Personal Branding- Explained

If you are a marketing expert, then you must be familiar with the term “BRANDING” and how it works for a company. But a lot of people do not know what is a personal brand. Also, known as personal branding, it is the art of selling yourself similarly to how you would sell a product or a service from a business. This also means you highlight your expert features and tell people why they should trust you. A personal brand is no different from selling a business to the target audience. By creating it, you can increase your social media presence and increase your credibility. Similar to conventional branding, it doesn’t happen overnight. It requires months of planning and hard work to acquire the desired results. So, the question rises, how do you do it? How do you create a strong persona, that evokes trust in people and provide you the opportunity to earn better? You will get all your answers in this blog. But you need to make sure you don’t skim it but read it thoroughly as the importance of personal brand is finally explained.

How to Sell Yourself – Personal Branding Tip 101

Before you create a large following on social media or build credibility for yourself, you need to follow a personal branding strategy that will help you set yourself apart from the competition. Whether you are a content writer or an SEO specialist, you need to understand the importance of self-branding. Here are a few quick tips on how can you build yourself a trustworthy name in the market.

Be Original

It is what it is. When you are in the market, people want to see the real YOU. Maybe you are someone who cries at movies or has a completely different style of dressing up. Whatever your personality is, you need to bring it out of the shell. The originality will convince your audience to trust and invest in you. Which is exactly the purpose of building a personal persona. Standing out will promote your brand as authentic and as you know people do like authenticity. To sum up, be someone who is down to earth, humble, and natural. This is one of the best ways to nurture your personal growth.

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Create Value

Providing value to the customer is the utmost important rule of the business. However, to people these days, it sounds like gibberish as big brands make fools out of their customers most of the time. This is what you don't want to do while building a personal identity. Be reliable by providing valuable content to your audience. To explain it much better, here is an example, let's suppose you are selling gaming accessories. Every week, you post useful content related to your products, such as an unboxing video, helpful gaming clips, and so on. Now, the consumer might buy these products from a renowned brand through an online AD. But when they see you being original and adding worth to the product before even running an AD, they trust you enough to purchase it right away! Creating a personal brand identity is all about showcasing the value you can provide to your customers.

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Stay Consistent

Now, here comes the hardest part. To build a personal brand identity you need to stay consistent. You need to be constant with posting content on social media for two prime reasons. First, people who follow you, are interested in your content and want it regularly. When you post after big gaps, you lose their attention and followership. Secondly, your audience is following you because they want to learn the information relevant to your expertise. For instance, if you are a content writer but you start posting about your make-up routine, your followers will not only drop like flies but also lose trust in your expertise. And you don’t want someone questioning your credibility.

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Socialize to Grow

Yes, you need to do exactly what the caption says. Get out there and network with your peers. While grabbing a cup of coffee, socialize with people and grow your circle. Needless to say, posting it to social media, showcases how active you are. You never know if you come across someone who has expertise in a different area, which can create an opportunity to collaborate and expand your following. Collaborations bring more awareness to the brand and enhance productivity, making it essential for personal branding.

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Sell Your Expertise

Another crucial point, to building a strong persona, is to have expertise. Before you decide on representing yourself as a brand, you need to focus on your expertise. Each one of us has something we are good at. Some are good at makeup, while others have a passion for gardening. And then there are those that have technical expertise in areas such as digital marketing. Regardless, whatever you choose, just make sure you have one and it has your 100% dedication.

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5 A's of Personal Branding

You will know, you have established a successful personal brand, when you have achieved the following 5 A’s, which are:

Awareness- It is all about getting your name out there on social networks. Sell your brand on LinkedIn or Twitter to build an audience relevant to your brand.

Authority- You gain authority among your audience by posting relevant and useful content.

Authenticity- Being authentic, and creating genuine values, makes people relate to you.

Appearance- The way you dress and speak helps you create a personal brand statement.

Audience- Understanding your audience, is a prime goal of creating your public persona.

Types of Personal Brand and more…...

Apart from being a market strategy, a personal brand is also how the world perceives you. The 6 kinds of personal brands are:

•  Altruist
•  Careerist
•  Hipster
•  Boomerang
•  Connector
•  Selective

 An altruist is someone who put extra effort to help others sincerely, while a careerist is those who like to stay active on professional networks such as Linkedin. Meanwhile, hipsters like to stay updated and share information with everyone. They are sort of a mixture of altruists and careerists. Boomerangs are those people who like to share information that is provocative, even if they don’t agree with it. Connectors are groups of people who satisfaction with opening up their large networks for other people to grow and flourish. And lastly, selective is the one who is resourceful and shares information with specific people.

Once you start walking down the path of personal branding, find out through the journey, which one are you. We hope today’s blog help you understand the essence of building a personal brand and why you should invest your time and energy in it. Here is a big revelation for you, working at a 9 to 5 job is not everyone’s dream. Some of us like to challenge ourselves and find the best way to earn and grow in this competitive world.