poignantly he explained that he used to disagree with the idea of self-promotion, he thought (as many of us do, I too used to feel this way!) that if he’s good at what he does, why shout about it? Surely actions speak louder than words…and after all, isn’t it vain to talk about your success? However, when he pointed this out to a peer, they said that this attitude in itself is smug and short-sighted. If you’re expecting your boss, colleagues or clients to proactively shout about how great you are, you’re not taking accountability for your own narrative. In short, personal branding lets you take control.
My last point here is also that, your personal brand belongs to YOU. It doesn’t belong to your employer or anyone else. Don’t wait until you’re looking for a job to build one, you’re your own biggest asset and nowadays your online presence is a living, breathing portfolio and CV.
Five steps to building your personal brand
1. Consider who you’re communicating to
When developing your personal brand online, it’s important to consider who you’re trying to present yourself to. Are you looking to speak with potential clients? Maybe potential employers? Potential employees? Perhaps you want to be a thought leader speaking to your peers? All these audiences will be looking for different content and opinions.
Spend some time defining who you’re looking to speak to before deciding what kind of content you’re going to create.
2. Identify content types
Now here’s where I put on my content-marketing hat. Once you know who your audience is, you should try and identify the content types you’ll focus on. These content types need to be based-in what your target audience (or audiences) is interested in but also highlight your own expertise/ USPs too.
So, what does good content look like?:
•Based on a customer insight (feedback from customers/clients)
•Consistent with your brand values and integrated with other comms channels
•Engaging but concise, remember people have increasingly short attention spans
•Authoritative and trustworthy
•Have a clear call to action
Also consider news outlets that you can check for news, and inspiration too! If you work in Market Research, keep an eye on Research Live for articles etc you can share and comment on.
3. Identify where you’ll post
Creating content is one thing, knowing where to put it is another. Sometimes it’s a good idea to test and play too. Generally speaking, think about where your target audience is and also how they like to consume content.
If you work in largely B2C space, perhaps focusing on Instagram/Facebook would be better than say, LinkedIn. Don’t try and post everywhere all the time! You’ll get burnt out. Focus your efforts and be realistic.
Also, I’m a huge fan of blogs (well, obviously). If you can write blogs and share content across platforms, not only are you driving traffic to your site AND supporting your site’s SEO, but you’re also owning your marketing. If LinkedIn disappears tomorrow, all your hard work doesn’t!
4. It’s a long game
As with SEO and other content marketing efforts, building a personal brand online won’t happen overnight. Showing up consistently, and focussing on certain topics and audiences, will help you in the LONG run. We all know that just because people aren’t engaging, doesn’t mean they aren’t seeing, reading and paying attention to your content. I’ve secured work six months after engaging with a client online. They watched from afar and eventually, we worked together.
5. Ignore the naysayers
Last but not least, don’t let the fear of looking stupid stop you. No matter what you do and where there will always be someone with a nasty opinion. But as RuPaul says “if they ain’t paying your bills, pay them no mind!”
Hopefully, you’ve been able to take away some useful pointers on how to invest in building a personal brand for yourself. Remember, the first step is to get started. Don’t worry about making mistakes or not knowing what to do, just start! As you gain more experience, you’ll refine your approach. Let me know if this has been useful or if you’d like me to explore more personal branding topics.
