Strategies For Cultivating A Strong Personal Brand

Top strategies to lean on to cultivate a strong personal brand

In the world we live in today, it's essential to develop your brand as you scale within your career. Many individuals rely on the company logo and leverage this as their self-identity. Still, your personal brand is more than just the company you work for, and it's essential to outline your brand strategy early.?

In today's cup of tea, tips and advice will be shared on how to build your personal brand strategy and position yourself long-term to have a strong brand.?

FRIDAY CUP OF TEA

Identifying your critical personal brand pillars?

To scale your brand, you need to identify your key pillars, which will ultimately become your long-term narratives as you produce content.?

1. Identify your specific strengths within your career.?Instead of focusing so much on the company logo you are currently associated with, concentrate more on your particular strengths and the exceptional job you do for a company. What makes you so unique, and why did the current company you work for choose you? Are you a best-in-class sales executive, marketing expert, customer success strategist, accountant, etc.? Once you identify your niche, ask yourself what makes you the best at your job. Once you place your key strengths, you can begin developing one of your crucial branding pillars. Also, this can be a strength for you as you persevere in your current position and company. It's important to always be able to articulate your value and never wait for someone else to tell you your value. You need to take ownership of this as you navigate your career.??
2. Identify what else makes you unique other than your career.?For example, do you identify as a woman, a minority, an immigrant, an ally, or a parent? These are all essential aspects of you as an individual, and you need to be okay with taking ownership of your identity. For example, I identify as an African American Woman, and I am incredibly proud of this; therefore, I incorporate this identification into my brand. I can speak authentically about what it means to be an African American Woman in tech, and it is essential always to convey my thoughts and experiences. When selecting this pillar, you need to be comfortable with yourself and how you are choosing to identify.?
3. Identify your core values and worldly issues you care deeply about.?For your third pillar, it's essential to identify what you care deeply about. You need to stand for something in this world, especially if you want a personal brand. Start with identifying your core values. This will be helpful as you start to cultivate your brand and understand whom you want to be associated with. This can range from companies, brands, people, organizations, etc. Sit down and outline your values to remain consistent in the long run. Understand why you want to have a personal brand. Is it because you want to make the world a better place? Change a particular environment? Only you can answer this, and be sure to answer these questions genuinely. Personally, for myself, equality for all of humanity is important, ending racism and ensuring all people have an opportunity is critical, and making sure women have a voice and can break barriers is extremely important to me; therefore, I have embedded this in my core values, the organizations, and people I surround myself with and more importantly my branding incorporates these components consistently. Analyze what you will stand for and own it.

Cultivating a strong personal brand, finding the time to maintain your social presence, and creating content while working 50+ hours a week

As you develop your brand, it's crucial to outline a strategy, so you don't burn yourself out, especially if you are balancing a full-time job and other responsibilities.?

• Outline your three pillars (talking points)?in advance to stay consistent with my audience. I identify as an executive in tech, a woman, and a person of color. I ensure that my brand incorporates these three components consistently to support my narrative.?
• Lean into data-driven resources?and partner with like-minded corporations and people. Your followers are looking for advice and resources be sure to deliver. These can be educational resources or lessons you share with your audience. Be sure to do your research and give valuable information that will help your audience.
• Remain consistent; every week, I outline my key talking points. On Sunday, I block out 2.5 hours to curate my content strategy and to keep myself on track. Every Sunday, I go to a coffee shop and dedicate this time to my brand. To manage my work week and social, I pre-write some of my content and schedule it to go out.?
• Choose a social platform. I stick with LinkedIn as my primary social media platform, I work directly with Forbes when formulating content to reach a specific audience, and I use my podcast and newsletter to engage consistency and consider this my IP.?
• Additional Tips.?I use the note app on my iPhone to quickly write out my thoughts. When on a plane, I use this time to continue outlining my strategies. I prioritize one day out of the week, usually on Wednesday evenings, to revisit my content strategy. I also look at the months ahead to see which themes align with my brand. For example, this month is women's history month, so I have outlined a good amount of my content to celebrate this month directly.?

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Happy Friday from your one and only Kalina M. Bryant ??