A personal brand is:
- an experience of your ideal audience getting to know you
- your online reputation
- a digital footprint
- the introduction of you to the world and your ideal customers
- noticeable
- memorable
- sharable
All of the above items are part of your personal brand and are critical components of passing the know, like and trust test. Let’s dive in and learn more about each one.
Experience
Your personal brand should provide an experience for your audience. This experience it not like riding a roller coaster, or diving from a cliff, but an emotional experience that leaves the audience feeling like they are part of your life and emotionally connected with you.
Online Reputation
If I were to Google your name today, what would I see? Your personal brand is your online reputation, everything anyone can find about you when searching your name on the internet. To create the reputation you desire and to ensure your reputation is infallible, you must create consistent content, both visual and written, to put on your website and social media sites.
Digital Footprint
Similar to your online reputation, your digital footprint is what people will find when they search for you. You want your digital footprint to be cohesive and consistent, professional and of high quality. This means that everything you put in the online world should guide your audience to understand who you are, that you care about quality, that you are a true professional and expert in your space. Your visual content should be professional, not cropped bar photos, no cropped family pictures, but professional images that consistently represent your personality infused into your business. Written content should link your website and social sites in a cohesive way that helps everyone understand exactly who you are with no discrepancies.
Your Introduction to the World
We live in a digital era in which your first introduction is most likely going to be online. Many times people meet you first when they happen upon your website or social media profile when doing a search for something they need. Be mindful of your visual content and what people see when they first come across your business. Your content will either captivate them and entice them to stay on your website or social page and connect, and engage with you, or turn them away. So visual content is key for this.
People are visual and if there are no pictures, like good pictures, people are more likely to move onto the next site. You want people to immediately see who you are. The eyes and smile are what will draw people in and keep them interested in you and your business. This includes profile pictures, and pictures of you doing what you do, how you do what you do, where you do what you do, etc. People won’t buy from you until they get to know, like and trust you, so make it easy on them and show them who you are right up front!
Noticeable, Memorable, and Sharable
These three words are powerful in terms of creating a personal brand. Your personal brand is all of the things already discussed, but most importantly it must be noticeable, memorable and sharable. The content you put out into the world must be creative, consistent and cohesive.
Creative content will draw the audience in. It will get you noticed and help people remember you. If really creative, it will resonate with the audience and they will want to share the content as well.
Consistent content will help the audience recognize you time after time. You will become noticeable and memorable by being consistent. People will recognize your content before they read your captions. Being consistent builds trust which in turn makes you sharable.
If you are noticeable and memorable, you will become sharable. People will share what they believe and trust in. The more people recognize you as a personal brand of value, they will share you with their audience.
Remember, your personal brand is your opportunity to differentiate yourself from others in your space. Demonstrate that you are the expert. You are the go to!
For more information on differentiating yourself, read this article found on Forbes.
You can also find more information about personal branding in my recent blog post.
