If you told most people to create a personal brand, they’d jump straight online, sign up to five different social media platforms and start posting about themselves. It might even start to sound like they’re bragging through their content, because the posts would probably be all about them, from their perspective.
Creating and sharing a strategic personal brand isn’t as easy as it looks from the outside. The professionals who have created thriving personal brands will have help curating theirs, because there’s a lot that goes into a personal brand that the every day person might not think about.
That’s why, before you even step online, there are some things you need to get clear on when thinking about your own personal brand. Let’s go through these with you right her right now:
1 – Who are you?
Before you start creating and sharing your personal brand, you really need to work out who you are. You need to figure out what your values are, what lights you up, what you’re passionate about. You also need to know what annoys you, what frustrates you within your industry or the world. You need to look at whats got you to where you are currently, what past have you lived thats made you who you are today and qualified to be an “expert” in whatever field you want your personal brand to represent. You also need to look at what sets you apart from others, what are your quirks, what will make you stand out from the online crowds.
2 – Who is your target/ideal audience?
Before choosing which social media platforms you need to hang out on and create content for, you need to understand where your ideal audience hang out online. There’s no point dancing on TikTok if your ideal audience are soaking up business posts on LinkedIn! Before you start posting your content, you need to understand who you are talking to, what they want or need to hear form you. You need to understand what lights your target audience up, what annoys them, how you can help them and what value you could offer them with your personal brand content.
3 – What do you want to say/be known for?
Again, before you go all gun ho and start posting content and stories about yourself, you need to stop and have a think about what your key messaging will be. What do you want to share with the world, what do you want to get across through your personal brand, what do you want to convey that will help people and add value to their lives. Create some key messaging themes, that you can then stick to and create consistency with, so your messaging is getting repeated, or it will get missed.
4 – How do you want your personal brand to look?
The last thing to think about and get clear on before you start, is how you want your personal brand to come across, what colours or themes do you want running through it. What do those colours mean or evoke in people. What imagery do you need to be using, do you need to look super professional to stand out and convey your messaging to your target audience, or could you be a bit more free, fun and authentic with it. What profile image will you use on all your platforms, if you are on multiple, so people will start to recognise you on all platforms. Think of this from your perspective, what do you like, but then try to match some of this to your ideal audience too, what will they like, how do you want them to feel when your personal brand pops up.
Don’t worry if you haven’t done this before, but you’ve already started personally branding. You can go back through this at any point, and actually we’d suggest going through these questions a minimum of once a year, to make sure your current personal brand reflects your current situation and your ideal audiences too.
The key with this information and this weeks blog is to not click off it till you have gone through these questions! Action this information, get clear on the personal brand you want to curate, so you can then action these things when you come to build, or re-vamp your personal brand.
If you don’t get clear on these before you begin posting content for your personal brand, it’s like throwing spaghetti at a wall and hoping something sticks:
