The practice of personal branding has been growing alongside the rising significance of social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Personal branding can be defined as “the practice of creating a brand around a person rather than a business entity.” (Ferreira, 2022) It is recognised that people develop relationships with people they like, not businesses (Stelzner, 2019). As a result, the importance of having a personal brand and effectively using social media to nurture it has become common practice.
The Importance of Personal Branding
Whether we realise it or not, most of us already have a personal brand, as Chen points out “It’s based on aggregated data of your purchasing habits, browsing history and all of your social media posts.” By crafting one’s own personal brand, the individual takes back control and projects how they want to be presented to the world. Personal branding is also a vehicle for leaders to influence people’s thinking “As a CEO, business owner, or founder, your personal brand serves as a huge asset that can grow your company both publicly and internally” (Stelzner, 2019). Being seen as a thought leader in your field and building trust will attract potential customers and develop connections with employees (Heitzman, 2022). Additionally, a strong personal brand can assist with employment opportunities “57% of employers are less likely to interview a candidate they can’t find online” (Nauen, 2017).
Using Social Media for Personal Branding
Focus
Central to effectively using social media to drive your personal brand is being clear on your area of expertise. Poswolsky advises the more targeted your brand, the more relevant and memorable you will be to your audience.
“Carve a niche, and then carve a niche within your niche. The best personal brands are very specific.”
Poswolsky
Brand Story
Providing a strong positioning statement or brand story will help to build readers trust (Patel, n.d). The best brand stories contain personality, colour, emotion and other people (Chan, 2019). Gary Vaynerchuk has a compelling back story detailing his humble beginnings bagging ice for his family wine business to transforming it to a multi-million dollar business via ecommerce.
Consistency
Keeping a consistent profile across all social channels, helps your audience to recognise and recall your brand. Peg Fitzpatrick is a great example of presenting a consistent design for her blog posts and applying it to her social media accounts (Lee, 2015).
Content
Regularly posting interesting content is important to fostering a loyal following. “It is not a coincidence that the most successful personal brands today (Grant Cardone, Marie Forleo, Gary Vaynerchuck, just to name a few) publish significant amounts of content online to help build and nurture their audience.” (Basu, 2021) Richard Branson is considered by Connected Women to be “The Poster Boy of Personal Branding”, and is a great example of providing steady, relevant content with great imagery to his audience. Running through his blogs is clear messaging on what his values and passions are “When people feel like they know who you are and what you stand for, they’re more likely to trust you. (Heitzman, 2022) His social media posts typically link back to the blog page, so audiences can read more.
Video Content
Video content is becoming a particularly popular media on social. Goldie Chan ignited her career posting videos on LinkedIn, one every day for 365 days becoming one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices. In her Transform Your Personal Brand training video on LinkedIn she states, “social video gives the most organic reach on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.” Another example is Maria Forleo, an American Entrepreneur who has leveraged the power of personal branding with a range of training video’s available on her site to help individuals succeed in business and in life.
Summary
Personal branding is essentially your reputation, it takes time and effort to build this. Using social media to promote your personal brand can accelerate the process, allowing your reputation to proceed you. There is a sea of profiles on social media, so having a captivating personal brand can help you stand out from the crowd and attract an audience. Not only that, people are more prepared to trust individuals than businesses “If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if people trust you, they’ll do business with you” (Zig Ziglar).
References
Basu, T. (2021) ‘How to Build a Personal Brand (Complete Guide)’ Thinkific [Online] Available at: https://www.thinkific.com/blog/personal-branding-guide/ [Accessed 27 September]
Richard Branson. Available at: https://www.virgin.com/branson-family/richard-branson-blog [Accessed 27 September].
Chan, G. (2018) ’10 Golden Rules of Personal Branding’ Forbes [Online]. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/goldiechan/2018/11/08/10-golden-rules-personal-branding/?sh=2890716758a7 [Accessed 27 September].
Chan, G. and Madecraft (2019) ‘Transform Your Personal Brand’ LinkedIn [Online]. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/transform-your-personal-brand [Accessed 27 September].
Chen, J. (2017) ‘The Ultimate Guide to Personal Branding’ Sprout Social [Online]. Available at: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/personal-branding/ [Accessed 25 September].
Ferreira, N.M. (2022) ’10 Personal Branding Tips That’ll Elevate Your Business In 2022’ Oberlo [Online]. Available at: https://au.oberlo.com/blog/personal-branding [Accessed 23 September 2022].
Peg Fitzpatrick. Available at: https://pegfitzpatrick.com/ [Accessed 27 September].
Heitzman, A. (2022) ‘What Is Personal Branding? Here’s Why it Is So important?’ Search Engine Journal [Online]. Available at: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/what-is-personal-branding-why-important/327367/#close [Accessed 25 September].
Joshi, S. (2017) ‘Richard Branson: The Poster Boy of Personal Branding’ Connected Women [Online]. Available at: https://www.connectedwomen.co/magazine/richard-branson-the-poster-boy-of-personal-branding/ [Accessed 27 September].
Lee, K. (2015) ‘The 5 Keys to Building a Social Media Strategy for Your Personal Brand’ Buffer [Online]. Available at: https://buffer.com/resources/social-media-strategy-personal-branding-tips/ [Accessed 27 September].
Maria Forleo. Available at: https://www.marieforleo.com/ [Accessed 27 September].
Nauen, R. (2017) ‘Number of Employers Using Social Media to Screen Candidates at All-Time High’ Career Builder [Online}. Available at https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/number-of-employers-using-social-media-to-screen-candidates-at-all-time-high-finds-latest-careerbuilder-study-300474228.html [Accessed 25 September].
Patel, N. (n.d) ‘How to Create an Authentic Brand Story that Actually Improves Trust’ Neil Patel Blog [Online]. Available at: https://neilpatel.com/blog/create-authentic-brand-story/ [Accessed 27 September].
Shutterstock (2018) You Are Your Own Brand [Photo] in Descript. Available at: https://www.descript.com/blog/article/what-is-personal-branding-sharing-your-skill-sets-and-strengths [Accessed 4 October 2022].
Stelzner, M. (2019) ‘Personal Branding: How to Successfully Build your Brand’ Social Media Examiner [Online]. Available at: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/personal-branding-how-to-successfully-build-brand-rory-vaden/ [Accessed 23 September 2022].
Gary Vaynerchuk. Available at: https://garyvaynerchuk.com/ [Accessed 27 September].
Zig Ziglar. Available at: https://twitter.com/TheZigZiglar [Accessed 27 September].
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