Intentional or not, you likely already have a personal brand. If you have a Twitter, Facebook and/or LinkedIn profile you have a personal brand. If you aren’t being intentional about how you use those accounts your brand could be misrepresenting you. Building a successful personal brand helps you build relationships and advance your career.
Why is building a successful personal brand important? People will research you before meeting you. Recruiters, potential business partners, clients, etc. usually start by searching your name. What they find will determine if they reach out and make contact.
Your personal brand highlights what you have to offer and your knowledge or expertise (thought leadership). It also demonstrates your confidence and establishes credibility in a field or on a topic.
Take Control of Your Personal Brand with These Tips
- Keep your profiles updated, relevant and keyword focused
- Consistency in frequency and messaging are key
- Have
paitence because building your brand will take time - Reciprocate by engaging with your networks posts
- Let your passion come through
1) Update Your Profiles and Be Consistent
First of all, dust off those social profiles you created and get them updated. Make sure you have a good photo. Make sure there are consistencies between your bios and tag-lines across each of your profiles. Have 2-3 keywords that describe who you are and what you do and include those in each of your profiles. Your social profiles are usually the first search results for your name and
2) Paitence Is a Virtue When Building a Successful Personal brand
It takes time and repeated effort to build a successful personal brand to gain traction. It is rare to get immediate gratification because you won’t gain a large number of followers/connections overnight. Your posts won’t get a lot of likes, shares or comments right away. Don’t become discouraged.
3) Daily Effort
Show up daily and put focused effort into your social media accounts by posting or engaging. You miss opportunities if you aren’t consistent in your messages and the frequency of your posts. An opportunity to stay connected to your audience, an opportunity to practice which helps you get better over time. Consistency is key in building a successful personal brand and posting less than perfect posts are better than no posts at all. Don’t let great be the enemy of the good.
4) Don’t Just Broadcast but Build Relationships
Social media doesn’t work if you are only broadcasting unless you are a celebrity. When people comment on your posts, respond. If they share one of your posts then thank them. If you post a question and get answers, respond and engage. Return the favor and comment, like or share something of people who frequently engage in your posts. Identify the thought leaders in your industry and engage in their posts, mention them in a post and start meaningful conversations. Reciprocity goes a long way in building a successful personal brand.
5) Make It Something You Are Passionate About
It doesn’t matter if it is as specific as CyberSecurity or broad as leadership, whatever you are setting out to be known for, make sure it is a passion of yours. Because building and maintaining your personal brand requires a bit of effort, your genuine passion for the purpose will keep you focused and fulfilled.
The question isn’t are you ready to build your brand, rather it is are you ready to take control and get intentional about creating a successful
Growing a successful personal brand isn’t quite as hard as growing an orchid but as with an orchid, it takes consistent nurturing and effort. Regularly creating and posting content puts you one step closer to the personal brand you want. Success often comes from that one post that goes viral but that won’t happen if you aren’t putting yourself out there.
Ready for more on Personal Branding? Check out Developing a Social Media Marketing Strategy for Your Personal Brand.
