Building Your Personal Brand 101

I champion what Seth Godin has said, "People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories and magic!"

Let's take a step back and think about some of the biggest companies from around the world today. From the golden arches at McDonalds to the Apple icon, from the Mercedes star to Pepsi's iconic blue, white and red logo, brands and their identities have become a fundamental part of our environment.

In fact, branding is one of the most crucial aspects of business success and growth.

Gone are the days when we used to perceive brand identities exclusive to the business world. Over the last few generations, we have begun to learn that everything around us has brand value, from celebrities to political parties, from the laptop we use to the burger we eat.

Our world today is exceedingly inter-connected, thus we understand that the personal attributes and reputation that each person has, ultimately come together to create what is known as personal branding.

Understanding personal branding

When someone thinks of you, there are certain traits, certain personalities that define you. There are descriptors that people associate you with.

Effective personal branding is not about putting on a show, it’s about cultivating the right perceptions – pretty much just like what we do in professional branding.

In fact, in today’s competitive environment, building a personal brand is just as important as building your company brand.

In the various industries and founders I have worked with, I have seen how the founders' personal brand is even more important than they think it is.

As a modern consumer, you and I want to (and most often we do) hear the story behind the founders. We look for faces that define the product/service/technology.

Simply put, we relate to the people we are buying from, by hearing about their struggles, failures and successes. It's just natural human psychology.

This storytelling, marketing and branding concept not just for your business, but even for yourself is just as crucial as having a strategy for your business.

A brand is anything - from your name to your tone of voice, your reputation, your manifesto, the symbols you use, and so much more – that separate you from the rest. Your brand is what makes you unique – it’s the thing that ensures you’ll always be valuable, no matter how many other companies try to copy your ideas or products.

Why is personal branding important?

Here's something interesting. The term 'personal branding' was coined 1997, by Tom Peters who told us that no matter what industry we work in or where we live, we’re all CEOs of our own personal brand and that means that we must market ourselves just as vigorously as any product or service.

It’s a way of showing that you’re not just better than your competition out there; you are the only answer to the specific problem.

• On average, employees have 10 times more followers than their company's social media accounts.
• Content shared by employees receives eight times more engagement than content shared by brand channels.
• Sales reps who use social media as part of their sales techniques outsell 78% of their peers.
• 82% of customers trust a company when their senior management members are active on social media.
• In the US, 85% of recruiters and HR professionals say that an employee’s online reputation influences their hiring decisions at least to some extent.

It builds trust: Explaining the story behind who you are and what you do – the things that drive and motivate you. This means that people feel more comfortable working with you because your intentions are genuine, authentic and perfect for fostering trust.

Helps develop value: As your personal branding grows and evolves, people will start looking at you on an emotional level, not just an intellectual level. This fosters deeper connections with your brand, and increases your value. What’s more, boosting your credibility through your own personal branding definition, establishes you as an authority, or expert in your niche.

Let's you stand out: Differentiation is about more than just the colours you use in your web design. Your personal brand is the competitive edge that splits you from your competition and makes you more appealing to customers and the general public alike. The more you focus on personal branding, the more you elevate yourself as a unique individual.

Certifies authenticity: A personal brand builds on goals, skills and values. Being completely authentic makes you naturally more likeable and trustworthy.

Attracts opportunities: Finally, since your brand is completely authentic, it’s bound to attract similar-minded people with the same goals and values. Your personal branding solutions will reel in opportunities that work for you.

Let's take a look at a few examples of personal branding done right and key takeaways from them.

Neil Patel - Recognized by Barack Obama as top 100 entrepreneur under 30, Neil Patel is a world-renowned digital marketing expert. Neil is the co-founder of Quick Sprout, KISSmetrics, Crazy Egg, Hello Bar and most importantly to our topic of personal brand examples here, Neil Patel Digital.

Takeaway: Almost every blog post of Neil's has 200+ comments. More importantly, Neil replies to almost every single comment, which is something his audience really appreciates. Neil’s close interaction with his audience adds extra credibility to what he does and helps build his personal brand image.

Elon Musk - When we talk of personal brand, we cannot miss Elon Musk from the list! Over the years, Elon Musk has taught us that personal branding may often beat company branding.

Elon Musk’s Tesla has become one of the most commonly mentioned car brands on social media. The reason for that isn’t lying in their top-notch advertising (in fact, they barely do any advertising at all), but in their CEO’s social media obsession - Elon Musk loves getting personal on social media.

Most CEOs are quite hesitant when it comes to using social media to develop a personal brand image. That’s probably because they need to take special care when posting on social media in order to avoid damaging their company’s reputation.

Takeaway: When you attach a face to your brand, take a bit more personal approach, engage with your audience, it could be all the marketing you’ll ever need.

Richard Branson - Behind the Founder of Virgin Group, entrepreneur, author, philanthropist's is Richard Branson's unwavering personal brand. His personal brand is in fact estimated to be 100x more valuable than his Virgin brand alone and he is the most followed professional on LinkedIn with close to 20 million followers.

Takeaway: Crafting unique content to present on each social channel creates a solidified brand statement. And what I like best about it is that it’s bold and funny. He is willing to do things unconventionally. By posting and sharing both professional and personal content and being open about his pitfalls and successes, he’s nailed down the social ratio and the creation of his story.

Here are some crucial personal branding principles that you should bear in mind

1. Focus on strengths and value - Like marketing a business, marketing yourself begins with an understanding of your own personal strengths. Think about what makes you different to the millions of other people in this great wide world.
2. Become an authority in your niche - Once you’ve figured out your strengths and value, perfect them. Learn more, grow, and absorb so that you can share your knowledge with others. Show your authority through videos, blog posts, and social medial – both online and offline.
3. Be yourself - This sounds like something you’d see on a motivational poster, but one of the most important elements of personal branding is that you need to 'Be yourself'. In other areas of branding, you might check out what other people are doing for inspiration. However, in personal branding, you don’t have to follow the crowd. In fact, the more you draw focus to your uniqueness, the more successful you’re likely to be.
4. Be accessible - You need to actively make yourself accessible and visible. Network, attend conferences, get out of the digital world and socialise. A little effort goes a long way.
5. Be consistent - Ultimately, your personal brand is you. That means that you’re going to need to define exactly who you want to be early on and stay consistent. Although it’s possible for people to grow and evolve over time, clients and customers will only begin to recognise your brand after they’ve had a few interactions with it. If you want to become familiar, your underlying goals and manifesto shouldn’t be changing every five minutes.

Finally...

Your personal brand, just like your professional brand, is the result of thousands of choices. Everyone you meet forms opinions about you, and if you’re not actively shaping your brand, then you’re leaving those opinions to chance. Taking control, means ensuring that you’re the best representation of yourself that you can be.