Everyone has a personal brand online, whether through their social media accounts, websites, digital portfolios, blog articles, or any other form of communication. This creates an identifiable image that you can use to market yourself and your workplace, as well as the products and services you offer to potential customers.
However, to create a strong and successful personal brand, you need to focus on telling your story, sharing your personality, and connecting with people who share your values. This will make it easier for people to understand you, your business and what you can do, even when you’re not in the same room.
No matter what industry you work in, whether it’s manufacturing, construction or e-commerce and sales, here are five ways you can build a successful personal brand strategy to support both career and business growth.
Understanding values, strengths and credibility
Imposter syndrome is always a hot topic, particularly in PR and marketing, with many feeling self-doubt and fraudulence, having seen other people promoting their successes online and comparing ourselves to others in our industries.
This is often what can prevent us from sharing our thoughts, advice and successes, which is why it is essential to remind ourselves of our values, strengths and skills, as well as what makes us credible.
– Values: Personal and business values are the things that are important to us, the characteristics and behaviours that motivate us and guide our decisions—for example, accountability, opportunism, honesty, passion, and collaboration.
– Strengths: Personal strengths are the skills and actions a particular individual can do well. These can include personality traits such as honesty and kindness, or professional traits such as self-motivation and futility.
– Credibility: Credibility can be looked at from both a personal and professional point of view. Personal credibility consists of integrity, trust, and other personal characteristics, and professional credibility includes things like your education, experience, performance, and demonstrated professional development.
List these out as a part of your branding strategy so that when you feel lost or self-doubt, you can be reminded of what you do best.
Establish audience and objectives
Like any marketing strategy, it is vital to set objectives and a target audience for your personal branding, to identify the type of messaging and content you should be portraying, the platforms you should be communicating and the return on investment from the activity.
For example: my objective is to raise my profile and credibility within target industries (e-commerce, travel, manufacturing, construction and property) as well as marketing and PR by increasing social media following and engagement with an overall aim to support the agency’s new business opportunities.
Personal brand statement
One of the most essential elements of a personal brand is the brand statement. Just like any business and brand has a statement that sets them apart from others, you need to have a strong statement about who you are and what you can do. This will help your audience understand you quickly and easily, making it easy for them to connect with you.
Creating a strong personal brand statement can be difficult, but it’s essential to reflect your skills and what you’re best at accurately. People should be able to understand what you stand for and why they should consider using your services. Additionally, a well-written personal brand statement intrigues potential customers and makes them want to learn more about you.
Let’s say you’re a marketing manager working with e-commerce businesses. Your personal brand statement could be: “I help to fuel e-commerce business growth through SEO-driven PR and marketing strategy.”
Content strategy and planning
To have a memorable personal brand, developing a voice that sounds like you and reflects your unique opinions is important. By asking yourself questions about your point of view and how you want to be perceived, you can develop a voice and content plan that is truly yours.
Try asking yourself:
– How would I describe myself in 3-5 words?
– Is my tone of voice formal or casual?
– Should I use or avoid certain words (i.e. swear words or industry jargon)?
– What do I do better than anyone else?
– What type of information would my target audience benefit from?
– What value can I offer to my network and potential customers?
– What do you want people to know about (i.e. just work or personal things like pets and family)?
– Which groups can you join and engage in community engagement?
Your Linkedin profile
No matter your industry, LinkedIn is an important tool for personal branding. Only some people using LinkedIn are looking for a job; now, the platform is used as a source of information, as a company portfolio, as a way to achieve referrals and as a way to promote products and services.
In order to attract key audiences, your profile must be complete and compelling. Here is a quick guide to spruce up your profile:
1. Your profile photo is people’s first impression of you, so make sure it projects the right image. A high-quality, professional photo will help set you apart. Depending on what kind of personal brand you’re trying to project, choose a picture that shows off your best qualities. If you’re looking for new business or investors, post a picture of yourself that reflects company values.
2. Don’t just list your title and company; make sure to use your headline in the bio. Consider using your positioning statement as your headline to help profile viewers understand you and your objective, making it easy for them to connect with you.
3. List your experience, but ensure you add a description of each role; aim for three paragraphs with no more than three sentences each. If you have moved up within a company, list your roles up the ladder, as this emphasises professional development and supports any statements of values and strengths around work ethic and determination.
4. Add any and all licenses and certifications, whether this applies to your current role or previous one. This will help support credibility and trustworthiness. Listing your skills and strengths on your profile and allowing others to endorse you will also help this.
5. Get in contact with past and current colleagues, clients and community members who can vouch for your work and services. These can be listed just like a review would sit on your Google My Business page, allowing prospects to build further trust and loyalty.
6. Post regularly! And if you’re looking to stand out on the news feed, make sure to include eye-catching content that will interest your target audience. Choose content that reinforces the vision set out in your positioning statement. For example, if you firmly believe in the power of AI technology in the future of marketing, post a SlideShare or infographic on the topic.
7. When curating content, consider the words or phrases your target audience might search for to find someone like you. For example, here at Wild we would focus on key industry keywords such as “digital pr agency”, “digital marketing”, or results-related keywords, including “business growth”, “increase e-commerce sales”, etc.
For more insight on raising online visibility and profiles, check out our news section and portfolio for recent results and advice.
Written by: Kayleigh Morgan, PR Account Manager – Wild PR
Published date: 26th April 2023