Personal Branding: A Not So Personal Perspective…

Marketers spend a lot of time perfecting their company’s brand, but far less time on their own personal brand. The same can be said for business owners.

If you’re the face of your business, the driver, the force behind everything that is good about the business you’ve created – show yourself some love!

Whether you’re looking to find potential investors or applying for a new job, then consider the following tips before taking the next step.

Conduct your own social media audit

It’s worth reviewing what you’ve posted recently to see if you’re conveying the right image. Free tools like SocialMention will also help you find out what people are saying about you online.

Consider how you want other people to perceive you. Is there stuff you wouldn’t necessarily want a prospective employer to see?

Check your permissions across your various social media channels and increase the privacy settings on anything you don’t want anyone other than your friends and contacts to see.

CSR

Often associated with larger organisations and businesses, volunteering or giving back to your local community has many benefits. CSR (corporate social responsibility) is an important part of how you demonstrate your values and support for the community in which you live and work.

Referrals and testimonials will all help build your brand

Don’t be tempted to self-inflate and blow your own trumpet. It’s much more beneficial for the work you do to be heralded by others. Word of mouth is a strong promotional tool and people buy from people.

Consistent message

Tell a story about your journey. A great way of producing and sharing interesting content is through video. It’s a quick, cheap and easy way of sharing content and allows your followers to share it with their contacts too.

Don’t feel you need to follow the crowd either; just because everyone (under 25) is using TikTok to share content, it doesn’t mean you have to. If you’re not comfortable with it, then it’s safe to say it’s probably not right for your brand.

Use the analytics available to you

Although not everything is measurable, there are ways of tracking and attributing the impact your activity is having. Attribution is about combining data sources, looking for cause and effect and recognising correlation between two distinct data sets.

Consistency across your personal brand

Consider how you want to come across – professional and formal or friendly and relaxed? Make sure your profile photo reflects this. For example, a photo of you on a night out may not be appropriate for your LinkedIn profile.

Networking

Networking is a necessary part of professional life and the perfect way to meet new contacts, find out about new and interesting businesses and develop your own communication skills. It will also help to build your reputation offline.

Still not sure where to start? Get some professional advice! Talk to a PR or marketing agency about what you’re looking to achieve and how they could support you.

Good luck and remember, when it comes to social media, if you wouldn’t be happy wearing it as a slogan on a t-shirt, then don’t post it online!

SF