Imagine a resume that encompasses everything that you are, including your experiences in a specific industry. Imagine that it showcases who you are as a person, your interests, your diverse hobbies, and a myriad of professional experiences that make you, you! Now imagine that resume as an evolving, engaging body of work that contains photos, articles, and videos that make all those unique aspects of yourself come to life. What you have is a personal brand!
As a business owner, you understand the need to brand your business because it:
Gets your business recognized
Builds trust with consumers – builds credibility
Spreads the word about you and what you do
Creates value for your business if you were to sell or go public
Inspires potential, quality employees to join your team
Ultimately generates more customers and sales
Helps you attract new clients, customers, networks without you hunting them down
Can increase your rates and revenue
Personal branding is similar. By branding yourself and your gifts and talents, you are marketing yourself for future endeavors, like:
Book deals
Talks at industry conferences
Radio show and podcast guest (or host)
Feature articles in different publications
MCing for different events
Speaking on a panel
Being part of an expert focus group
Being asked to be on committees making decisions about your industry
Growing the depth of your work
And other endeavors you have likely never imagined!
These opportunities will be beneficial in a number of ways: 1) They will give you valuable experiences that you can apply to future endeavors. 2) They will help you to establish yourself as an expert. 3) They will help you to promote your current business and endeavors and establish a brand within a brand which will lead to customer trust and loyalty.
Showcasing your Brand
How do you showcase your knowledge and talents inside and outside of your industry? Here are some ideas to help you get started or to help you with your personal branding goals.
Put yourself out there. Build your social media platforms and get yourself out there. Create interesting and engaging content that speaks to who you are and your expertise. Share your content; post often! Always share any media coverage or sound bites, or whatever else you have been doing that speaks to who you are.
Also, maintain your personal website. Keep everything on your website current. Add any links to press coverage, podcasts, work that you have been doing. Try to continually build it up by adding videos, testimonials, and photos of you at events, doing philanthropic work, or just being you. Remember, your website should be the embodiment of who you are professionally and even a little personally (builds trust and conveys authenticity) – it’s your giant billboard!
Focused content - Your content is about you, but most importantly, it needs to be focused on the audience that you are hoping to garner. Give them information that they would want that would help them with what they need. If you are a writer, share tips on how others can grow as writers or share with them tips for how to find a writer for their business. If you are a photographer, give them tips on how to take the best photos.
Promote yourself on platforms where you can garner an audience with people and organizations that might help further your career. Use LinkedIn to post topics and information that are important to you; post on their Twitter feeds. Be assertive but not aggressive, and get your name and expertise out there.
Take time for your fans. Whether you have a fan club or not, it is important that every brand interacts with their audience whenever they can. If someone comments on a post, it’s important that you comment back. It’s important that the interactions are genuine and embody who you are and makes them feel relevant and important.
It’s also important that you continue to maintain relationships with past clients, customers, and anyone in your network. You never know when they may need your services. If you maintain connections, they will know that they can trust you and will look to you when your expertise is in need.
Building and maintaining a personal brand is an investment into your future! Let us at Anneomaly Digital help you get started!