Self-branding can make you stand out in a career field. It will help people, including potential employers, build a mental image of what you are capable of. Allowing this audience a glimpse of your story can make sure that the jobs you pursue or the content you create only further builds on the personal brand you have been creating.
Making a personal brand can also help your business if you are an entrepreneur or a social media content creator. Having a personal brand will ensure a baseline connection with your audience. If people come across your content and find your personal brand intriguing or relatable, they will more quickly connect with you and your aspirations.
How Do I Create My Personal Brand?
Are you an entrepreneur who is starting your own business? Are you an aspiring makeup artist who posts Youtube videos? Are you creating content for yourself or others on social media or other online content-sharing platforms?
Understanding Your Brand
You must define what your business is and make sure that it is at the forefront of the way you are presenting yourself online and in professional settings. Be sure that when you are beginning to define your brand that you are honest. Creating a brand that doesn’t truly align with your identity or career can cause you to falter. It creates an obviously inauthentic persona that your audience will soon come to see as a facade.
Building the brand
Once you feel comfortable with your understanding of the personal brand you would like to present, it is time to begin developing this brand. The first and easiest way to show off your brand is by creating an online presence that has your personal brand as its backbone.
Put out videos and images on social media that represent your brand and the audience will soon begin to understand the brand you are trying to build. Creating videos, whether you choose to post them on Youtube or other social media platforms, is a way to easily both show and tell the story of your brand. Your audience will see that your online presence feels more authentic when your online presence is centered around you and your work.
If you are trying to brand your entrepreneurial efforts, you should take a look at other media that entrepreneurs in your industry put out.
Promoting Your Brand
After building and understanding your brand and brand image, it is time to promote your brand. Like any store brand, you should be promoting your personal brand online. Whether this is on social media, a YouTube channel, or a website, you need to understand that your online presence is the way people, and ultimately customers, first perceive you. You need to make sure that your online presence represents your personal brand well.
When promoting your personal brand, be sure to share all your work and be sure to include your personal logo or other branding identifiers with your work. With your online branding strategy, make sure that you understand the way your social media and website presence say about you as an entrepreneur. If you have a physical building for your business be sure that there is cohesiveness between your online presence, online store, or physical store. Not only does it look professional, but it also gives your customers a better mental image of your business, and it is also a key factor in creating branded work.
Tips for Creating a Personal Brand
When you find yourself asking how to brand myself, it’s important to have a solid platform of information to stand on. Here are some tips for creating a personal brand.
Make it Authentic:
Authenticity is hard to fake. When creating your personal brand it is much easier to build a brand with ideas and beliefs that align with your personal ones. It will make promoting your brand and staying true to your brand much easier. Also, if you are trying to find a personal brand, you want customers or other professionals in the industry to respect and trust your work. If you put up a false front and brand yourself as something you are not, it will become quite obvious in your work.
Include Your Personal Story:
Personal brands are, well, personal. If you include your story in your self-branding plan. The story behind your brand and your business is something that people take an interest in. It creates a more well-rounded brand identity. Make sure people understand the story, life, and passion behind your personal brand.
Be Patient:
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was Nike, Target… or a large social media following. You get the point. Your brand is something that will grow with you. Make sure you continue to put time and effort into self-branding and making yourself stand out in whatever industry you are trying to brand yourself in, but don’t get discouraged if the results aren’t immediate. Branding is always a marathon, so know that your efforts will pay off eventually.